Jewish Studies – Major and Minor

Jewish Studies offers all students from varied backgrounds and disciplines a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective on the study of Jews and Judaism. In learning about the geographic, temporal, philosophical, and cultural diversity of the Jewish experience, students gain critical skills that complement any direction of study and can be applied to myriad future aspirations.

• Major
• Minor
• Courses
• Language Courses
• FAQs
• Faculty

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Major in Jewish Studies

50 credits, to include the following:

1. Jewish Language. Students must do one of the following:

• Complete two years of college-level coursework in one Jewish language or demonstrate second year college-level proficiency in one Jewish language through a proficiency exam;
• Complete one year each of college-level coursework in two different Jewish languages or demonstrate first year college-level proficiency in two different Jewish languages through a proficiency exam.

Jewish languages may include Biblical Hebrew, Modern Hebrew, Ladino, or Yiddish. Learn more about Jewish language offerings at UW here. Contact Professor Ahuvia, the Jewish Studies faculty adviser, with additional questions regarding approved Jewish languages.

2. Introductory Courses (15 credits total):

• RELIG 145: Introduction to Judaism (5 I&S; AUT)
• JEW ST 250/HSTCMP 250: Jewish Cultural History (5 I&S; WIN)
• One of JSIS 200, JSIS 201, or JSIS 202 (5 I&S; AUT/WIN/SPR)

3. Minimum 35 credits of Jewish Studies courses from an approved list of electives, to include a minimum of 25 credits completed at the 300-400 level.  May include a maximum of 10 credits from the second year of Jewish language courses.

4. Maximum 15 credits (exclusive of language) from an approved UW study abroad program may be counted towards the major.

5. Minimum 2.00 cumulative GPA for courses applied to the major.

To major in Jewish Studies, please schedule an appointment with Joanie Marts, the Jackson School for International Studies adviser for Jewish Studies majors.

Minor in Jewish Studies

30 credits, to include the following:

1. Introductory Courses (10 credits total):

• RELIG 145: Introduction to Judaism (5 I&S; AUT)
• JEW ST 250/HSTCMP 250: Jewish Cultural History (5 I&S; WIN)

2. 20 credits of Jewish Studies courses from an approved list of electives, to include a minimum of 15 credits completed at the 300-400 level. May include up to 5 credits from Jewish language courses.

3. Minimum 15 credits taken in residence through UW.

4. Minimum 2.00 cumulative GPA for courses applied to the minor.

To minor in Jewish Studies, please schedule an appointment with Joni Marts, the Jackson School for International Studies adviser for Jewish Studies minors.

For more information and FAQs about Jewish Studies, click here. 

Approved electives for the Jewish Studies major and minor

Contact an adviser with questions or for clarification.

 

Course #	Title	Credits	Type of Credit	Instructor
MODHEB 100	Introduction to Hebrew Language and Culture	2	VLPA/I&S C/NC	Khazzam-Horovitz
RELIG 145	Introduction to Judaism (required for major/minor)	5	I&S	Ahuvia/Pianko/Naar
JEW ST 175/ GERMAN 195	Popular Film and the Holocaust	5	VLPA/ DIV	Block
MODHEB 200 *	Hebrew Conversation	2	VLPA/ I&S
ARAMIC 201 *	Biblical Aramaic	5	VLPA
ARAMIC 202/ 522	Aramaic Texts in Antiquity	5	A&H/ SSc	Scott Noegel
RELIG 201	Introduction to Introduction to World Religions: Western Traditions	5	I&S	Ahuvia
BIBHEB 201 *	Biblical Hebrew Poetry	5	VLPA
BIBHEB 202 *	Inscriptions From Biblical Times	5	VLPA
BIBHEB 203 *	Biblical Prophetic Texts	5	VLPA	Scott Noegel
BIBHEB 206 *	Magic and the Bible: Tales of Cult and Wonder	5	VLPA	Scott Noegel
BIBHEB 208/ 508	The Art of Biblical Narrative	5	A&H	Scott Noegel
MODHEB 201 * MODHEB 202 * MODHEB 203 *	Intermediate Modern Hebrew	5	VLPA	Khazzam-Horovitz
JEW ST 210	Funny Jews: Jewish Humor and American Identity	5	VLPA	Pianko
JEW ST 215/ SPAN 294/ LING 372	Ladino Language and Culture	5	I&S
HSTEU 234	Nazi Germany	5	I&S	Marhoefer
RELIG 240/ NEAR E 202	Introduction to Hebrew Bible: Old Testament	5	VLPA/ I&S
HSTEU 252/ JSIS A 252	The Bloodlands: East Central Europe Under Hitler And Stalin	5	I&S	Felak
CHID 206/ JEW ST 206	Modern Thought in Dark Times: History and Memory After Auschwitz	5	I&S/ DIV	Barr
JEW ST 269/ HSTCMP 269	The Holocaust: History & Memory	5	I&S/ DIV	Naar
JEW ST 270/ HSTCMP 270	From the Mediterranean to America: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Migrations in Global Context	5	I&S/ DIV	Naar
NEAR E 287	Near East in Song: Israel & Popular Music	2	VLPA/ DIV	Sokoloff
JEW ST 289	Special Topics in Jewish Studies	Varies		Varies
JEW ST 295/ GERMAN 295	Contributions of German Jews to German Culture	5	VLPA/ I&S/ DIV	Block
NEAR E 302	Religions of the Ancient World	3	SSc/td>	Scott Noegel
RELIG 306/ NEAR E 306	History of Biblical Interpretation	3	VLPA/ I&S
ENGL 311	Modern Jewish Literature (in translation)	5	VLPA
NEAR E 311	Archaeology of Biblical Israel	5	I&S	Selover
JEW ST 3XX	Global Jewish Literatures	5		Sasha Senderovich
JEW ST 312/ ENGL 312 / NEAR E 310	Jewish Literature: Foundations & Reimaginings	5	VLPA/ I&S/ DIV	Naomi Sokoloff
JSIS A 314/ NEAR E 315/ POL S 314	History of Israel/Palestine	5	I&S/ DIV	Halperin
RELIG 315/ NEAR E 305	The Biblical Prophets	3	VLPA/ I&S	Noegel
JEW ST 318/ NEAR E 317	Jewish Life in Literature and Film	5	VLPA/ I&S	Sokoloff
NEAR E 318/ C LIT 318	Literature and the Holocaust	5	VLPA/ DIV	Sokoloff
NEAR E 320	Poetry in the Jewish Tradition	5	VLPA/ I&S	Sokoloff
JEW ST 325	Contemporary Judaism in a Global Context	5	I&S	Pianko
POL S 325	The Arab-Israel Conflict	5	I&S
JEW ST 330	Th Sages: Foundations of Classical Judaism	5		Ahuvia
NEAR E 333	Prophecy in Judaism, Christianity and Islam	3	I&S	Zafer
RELIG 334/ GWSS 334	Gender, Sex and Religion	5	I&S/ DIV	Ahuvia
JEW ST 336/ HSTAA 336	American Jewish History	5	I&S	Pianko
NEAR E 336	Islam in Jewish Contexts, Judaism in Muslim Contexts	3	I&S/ VLPA	Zafer
JEW ST 337/ HSTAA 337	The Holocaust and American Life	5	I&S/ DIV	Glenn
JEW ST 339/ B H 339 / NEAR E 328 / PHIL 301	Bioethics: Secular and Jewish Perspectives	3	I&S	Khazzam-Horovitz
JEW ST 357/ ENGL 357 / RUSS 320A / C LIT 396A	Jewish American Literature and Culture	5	VLPA/ DIV	Senderovich
JEW ST 358/ HSTCMP 368	Jewish Thought: Religion and Nationalism	5	I&S	Pianko
HSTEU 361	Spain and its Golden Age, 1469-1700	5	I&S	Schmidt
JEW ST 362/ SPAN 362/ GEOG 373	Food and Community: Cultural Practices in the Hispanic World (taught in English)	5	I&S	Gomez-Bravo
JEW ST 367/ HSTAM 367	Medieval Jewish History	5	I&S
JEW ST 368/ HSTEU 368	Modern European Jewish History	5	I&S/ DIV	Naar
JEW ST 369/ HSTCMP 369	The Jewish Twentieth Century in Film	5	I&S/ VLPA/ DIV
JEW ST 377/ SOC 377	The American Jewish Community	5	I&S/ DIV	Friedman
JEW ST 378/ SOC 378	Contemporary Jewish American Identities	5	I&S/ DIV	Friedman
JEW ST 379/ SOC 378	Doing Jewish Identity Studies	5	I&S	Friedman
MODHEB 401 MODHEB 402 MODHEB 403	Introduction to Hebrew Literature	3	VLPA	Sokoloff
MODHEB 404	Hebrew Poetry	5	VLPA	Sokoloff
MODHEB 405	Hebrew Fiction	5	VLPA	Sokoloff
MODHEB 406	Hebrew Poems and Prayers	5	VLPA	Sokoloff
MODHEB 407	Hebrew in Song	5	VLPA	Sokoloff
MODHEB 408	Hebrew in Prose	5	VLPA	Sokoloff
CLAS 405	Biblical Narrative	5	VLPA	Clauss
JEW ST 418/ PHIL 418	Jewish Philosophy	5	I&S
JEW ST 427/ RUSS 427 / C LIT 496	Russian Jewish Experience	5	VLPA/ I&S/ DIV	Senderovich
JEW ST 438/ GWSS 438	Jewish Women in Contemporary America	5	I&S/ DIV	Friedman
RELIG 440	Angels: From the Bible to American Spirituality	5	I&S	Ahuvia
JSIS A 458	Israel: Politics and Society	5	I&S/ DIV
JEW ST 459/HSTAFM 459	History of Jewish-Muslim Relations	5	I&S	Halperin
JEW ST 460/ SPAN 360	Sephardic Culture before 1492	5	I&S/ VLPA	Naar
JEW ST 462	Anti-Semitism As a Cultural System	5	I&S/ DIV
JEW ST 463	Enlightenment, Emancipation, Antisemitism: History of the Jews, 1770-1914	5	I&S/ DIV
JEW ST 465/ HSTEU 465	The Jews of Eastern Europe	5	I&S
JEW ST 466/ HSTCMP 469	The Sephardic Diaspora: 1492-Present	5	I&S/ DIV	Naar
JEW ST 468/ HSTEU 464	The Jews in Spanish History	5	I&S
JEW ST 490	Advanced Topics in Jewish Studies	1-5, max 15 credits	I&S
MODHEB 490	Supervised Modern Hebrew Study	3-5, max 15 credits	VLPA
JEW ST 491	Seminar: Topics and Issues in Judaism	5	I&S
JEW ST 495	Seminar in Jewish Studies	5	I&S
MODHEB 496	Special Topics in Modern Hebrew	1-6, max 18 credits
Special Topics	For any course prefix when topic is appropriate; check with adviser for approval	Varies		Varies

* = Second year language class. Majors may include a maximum of 10 credits from the second year of Jewish language courses. Minors may include up to 5 credits from Jewish language courses.

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