Courses Offered Remotely
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SPECIAL COURSES OFFERED
Languages & Cultures Across the Curriculum: Holocaust Literature in Yiddish
01:991:121:E2 (Index # 21291) 1-credit add-on course
Must also register for 01:563:365:01 (Index # 19335)
First ten weeks - Taught online asynchronously
Taught in English and Yiddish
Contact Professor Jeffrey Shandler at
Hebrew 405: Holocaust in Israeli Culture
University of Michigan (Big Ten Academic Alliance Distance Learning Course)
Must register for 01:563:491:02 (Index # 21253)
Contact Professor Shachar Pinsker at
Introduction to Modern Middle East
01:563:100
(cross-listed with 01:685:100)
This is the foundational course for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. The course introduces students to Middle East Studies as an interdisciplinary academic field. Throughout the semester, we study key debates, events, and literature in several of the disciplines that constitute the field. Three major “modules” comprise the course but history is a defining discipline. The first module introduces Middle East Studies as a professional academic field in Euro-American universities by focusing on the relationship between power and knowledge. The second module explores major debates in the field from the vantage point of three major disciplines - History, Political Science, and Anthropology – as well as the key interdisciplinary framework of Political Economy. The third module provides a curated overview of major events, ideologies, and encounters that continue to shape the Modern Middle East: colonialism, nationalism, war, the nation-state system, and political Islam.
Introduction to the Modern Middle East is an intensive undergraduate level course meeting Core Curriculum learning goals and requiring 25-35 pages per session. The classes are a mixture of lectures and discussions. Students are expected to come to classes having prepared the reading(s) for the day and ready to discuss them in detail.
This course fulfills Core requirements CCO, HST or SCL, AHo.
Fall 2020 taught by Dr. Neda Bolourchi synchronously.
Guidance from Professor Bolourchi regarding Fall 2020: Obviously this Fall semester will be different than any other! The Modern Middle Eastern Studies course will be fully remote and synchronous. This means that although we will not meet in person, we will meet for class online together at the same time. You will need a computer, mobile phone, or other similar device with a video camera and microphone so you can participate, which is a requirement of the course. We will meet as a whole class at the appointed time most days for lecture as well as Q&A. At other times, meetings will occur via "break out" sessions where students do group work. I will of course maintain office hours during which time you will have regular, weekly opportunities to connect with me. Due dates/times for all assignments are, per usual, clearly listed on the syllabus you will receive during the first session of the course.
Have questions? You can email Dr. Neda Bolourchi at
Holocaust Literature in Translation
01:563:365
(cross-listed with 01:195:395 and 01:470:390)
Some of the most compelling works of Holocaust literature are in Yiddish, the first language of the majority of Jews living in Europe before World War II. In this course we examine the distinct engagement of Yiddish speakers with the Holocaust in memoirs, short stories, poetry, song, video, and film, from works created on the eve of the war through the turn of the twenty-first century. As we examine the role of Yiddish in relation to the Holocaust, we discover the radical transformation of the language as a result of the mass murder of its speakers in Europe. We explore how Yiddish has been used to respond to the genocide, both to remember those who were killed, and to recall their prewar way of life, and we will consider the significance of translating these works into English.
This course will be taught asynchronously online.
All course materials are in English. This course has no prerequisites.
This course counts toward fulfilling the Holocaust Studies minor.
NOTE: Students who have basic reading knowledge of Yiddish have the option to register for an additional, one-credit “add-on” course, in which we will read selected works that are assigned for Holocaust Literature in Translation in the original. This add-on course will meet synchronously, once a week, at a time to be arranged.
Please contact Prof. Shandler for more information:
Prof. Shandler is Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies. He has written several books on Holocaust remembrance and on Yiddish culture, including While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust, Adventures in Yiddishland: Postvernacular Language and Culture, and Holocaust Memory in the Digital Age: Survivors’ Stories and New Media Practices. His next book, Yiddish: Biography of a Language, will be published by Oxford University Press this fall.
Fall 2020 taught by Prof. Jeffrey Shandler asynchronously.
Have questions? You can email Prof. Jeffrey Shandler at
Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Hebrew I
01:563:141
(cross-listed with 01:013:154)
The aim of this course is to introduce students to Biblical Hebrew, especially the variety known as Standard Biblical Hebrew, used to write the narrative prose texts of the Bible during the period of the 10th-7th centuries B.C.E. These prose texts are to be found most prominently in Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, and Kings.
Fall 2020 taught by Prof. Gary Rendsburg synchronously.
Have questions? You can email Prof. Gary Rendsburg at
Jews in the Islamic World (mini-course)
TOPICS COURSE - 01:563:381 (1.5 credit course)
This course will survey the main lines and themes of the history of the Jews living in the Muslim world, from the rise of Islam in the 7th century to the present day.
Fall 2020 taught by Prof. Gary Rendsburg mainly asynchronously, with a synchronous meeting once every two weeks.
Course will run October 22 – December 10
Have questions? You can email Prof. Gary Rendsburg at
Dead Sea Scrolls
01:563:340
(cross-listed with 01:840:340)
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls represents one of the most dramatic archaeological finds of the 20th century. Since their discovery in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been the subject of intense study and debate, and have profoundly influenced the way in which we understand the Jewish sects of the Second Temple period, the origins of Christianity, and the rise of Rabbinic Judaism. In this class we will examine all of the major Dead Sea Scrolls, along with many of the more fragmentary ones, as we attempt to understand their historical context, in addition to their significance for later Jewish and Christian traditions. All readings are in English.
Fall 2020 taught by Prof. Gary Rendsburg mainly asynchronously, with a synchronous meeting once every two weeks.
Have questions? You can email Prof. Gary Rendsburg at