• HEBR 411  - Elementary Modern Hebrew
• HEBR 421  - Intermediate Modern Hebrew
• HEBR 452  - Introduction to Hebrew Literature
• SISJE 195/GERMAN 195/C Lit 397B - Holocaust in Film
• SISJE 250/HIST 250 - Introduction to Jewish Cultural History
• SISJE 455 a - Kings of Monarchic Israel
• SISJE 490A - Doing Jewish Identity Studies
• SISJE 490B/ENGL 357 - Modern Jewish Literature in Translation

"W" indicates that the course is a writing course. W-courses count toward the Additional Writing requirement for most majors; some majors, like the majors in the College of Engineering, instead require specific courses to fulfill the Additional Writing requirement. Students in majors in the College of Arts and Sciences must complete 10 credits of writing-intensive ("W") courses, in addition to a 5-credit English composition course. These may be additional courses from the English composition list, or courses designated in the quarterly Time Schedule with the comment "WRITING." 

HEBR 411
Elementary Modern Hebrew
one section daily 10:30

HEBR 421
Intermediate Modern Hebrew
Romano Daily 11:30 - 12:20

HEBR 452
Introduction to Hebrew Literature
Sokoloff MW 2:30 - 3:50
This course presents literary texts and analysis, with continued emphasis on grammar and composition.  Review of language skills and dictionary work is included in each unit to reinforce the students' knowledge of Hebrew and to foster improved competence in their reading, discussion and writing about the literature. In addition, the class covers fundamentals of narrative theory as students practice close readings of texts. Students wishing to add 2-3 credits of HEBR 490 (independent study) should contact the instructor.

SISJE 195/GERMAN 195/C Lit 397B
Holocaust in Film
Block MWF M 12:30 - 1:20; Films M 2:30  - 5:20 or until end of film
(Many films can be viewed by students on their own).
How one bear witness to the unspeakable, how does one capture a history that is too horrible to return to?  This course encourages students to turn a critical eye to how Hollywood in particular has exploited the dimensions of the trauma of the Holocaust to pump up the volume, so to speak, on formulaic plots and how the conventions of popular film may respond in ways that demean and cheapen the suffering of the victims. Likewise, we will question to what extent even documentary films can be understood to be objective, especially since the memories of the survivors and those of the perpetrators are unreliable. Films to be screened include:  Shoah, Night and Fog, Schindler's List, The Pianist, Life is Beautiful, The Reader, The Garden of the Finzi Contini. There will be critical essays to be read in conjunction with each film.

SISJE 250/HIST 250
Introduction to Jewish Cultural History
Jaffee MTWTh 11:30 - 12:20
Students will leave the course with a cogent picture of the broad sweep of the cultural history of the Jews from roughly the mid-first milennium BCE till the 20th century. Key creative epochs of this history will be explored in depth: e.g., the emergence of rabbinic culture, the interaction of rabbinic culture with Christian and Islamic cultures, the development of the Sephardic diaspora, the modernization of Jewish cultures in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Ottoman Empire, the creation of distinctive Jewish cultures in North America and the State of Israel.

SISJE 455 a
Kings of Monarchic Israel
Martin MWF 3:00 - 3:50

SISJE 490A
Doing Jewish Identity Studies
(Students will be automatically re-registered in SISJE 380 once this number has final approval in late spring or early summer.)
Friedman TTh 2:30-4:20
Involves the student in researching the diverse Jewish identities of young people today. Includes background reading on Jewish identities in the US.; interviewing young Jewish adults; transcribing and interpreting interviews; and crafting a qualitative research paper. Covers research skills, as well as sensitivity to Jewish community values and concerns.

SISJE 490B/ENGL 357
Modern Jewish Literature in Translation (Students will be automatically re-registered in SISJE 357 once this number has final approval in late spring or early summer.)
Butwin TTh 9:30 - 11:20
When Irving Howe persuaded Saul Bellow to translate Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story "Gimpel the Fool" for his anthology of Yiddish fiction in 1953, none of these men can have guessed that two of them-Bellow (1976) and Singer (1978)-would become Nobel laureates within the next 25 years or that Howe's anthology would stay in print into the next century. This convergence of the scholar/critic with the Yiddish writer and the American novelist in the immediate aftermath of World War II is a capsule of the course in which we will track the migration of Jewish American literary culture from the work of pre-World War II immigrants to the American-born writers (comedians, songsters and movie makers) whose curious obsessions would do so much to define American popular and literary culture in the post-War period. Although I divide the syllabus between what I am calling "Immigrants" before the War and "Americans" after, we will focus as much on what binds the generations as on what divides them. Indeed, Singer's "Gimpel", written in Yiddish and in New York City by a recent immigrant at the very end of the War, is an excellent emblem of continuity and change in Jewish American writing. The pre-War generation will be represented by Abraham Cahan, Mary Antin, Anja Yezierska, Henry Roth, Clifford Odets and Al Jolson's Jazz Singer (1927), the first "talkie." The post-War period will include Singer and Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Grace Paley, Allen Ginsberg, Michael Chabon and the recent Coen Brothers' film, A Serious Man (2009).

To learn more, check the JSP website or visit the UW Time Schedule.