Jewish Studies, Minor College of Letters & Science
Minor
Sven-Erik Rose, Ph.D., Program Director; term ends June 30, 2026.
Department Office
2216 Social Sciences & Humanities Building; 530-752-9241; Jewish Studies; Faculty
The Program in Jewish Studies offers students the opportunity to explore Jewish history, communities, literature, religion, and culture in a comparative perspective and multicultural framework. Courses include Hebrew language instruction as well as the study of classical and modern Jewish texts in translation.
The interdisciplinary minor in Jewish Studies provides an introduction to the study of Jewish culture, thought, history, and literature. Students learn a broad range of methodologies and critical concepts in these areas and gain insight into the relationship between Jewish identities, histories, and representations and those of the cultures in which Jews throughout the world have lived.
The Program in Jewish Studies will be of special interest to students in History, Religious Studies, Comparative Literature and Sociology as well as other fields in the Humanities & Social Sciences.
Advising
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Choose one: | 4 | |
| History of the Jewish People in the Modern World | ||
| Introduction to Jewish Cultures | ||
| Emergence of Judaism, Christianity & Islam | ||
| The Bible & Its Interpreters | ||
| Introduction to Judaism | ||
| Choose four: | 16 | |
| Modern Jewish Writers | ||
| The Bible as Literature: The Old Testament | ||
| Readings in Jewish Writing & Thought in German Culture | ||
| After the Catastrophe: Jews & Jewish Life in Post-1945 Germany | ||
| Major Writers in German (When course covers a Jewish writer) | ||
| The Holocaust & its Literary Representation | ||
| History of the Jewish People in the Modern World | ||
| Themes in World History (When topic is Antisemitism & Islamophobia) | ||
| Topics in Pre-Modern Jewish History | ||
| Topics in Modern Jewish History | ||
| History of Jews in the Muslim World | ||
| History of Modern Palestine/Israel | ||
| History of the Holocaust | ||
| The Memory of the Holocaust | ||
| Topics in Jewish Thought | ||
| Selected Topics in Jewish Literature | ||
| Israeli Writing Since 1960 | ||
| Readings in Jewish Writing & Thought in German Culture | ||
| Cinema & the American Jewish Experience | ||
| Oral History & Jewish Life | ||
| Emergence of Judaism, Christianity & Islam | ||
| Christian Origins | ||
| Sex & Gender in the Bible | ||
| Topics in Judaism | ||
| Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocrypha, & Pseudepigrapha | ||
| The Formation of the Rabbinic Tradition | ||
| Topics in Religious Studies (When topic is Doom: The End of the World & After) | ||
| The Bible & Film | ||
| Topics in Russian Literature & Culture (When topic is Jews in Russian Literature & Culture) | ||
| International Politics of the Middle East | ||
| The Arab-Israeli Conflict | ||
| Special Studies in Comparative Politics (When topic is Israeli Politics) | ||
| American Jewish Identities & Communities | ||
| Total Units | 20 | |