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“Jewish
Studies” may be understood broadly as the study of Jewish
history and culture, in all its manifestations. To study it at
university level is to combine the great traditions of
disciplined academic research with the richness of Jewish
culture and experience. Its intellectual value - and its
value in the marketplace - is no different from that of
any Humanities degree. At the same time, it appeals to many
Jewish students as providing a unique insight and source of
understanding of their own tradition. You do not have to be Jewish: Jewish Studies courses are taken also by many
non-Jewish students, who appreciate the need to understand the
historic contribution of the Jewish people and Jewish culture to
civilisation. Above all, Jewish Studies at university involves
dialogue, between traditional Jewish sources on the one hand and
the critical methodology of the university on the other.
The following areas
are most commonly found in Jewish Studies degrees: (i) Judaism
(its theological beliefs and practises, and the diversities
to be found within it — often together with its historical
interaction with other faiths, such as Christianity and Islam);
(ii) Jewish literature (from the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls
and Rabbinic literature, most of it proceeding from religious
premises, to the literature of the modern age, reflecting Jewish
interaction with the culture of the non-Jewish environment,
whether in the shtetl or modern New York); (iii) Jewish languages,
of which Hebrew and Yiddish are merely the best-known; (iv)
Jewish history, including both its great achievements (the Spanish
“Golden Age”; the establishment of the modern State of Israel)
and its tragedies (the Holocaust); (v) Jewish philosophy and
mysticism, which bloomed in the Middle Ages and may be regarded,
today, as enjoying a Renaissance, with modern figures like Emmanuel
Levinas addressing explicitly both the modern philosophical
agenda and their traditional Jewish roots; (vi) Jewish society,
using demographic and sociological methods to analyse the present
state of the Jewish community, and its problems. More specialised
studies vary from one university to another. Manchester at present
has particular strength in Jewish History and Literature in
Late Antiquity (including Dead Sea Scrolls), Jewish Background
to Christian Origins, History of Jewish Law, Medieval Jewish
Thought, Jewish Mysticism, Jewish Magic, Jewish-Christian Relations,
Modern Anglo-Jewish History, Modern Jewish Thought.
Jewish culture
in the past has been enormously enriched by its interaction
with other traditions. The Ancient Near East provided the cultural
environment in which biblical literature developed its own unique
voices; early Rabbinic literature received stimulus from Hellenistic
rhetoric; Jewish philosophy (such as that of Maimonides) can
hardly be understood in isolation from Islamic thought. For
over a century, the modern university has provided a new context
for such interactions. It affords, in addition, an important
meeting point for the mutual understanding of different traditions
within Judaism, a neutral ground in which Orthodox and Progressive
approaches can express themselves without threat (or compromise)
and with respect for the viewpoint of the other. It is hardly
necessary to stress the importance of this opportunity for the
future of Jewish life, so much threatened nowadays by polarisation.
Students choose
degrees in the Humanities because they anticipate that the subject-matter
will respond to some inner need or striving — a need to
know something about oneself as much as about the subject-matter.
In this respect, the appeal of Jewish Studies requires no apology.
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