11 - 20 of 91 results for: JEWISHST

In an age of reality television and social media, we are bombarded with snapshots of the exotic, monstrous, and bizarre. Yet despite their quantity, these images pale in comparison to the qualities of terror, wonder and curiosity that ancient travelers evoked in their encounters with foreign lands and peoples. Early ethnographers, too, painstakingly explored the beliefs and practices of unfamiliar peoples sometimes very close to home. This course surveys their most vivid writings, from ancient Greece to the colonization of the New World, focusing on the relation between fascination with the other and the author's own religious imagination. In particular, it introduces the contributions of Jewish travelers and ethnographers to this history, which has often been written from the standpoint of imperial, ecclesiastical or colonial power. It stresses literary continuities across three general periods (ancient, medieval, and colonial), showing how remarkably consistent patterns of identification spring from diverse encounters.

The relationship between Judaism and Christianity has had a long a controversial history. Christianity originated as a dissident Jewish sect but eventually evolved into an independent religion, with only tenuous ties to its Jewish past and present. At the same time, Judaism has at times considered Christianity a form of idolatry. It seems that only since the catastrophe of the Holocaust, Jews and Christians (Catholics and Protestants) have begun the serious work of forging more meaningful relationships with each other. This course explores the most significant moments, both difficult and conciliatory ones, that have shaped the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and introduces students to some of the most important literature, art, and music that are part of it. nnSelected literature: Gospel according Matthew, the letters of St. Paul, St. Augustine, the Talmud (selections), Maimonides, Martin Luther's sermons on the Jews, Nostra Aetate (Vatican II)nnArt and Music: Medieval art and sculpture, Haendel's Messiah.

An Interdisciplinary study of Music, Society, and Culture in communities of the Jewish Diaspora in Islamic countries. The course examines the diverse and rich musical traditions of the Jews in North Africa and the Middle East. Based on the "Maqamat" system, the Arabic musical modes, Jewish music flourished under Islamic rule, encompassing the fields of sacred music, popular songs, and art music. Using musicological, historical, and anthropological tools, the course compares and contrasts these traditions from their original roots through their adaptation, appropriation, and re-synthesis in contemporary art music and popular songs.

What does it mean to be Jewish or Christian in a country where most citizens are categorized as Shi'i Muslims? How have Kurds and Azeris figured into Iranian national and political rhetoric? What has it meant to identify as transgender or transsexual? This course explores religious, ethnic, and sexual minority groups in Iran in the twentieth century. Topics include minority rights, identity formation, minorities¿ involvement in political movements, the impact of westernizing efforts on minorities, and the Iranian diaspora. Priority given to history majors and minors.

(Same as HISTORY 185B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 185B.) This course explores the full expanse of Jewish life today and in the recent past. The inner workings of religious faith, the content of Jewish identify shorn of belief, the interplay between Jewish powerlessness and influence, the myth and reality of Jewish genius, the continued pertinence of antisemitism, the rhythms of Jewish economic life ¿ all these will be examined in weekly lectures, classroom discussion, and with the use of a widely diverse range of readings, films, and other material. Explored in depth will the ideas and practices of Zionism, the content of contemporary secularism and religious Orthodoxy, the impact Holocaust, the continued crisis facing Israel and the Palestinians. Who is to be considered Jewish, in any event, especially since so many of the best known (Spinoza, Freud, Marx) have had little if anything to do with Jewish life with their relationships to it indifferent, even hostile?

Continuation of AMELANG 128A. Prerequisite: Placement Test, AMELANG 128A.

Continuation of AMELANG 128B. Prerequisite: Placement Test, AMELANG 128B. Fulfill the University Foreign Language Requirement.

Continuation of AMELANG 128C. Prerequisite: Placement Test, AMELANG 128C.