SHORT DESCRIPTIONS OF
COURSES IN JEWISH STUDIES

Why read Jewish Studies? | Undergraduate Programmes

Courses in Jewish Studies at the University of Manchester are offered in a number of departments, particularly the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and the Department of Religions and Theology. Not all courses are available every year. A list of courses running in the 2007/8 academic year is available here.

1ST YEAR

MEST 10042: Introduction to the Question of Palestine/Israel 1882-196 (Moshe Behar, email: moshe.behar@manchester.ac.uk). The course provides a comprehensive introduction to causes, consequences and controversies associated with the emergence, development and consolidation of the tortuous conflict in Palestine/Israel from 1882 until the 1967 war. Emphasis is placed on both the socio-political and diplomatic aspects of the conflict.

MEST 10210: Hebrew Language I

MEST 10222: Hebrew Language IB (Sophie Garside, email: Sophie.Garside@man.ac.uk): a post-beginner's level a continuation of MEST 10211, which teaches the skills of reception (reading and listening), production (speaking and writing) in the target language and mediation between the target language and English (translation and interpretation).

MEST 10810: The Middle East Before Islam; an Introduction (John Healey, email: john.f.healey@man.ac.uk). The lectures survey the history and religion of the Middle East in the period from c. 2000 BCE to c. 600 CE. Special attention is given to the history of writing, the kingdoms of Syria-Palestine and Anatolia in the Bronze and Iron Ages, pre-Islamic Arabia (Petra, Saba and Himyar) and the impact of Christianity on the whole region before Islam.

MEST 10811/10622: Aramaic/Syriac Language IA and IB (John Healey, email: john.f.healey@man.ac.uk).

RELT 10101: The World of the Ancient Israelites (John Applegate and Adrian Curtis, email: Adrian.Curtis@man.ac.uk) provides an introduction to the literary genres of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and to modern Biblical Criticism and aims to make students familiar with the geographical and cultural context in which the ancient Israelites lived and from which the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible emerged.

RELT 10140: Biblical Hebrew (Adrian Curtis, email: Adrian.Curtis@man.ac.uk): introduces students to the basic vocabulary, grammar and syntax of Biblical Hebrew (designed for those who have no prior knowledge of the Hebrew language).

RELT 10192: Introduction to Judaism (Philip Alexander, email: Philip.Alexander@man.ac.uk): provides an historical introduction to contemporary Judaism, defining Judaism as a system of beliefs and practices based on Torah. The basic creed of Judaism is explored, as expressed in law, mysticism, ethics and philosophy. Major practices and rituals are described. The course concludes with a demographic and statistical overview of Judaism today, and a consideration of some of the major issues which currently exercise the Jewish community.

RELT 10811: Introduction to Holocaust Studies (Jean-Marc Dreyfus, email: Jean-marc.dreyfus@manchester.ac.uk)

ULHB 10030: Beginners' Hebrew (LEAP)

MEST 20210: Hebrew Language II

MEST 20211: Hebrew Language IIA (Sophie Garside, email: Sophie.Garside@man.ac.uk): a lower intermediate level course, which teaches the skills of reception (reading and listening), production (speaking and writing) in the target language and mediation between the target language and English (translation and interpretation).

MEST 20212: Hebrew Language IIB (Sophie Garside, email: Sophie.Garside@man.ac.uk):

MEST 20222: Modern HebrewTexts (Sophie Garside, email: Sophie.Garside@man.ac.uk): introduces students to a variety of modern Hebrew texts, e.g. short stories, news extracts, reports, etc. It will be complementary to the language courses and will help expand the student’s vocabulary, reading skills and use of dictionaries.

MEST 20241: Talmudic Judaism: Sources and Concerns (Alex Samely, email: alex.samely@manchester.ac.uk): The course is concerned with the classical sources of Judaism, including the Mishnah, the Midrashim and the Baylonian Talmud. It explores basic concepts (halakhah, aggadah, Torah, Oral Torah, exile, etc.), the literary forms, and the key genres. We shall discuss the role of Scripture for the talmudic discourse (rabbinic hermeneutics), and address the limitations which the nature of the sources impose on modern reconstructions of rabbinic law, theology or history.

The aim of the course unit is to introduce students to the modern academic study of the primary evidence for classical Judaism in its formative period (c. CE 200-700).

MEST 20252: Readings in Talmudic Judaism (Alex Samely, email alex.samely@manchester.ac.uk):This course is meant to complement MEST 20241, Talmudic Judaism: Its Sources and Concerns, by study of selected text samples from talmudic literature in the original and in translation. The text samples will concentrate largely on the legal and hermeneutic discourse of the rabbis, including portions of Mishnah Megillah and Midrash Bereshit Rabba (55/56).

Other genres covered are Gemara and Targum.

MEST 20261: Semitic Languages; an Outline (John Healey, email: john.f.healey@man.ac.uk): introduces the main features common to the Semitic language family, with special emphasis on classification, writings systems, phonology and morphology.

MEST 20610 Aramaic/Syriac Language II (John Healey, email: john.f.healey@man.ac.uk).

MEST 20272: Fundamental Debates in Israeli Studies (Moshe Behar, email moshe.behar@manchester.ac.uk): During the last four decades liberal democracies have grappled with questions relating to citizenship, immigration, multi-culturalism, gender gaps, collective rights, and the civil status of ethnic or indigenous minorities. In Israel these issues came to the fore in the 1990s, manifesting themselves in debates between the “old” and “new” historians; disputes between the “critical” and “mainstream” sociologists; questions of memory and collective identity; new forms of political organization by Israel’s Arab citizens, Sephardic-Mizrahi Jews, and women. Discussions often revolved around the question whether Israeli society embodies persistent inequalities between European Jews, Middle Eastern Jews, women, Arabs, and Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, or whether it is a place of (comparatively) well-functioning co-existence. This class shall critically survey the following seven themes that shed light on these debates: “Israeli Inter-generational Conflict?”; “Historical Inquiry and Israel’s Collective Memory”; “Israel: Democracy, Ethnic Democracy or ‘Ethnocracy’?”; “Jewish and Democratic State: Built-in Structural Tension?”; “Arab Citizenship in a Jewish State”; “Sephardim/Mizrahim in Israel” and “The Politics of Land Ownership.”

RELT 20002: The Jews in Europe 1789-1939 (Sharman Kadish, email: Sharman.Kadish@man.ac.uk): This course explores the nature of Jewish identity under the impact of modernization on traditional Jewish society as it existed in the ghettos of Europe before the Enlightenment. It examines the progress towards civil and political emancipation of the Jews in Western Europe and the reasons for its failure in Eastern Europe, especially in Russia. The range of Jewish responses on exposure to European culture are studied, such as Reform Judaism, Jewish socialism, Zionism, and mass migration. An attempt is made to explain and analyse the recurring phenomenon of anti-Semitism that culminated in the Nazi Holocaust.

RELT 20081: Jewish Ways of Reading the Bible (Philip Alexander, email: Philip.Alexander@man.ac.uk): (alt: RELT2362): the course considers early Jewish commentaries on the Bible from Second Temple times down to the Middle Ages. A number of major commentators (Rashi, Kimhi and Ibn Ezra) are singled out for closer investigation. Much of the course is devoted to reading and analysing in English translation sample texts, particularly (though not exclusively) concerned with the Account of Creation in Genesis 1-3, the story of the Binding of Isaac in Genesis 22, the Song of Songs and the Servant Songs in the Book of Isaiah.

RELT 20161: Dead Sea Scrolls (George Brooke, email: George.Brooke@man.ac.uk): The texts are studied in English and the course pays particular attention to the Rules which may describe the movement's law and life, the sectarian biblical commentaries, and the liturgical and poetic texts. The significance of the scrolls for early Judaism and nascent Christianity is also considered. Several films are used to illustrate the history and the range of scholarly opinion about these texts.

RELT 20170: Biblical Hebrew Texts I (Adrian Curtis, email: Adrian.Curtis@man.ac.uk): translation and exegesis of selected passages of the Hebrew Bible (currently: Joshua 23-24; 2 Samuel 6-7; Jeremiah 1-5; Psalms 15, 51, 82, 93, 137).

RELT 20182: Ancient Israel's Prophetic Literature (Adrian Curtis, email: Adrian.Curtis@man.ac.uk):discusses the definition of the term ‘prophet’ and its background in ancient Israel. Some account is given of so-called ‘primitive’ prophecy, but the course concentrates on the messages of certain key figures in the biblical prophetic tradition.

RELT 20360: The Visual Dimensions of Judaism (Philip Alexander, email: Philip.Alexander@man.ac.uk): (alt: RELT2080): The course considers the roles played by visual symbols within religious systems in general, Judaism's prohibition of images and its effects on the development of Jewish art, the major visual symbols of Judaism - their history, meaning and purpose , and the functions of symbolism within Judaism, its role in defining group identity and how it reflects the changing relationship of Jewish communities to the non-Jewish world.

RELT 20382: Sources of Holocaust Studies (Jean-Marc Dreyfus, email: Jean-marc.dreyfus@manchester.ac.uk)

RELT 20611: Introduction to the History of Jewish-Christian Relations (Daniel Langton, email: Daniel.Langton@man.ac.uk): First half provides an overview of the history of Jewish-Christian relations. Second half adopts a thematic approach and highlights the development of the thought and theology of various individuals, concentrating particularly on the last hundred years or so.

RELT 20702: The Jewish-Christian- Muslim Controversy from the Earliest Times til the End of the Middle Ages (Philip Alexander, email: philip.alexander@manchester.ac.uk and Renate Smithuis, email: renate.smithuis@manchester.ac.uk): The course will fall into three parts:
Part 1 will be devoted to antiquity, and will investigate the reasons for the “parting of the ways” between Judaism and Christianity. Part 2 will cover the high middle ages and focus on the great mediaeval disputations. Part 3 will consider the Jewish-Christian controversy in the modern times.

MEST 30051: Biblical Hebrew Texts I

MEST 30200: Jewish Aramaic Texts (Alex Samely, email: Alexander.Samely@man.ac.uk): a detailed study of selected Aramaic documents aimed at teaching students how to appreciate advanced forms of rabbinic exegetical and legal discourse. Course Texts: Palestinian Targum Gen 4; Targum Song of Songs 1-3; Talmud Bavli Sukkah 2a-5a.

MEST 30210: Hebrew Language III (Sophie Garside, email: Sophie.Garside@man.ac.uk): an upper intermediate level language course, aiming to achieve a higher level of fluency in the language using all four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking.

MEST 30221: Modern Hebrew Literature (Sophie Garside, email: Sophie.Garside@man.ac.uk): This course consists of the study of Modern Hebrew literary texts and their appreciation in context. The works of three modern Hebrew authors are studied in the original, using English translations as support. Although translations are used as aid, students are expected to master the material in the Hebrew original.

MEST 30250: Medieval Hebrew Texts (Alex Samely, email: Alexander.Samely@man.ac.uk): study of the essential characteristics of the religious discourse of medieval Judaism, through a detailed study (in the original) of the following exegetical and philosophical texts: Gen. 1-3; David Kimhi on Psalms 125-130 (ed. Baker-Nicholson); Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Yesode ha-Torah, I-III (ed. Aramah).

MEST 30270: Hebrew Language IV (Sophie Garside, email: Sophie.Garside@man.ac.uk): an advanced level language course, aiming to provide the student with additional tools to make a free and creative use of contemporary Hebrew.

MEST 30641:The Middle East in Late Antiquity

MEST 30721: Formation of Jewish and Arab Nationalisms (Moshe Behar, email: moshe.behar@manchester.ac.uk): How do collective identities come into existence? How do nations emerge (or disintegrate)? What best accounts for the development of nations: ideology, the economy, societal transformation, politics, cultural formation or technological change? This course examines these and other key questions and themes related to the consolidation of collective identities in the 20th Century ME while utilising theoretical studies that focus on additional regions. As such, the course explores the emergence and consolidation of collective identities on competing bases (such as ethnicity, language, region, class, religion, etc.).

MEST 30870: Jewish Philosophy in the 20th Century (Alex Samely, email: Alexander.Samely@man.ac.uk): aims to introduce students to discourse of the 20th century. Central texts by philosophers such as Cohen, Buber, Rosenzweig, Fackenheim and Levinas are investigated with special regard to their contribution of the problem of (existential) time, hermeneutics and ethics, as well as the significance of the holocaust.

MEST 30872: Time, Language and the Other in Modern Jewish Philosophy

RELT 30172: The Mystical Tradition in Judaism (Philip Alexander, email: Philip.Alexander@man.ac.uk): (alt: RELT 30250): This course considers the ‘canon’ of Jewish mystical literature, starting with Heikhalot mysticism and Jewish Gnosticism in late antiquity, proceeding chronologically to the Qabbalah (Zoharic, Abulafian and Lurianic), mediaeval German Hasidism, the Jewish Sufis of Egypt, Shabbateanism and its offshoots and modern Hasidism, and concludes with an investigation of the vitality of the mystical tradition within Judaism today. Special emphasis is placed on reading and analysing primary sources in English translation, especially from the Zohar. The course also considers the origins of mysticism and its importance in the historical development of Judaism.

RELT 30181: Law and Narrative in the Hebrew Bible (Bernard Jackson, email: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk): (alt: RELT 30241): Commencing with an introduction to biblical law and its relation to biblical narrative, the course examines legal aspects of the pre-patriarchal, patriarchal and royal narratives; narratives of law-giving and adjudication; narrative elements in the laws themselves, and the relationship between law, narrative and theology in the Hebrew Bible. (not currently running)

RELT 30192: History of Jewish Law (Bernard Jackson, email: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk): The course traces the history of Jewish law from biblical times the modern State of Israel, with particular attention to its theological assumptions and its inter-relations with other cultures. Substantive topics studied within this framework are the history of family law and personal status, particularly marriage, divorce, inheritance, conversion, criminal law (including the trial of Jesus). Bibliography

RELT 30230: Major Themes in Jewish Theology (Philip Alexander, email: Philip.Alexander@man.ac.uk): (alt: RELT3170): The course surveys the history of theology within Judaism from the 2nd Temple period to modern times and studies the relationship of theology to halakhah, mysticism and ethics, the debates over the role of creeds within Judaism , the concepts of God, creation, humanity, sin and evil, Torah and revelation, Israel, the Covenant at Sinai, and eschatology . It concludes with the holocaust, the founding of the State of Israel, modern science and feminism.

RELT 30282: Modern Jewish Thought (Reuven Silverman): This module will survey major developments and figures in modern Jewish religious and philosophical thought from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Both the historical context and intellectual content of diverse Jewish responses to modernity, including Haskalah philosophy, Hasidism, Religious Zionism, Gender and Rabbinics, Modern Orthodoxy and Reform will be studied and responses to the Shoah discussed. Issues such as the nature of law and authority, the relationship between revelation and history, and the challenges of pluralism will be addressed through the perspectives of various thinkers from a diversity of backgrounds.

RELT 30332 Holocaust Theology (Daniel Langton, email: Daniel.Langton@man.ac.uk): Considers the influence of the Shoah upon Jewish thought and the implications for Jewish-Christian Relations. Close readings of significant thinkers. (Taught by Eli Cohen in 2006-07)

RELT 30380: Biblical Hebrew Texts II (Adrian Curtis, email: adrian.curtis@manchester.ac.uk): translation and exegesis of selected passages of the Hebrew Bible (currently: Joshua 23-24; Judges 4-5; 2 Samuel 6-7; Jeremiah 1-5; Psalms 15, 51, 82, 93, 137; Ecclesiastes 1-3). MA students (RELT9380) also study Exodus 21:1-22:16 with Professor Jackson.

RELT 30611: Consequences of the Holocaust on Western Societies and Jewish History (Jean-Marc Dreyfus, email: Jean-marc.dreyfus@manchester.ac.uk)

RELT 30911: Early Jewish Novels (BA Enhanced) (George Brooke, email: george.brooke@manchester.ac.uk): The aims of the course are to introduce early Jewish novels, from Esther and Daniel, especially in their expanded forms, to 3 Maccabees and the Story of Aseneth, as well as several others, like Tobit and Judith. Many of these novels have a heady mix of politics and romance. They address many of the concerns of Jewish identity in the Second Temple period. Part of the course will be devoted to the subsequent cultural appropriation of these novels. Analysis of recent scholarly approaches to this material will also be undertaken.

RELT 30912: Jewish Literature of the Early Graeco-Roman Period (George Brooke, email: George.Brooke@man.ac.uk):pays particular attention to identifying the characteristics of a wide range of literary genres including stories, poems, wisdom literature, testaments, apocalypses, philosophy, and history writing. Literary works from both the early Palestinian Judaism and also from the Jewish diaspora are studied. Some elementary knowledge of the history of the period 200 BCE - 200 CE is covered briefly at the beginning of the course. All the compositions are studied in English.

RELT 30921: Israelites and Canaanites: Archaeology, Rivalry and Religion (Adrian Curtis, email: Adrian.Curtis@man.ac.uk): this course covers topics such as: Topics such as: The Israelite conquest of Canaan; Ugarit: A Canaanite City?; The Origin of Israel's religions; The Move to Monotheism; Canaanite cultic influences?; Yahweh versus Baal; Yahweh, El and Asherah

Religion and Theology Degree | Middle Eastern Studies Degree | Combined Studies Degree