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PROGRAMS OF STUDY & COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Jewish History (JHI)

Major: Yeshiva College
Jewish studies majors at these schools may concentrate in Jewish history. See the description of the Jewish studies major.

Minor: Yeshiva College
Two survey courses in Jewish history and 15 additional credits in Jewish history courses.

Qualified upperclassmen may receive permission to take courses in Jewish history at Bernard Revel Graduate School. Consult the schedule to see the offerings available. Students who plan to do graduate work in Jewish history or major in Jewish studies with a Jewish history concentration are strongly advised to fulfill their Jewish history requirements at Yeshiva College as soon as possible.

1105; 1106 History of the Ancient Near East. 3 credits.
First semester: third millennium B.C.E. to 1300 B.C.E.; second semester: 1300 B.C.E. to 586 B.C.E.

1116 Biblical History and Archeology. 2–3 credits.
Archeological discoveries in Israel and their impact on the study of Jewish history.
Prerequisite: junior status.

1200 Classical Jewish History. 3 credits.
History of the Jews from 300 B.C.E. to 500 C.E.

1235 or 1235H The Dead Sea Scrolls. 3 credits.
Archeological, historical, and literary aspects of the scrolls; their place in the development of the Hebrew language and Jewish thought.
Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

1285 The Holocaust. 2–3 credits.
    (Same as HIS 1285).
The emergence of modern anti-Semitism and racial ideology; Nazi implementation of the “final solution”; problem of the Judenrat; life in the ghettos and camps; Allied, Christian, and world Jewish reactions; resistance; post-Holocaust literary and theological reflections. Under the Eli and Diana Zborowski Professorial Chair in Interdisciplinary Holocaust Studies.
Prerequisites: JHI 1200, JHI 1300.

1300 Medieval Jewish History. 3 credits.
The Jewish people from the Gaonic period (500 C.E.) to 1550.

1322 Jews in Medieval Ashkenaz. 3 credits.
Jewish settlement in Italy; Charlemagne and the Jews in Franco-Germany; Rabbeinu Gershom and early Ashkenazic scholarship; the Crusades and the origins of medieval anti-Semitism, Rashi and the Tosafists; Church and the Jews in the 13th century; the Paris Disputation; Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg and his disciples—e.g., Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel and Rabbi Mordecai ben Hillel; the Black Death and its aftermath; Jewish life and scholarship in 15th-century Germany, with special emphasis on Rabbi Jacob Molin (Maharil), Rabbi Jacob Weil, and Rabbi Israel Isserlein; the transition of Ashkenazic life and scholarship to Poland.

1371 Jews in the Medieval Moslem World. 3 credits.
Judaism and Islam; the protected minority; Gaonate and Exilarchate; Karaism and false Messianism; Saadiah Gaon and medieval Jewish philosophy; the flowering of Jewish culture in Moslem Spain; the migration to Provence.

1400 Modern Jewish History. 3 credits.
The Jewish people from 1550 to modern times.

1401; 1402 Modern Jewish History I; II. 3 credits.
Rise and flowering of the Eastern European Jewish communities; Hasidism; the Enlightenment; the Emancipation and development of Western European Jewry; American Jewry; new religious currents; modern anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; Zionism and the founding of the State of Israel. First semester: 1600–1900; second semester: 1900–1948.

1403 Destruction of Polish Jewry. 3 credits.
Seminar analyzing the destruction of Polish Jewry during World War II.

1415 History of Zionism. 3 credits.
Rise and development of modern Jewish nationalism against the backdrop of contemporary Western civilization and the scope of Jewish history; writings of major Zionist ideologues; role of Zionism within the major Diaspora communities; impact of the rise of the Jewish state movement on the world political and diplomatic scene.

1451 The Jews in Eastern Europe I. 3 credits.
History of the Jewish people in Eastern Europe from the Early Settlement to the Third Partition of Poland (1795).
Prerequisite: JHI 1400 or equivalent.

1452 The Jews in Eastern Europe II. 3 credits.
History of the Jewish people in Eastern Europe since 1795.

1511; 1512 Modern Israel. 3 credits.
Comprehensive survey of the history of Israel from 1948 to the present; political, economic, and social developments; current problems.

1521S through 1562S Sephardic Communities. 2 credits.
Social, economic, and communal development of various communities of Sephardic Jews:

1521S Israel Since 1492.

1573 American Jewish History. 3 credits.
    (Same as HIS 2581).
Major political, economic, and cultural developments from colonial beginnings to the present; the Jewish experience in its American historical context; the Jewish labor movement, rise of American Zionism, and role of American Jewry during the Holocaust.

1575; 1576 American Jewish History. 2 credits.
First semester: the Jewish community in the United States and its development from earliest times; immigration and settlement; social, economic, and communal development; contribution to American civilization. Second semester: the modern and contemporary scene—American Jews and the Holocaust, State of Israel, civil rights movement, Russian Jewry, inner-city tensions.
Prerequisite: junior status or permission of the instructor.

1577 Contemporary American Jewish Issues. 2 credits.
The American Jewish community today against the backdrop of the pluralistic American society; analyses of current issues and problems, within the community and at its interface with other communities and cultures; guest lecturers.

1801 or 1801H History of Talmudic Literature. 3 credits.
The political, cultural, technological, and linguistic history of the Talmudic period and the textual history of the Babylonian Talmud as they bear on the interpretation of the text.

1829 or 1829H; 1830 or 1830H;
1831 or 1831H; 1832 or 1832H;
1833 or 1833H; 1834 or 1834H

Jewish Intellectual History. 3 credits.
Sequence of courses focusing on major themes in the intellectual history of the Jews from the Second Commonwealth to the present; readings almost exclusively from primary sources. JHI 1829; 1830 covers the classical period; 1831; 1832, medieval period; 1833, early modern period; 1834, modern period.
Prerequisites: JHI 1200, 1300, 1400.

1836 or 1836H Historiography. 3 credits.

4901, 4902 Independent Study.
Meet with the Yeshiva College academic dean.

4950 Bachelor’s Thesis. Nine hours.
3 credits.
Independent work, guided by faculty, in an area of Jewish history. An acceptable thesis will show diligent research in primary sources, scholarly organization, and clear exposition of material.
Prerequisite: Jewish history major and senior status.