HIS 5001 Survey of Jewish History 538BCE -1929CE
The purpose of this course is to help students locate themselves and their learning in the wider and deeper sweep of Jewish history and culture - students will seek to explain how Judaism and Jewish life came to exist in its present forms and expressions. 1. Identify the various political, social and economic statuses that Jews held in different historical contexts. 2. Understand how Jews developed their traditions and interpreted their textual tradition in relation to the non-Jewish societies and cultures in which they lived. 3. Appreciate the diversity of viewpoints and major debates that medieval Jews had about their tradition, their religious practices, and their relations with non-Jewish societies and governments. 4. Describe how notions of Jewish peoplehood developed over time and how Jews in different times and places related to and characterized their fellow Jews. 5. Understand the spectrum of Jewish - Gentile relations, from acceptance and dialogue to rejection and anti-Judaism / antisemitism.