The Center for Jewish Studies is excited to offer the following classes for Spring 2026!
JEWISHST 102-01: ELEMENTARY MODERN HEBREW
MWF 1:25PM - 2:40PM, Professor Sarah Baker
Continuation of Hebrew 101. Introduction to speaking, understanding, reading, and writing Modern Hebrew. Prerequisite: Hebrew 101 or equivalent.
JEWISHST 140-01 JUDAISM
MW 1:25PM - 2:40PM, Professor Daniel Herskowitz
Introduction to Judaic civilization from its origins to modern times.
*This class will count as the Gateway Seminar towards the Certificate.
JEWISHST 171CNS - BEING HUMAN: EXPLORING OUR BOUNDARIES IN LITERATURE & FILM
TuTh 1:25-2:40PM, Professor Saskia Ziolkowski
What does it mean to be human? How does imaginative work explore the boundaries of being human? This course investigates these questions in three units: animals, dehumanization, and the uncanny valley. In unit 1 we read works that interrogate the boundary between humans and other animals. How do we conceptualize what defines us and how do creative works interrogate the validity of these human concepts by exploring other animals’ perspectives? In unit 2, we continue this exploration, focusing only on human-human interactions, especially in terms of migration, concentration camps, and colonialism. In unit 3, we try to understand who is human (not robot) in diverse media. Authors include Kafka, Coetzee, Spiegelman, Primo Levi, Scego, Maaza Mengiste, Asimov, Collodi, and Philip K. Dick.
JEWISHST 204-01 INTERMED MODERN HEBREW
MWF 3:05PM - 4:20PM, Professor Sarah Baker
Continuation of Hebrew 203. Speaking, understanding, reading, and writing Modern Hebrew at the intermediate level; exploring Israeli culture through texts and other media. Prerequisite: Hebrew 203 or equivalent.
JEWISHST 251-01: JEWISH HISTORY, 1492 TO THE PRESENT
TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM, Departmental Staff.
Major developments in Jewish history from the early modern period to today. The Kehillah, the Spanish-Jewish Diaspora, the rise of Polish Jewry, the Safed Kabbalah, Sabbatianism, the emergence of the Chassidut, the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment), Emancipation and the nation state, Reform Judaism, economic modernization, racial antisemitism, Zionism, the Holocaust, the State of Israel, flourishing Jewish pluralism in the United States, the future: nation and Diaspora?
JEWISHST 271-01: SEX AND GENDER IN THE HEBREW BIBLE
Date/Time TuTh 11:45AM - 2:15PM, Professor Aslan Mizrahi
Women in ancient Israel, early Christianity, and early Judaism in their contexts in the Near Eastern and Greco-Roman worlds, with attention to the relation between textual depictions and social reality and to the ethical issues raised by the continuing authority of biblical texts for matters of gender. Sources include the Bible, images from art, and archaeological remains.
JEWISHST 277-01: IS GOD DEAD?
Date/ Time MW 10:05AM - 11:20AM, Professor Daniel Herskowitz
This course explores one of the most provocative questions in modern religious thought: Is God dead? Instead of answering this question definitively, it examines how influential philosophers, theologians, and cultural critics in European and American thought have responded to the perceived reality of the death of God. Through close readings of key texts, it engages with scientific, existentialist, psychoanalytical, theological, gender, and racial perspectives on the modern religious situation, secularism, and the search for meaning in a world without an absolute foundation. The course considers whether the ‘death of God’ is a historical reality, a philosophical provocation, or an unfinished debate, and explores the political and moral implications of these questions.
JEWISHST 305-01: ADVANCED MODERN HEBREW
TuTh 3:05PM - 4:20PM, Professor Sarah Baker
Continuation of Hebrew 204 and/or 305S. Speaking, understanding, reading, and writing Modern Hebrew at the advanced level; exploring Israeli culture through critical reading of literary texts (prose and poetry) and other contemporary media. Prerequisite: Hebrew 204 or equivalent.
JEWISHST 337-01: AMERICA FROM ABROAD: LITERATURE AND CINEMA FROM KAFKA'S AMERIKA TO ADICHIE'S AMERICANAH
TuTh 10:05AM - 11:20AM, Professor Saskia Ziolkowski
This course explores the portrayals of America, especially the United States, from authors and directors who are not American and who often have never even seen America. We will read short stories, novels, and graphic novels and watch films. What do these works from other parts of the world have to say about dreams, race, love, immigration, and space in America? We will discuss imaginary Americas in order to understand these important works within their contexts, to examine how foreign representations of America have contributed to our idea of America, and to consider what imagined Americas suggest about us here in North Carolina.
JEWISHST 363-01: FRANZ KAFKA: ONE GREAT WRITER
Date/Time: MW 1:25PM - 2:40PM, Professor Kata Gellen
A deep dive into the writings of Franz Kafka, arguably the most important writer of the twentieth century. Kafka captured the quintessential experiences of modernity in novels and stories that are at once dark and absurd, hopeless and hilarious, profoundly unsettling and surprisingly entertaining. He was a German-speaking Jewish insurance lawyer in Prague during a time of tremendous social, political, and technological change, and his writings remain astonishingly relevant and relatable today. In addition to analyzing Kafka’s works, students will do creative projects that engage with Kafka’s life and world in his time and ours. Taught entirely in English. No German required.
JEWISHST 455-01: INTRODUCTION TO ISRAELI CULTURE
MW 11:45AM - 1:00PM, Professor Reut Ben Yaakov
Historical survey of Israeli culture from 1948 to the present. All reading materials and class discussion in Hebrew. Prerequisite: Hebrew 306 or above, or placement test or instructor's consent.