Undergraduate Programs

Come to learn the language of the Hebrew Bible and of sleepless Tel Aviv nights! One of the oldest languages in the world, for several centuries Hebrew was used only as a literary tool until it was revived as a national Jewish language in the late 19th century. Today, Hebrew is the official language of Israel and is studied and spoken by Jews and non-Jews all around the world. Used in everyday life, songs, films, and on the Internet, Hebrew has never been so young!

This course is meant as an introduction to Modern Hebrew and its unique features. Emphasis will be placed on developing the skills necessary for reading, writing, and speaking. You will initially learn the alphabet, how to write and read in both the print and the cursive styles, the phonetics and correct pronunciation, and then basic vocabulary and grammar constructions. By the completion of your first semester of Hebrew, you will be able to perform a variety of communication tasks (such as, introducing yourself and others and providing personal information about provenance, place of residence, work, studies; ordering food, asking for directions, inquiring about the price, and more). The course will cover the textbook Hebrew from Scratch vol. 1 through Lesson 3, and will be supplemented by additional written, audio, and video materials in Hebrew.

NB: This course is intended for students with no previous instruction in the language and for those who have had some unsystematic exposure to it. Students from all backgrounds are welcome!  If you have had some previous exposure to Hebrew you may be eligible to take the continuing beginner level, HEB 102, that will be offered in the spring. Please contact the instructor for being administered a placement test; this will ensure that you are placed at the right level.

Location

(MWF 11:50AM - 12:40PM)

Welcome to your second year of modern Hebrew! By completion of this first semester of Hebrew at the intermediate level, you will expand speech interaction in free and authentic informal Hebrew in a variety of everyday situations. Your understanding and use of grammar constructions (particularly of the verb system) will be enhanced and your vocabulary dramatically increased. You will also develop reading skills enabling you to approach texts written in a higher and more formal style than the one used in speaking and be able to effectively use a Hebrew-English-Hebrew dictionary. The course will finish covering the first volume of the textbook Hebrew from Scratch and start covering the second one. A continuation of HEB 103 (HEB 104 - Intermediate Hebrew II) will be offered in the spring.

NB: This course continues the introduction to modern Hebrew begun in Elementary Modern Hebrew I and II (HBRW 101-102). Students with some previous knowledge of Hebrew who seek to begin their Hebrew instruction at this level are required to take a placement test. The test is to be taken prior to registration or at the latest on the first day of classes.

Location

(MW 2:00PM - 3:15PM)

Examination of the texts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament for Christians) in their religious, historical, and literary contexts. In this course, students will learn the history of the Ancient Israelite people from their origins down through the post-Exilic period. Study of the texts of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) enable us to explore what we can know about Ancient Israelite society and culture, the rise and fall of Israel as a nation-state, religious and theological debates about the role of God in shaping history and the problem of suffering, as well as the writing of the biblical texts and the development of the canon.

Location

(MWF 10:25AM - 11:15AM)

A proficiency-oriented class targeting the further development and alignment of all language skills in bilingual English-Hebrew students.

Location

(MW 3:25PM - 4:40PM)

This course explores religion, food, and eating in Modern Judaism. Beginning with biblical prohibitions and rabbinic laws, the course traces the early relationship between Jewish religious practices and cultural foodways up to the present day. Examining the cultural, social, historical, political, and economic practices relating to the production and consumption of food that has both sustained and distinguished Jewish communities among their neighbors will allow us to situate contemporary Jewish food practices in space and time.

Location

(TR 9:40AM - 10:55AM)

This seminar will examine the representation of Orthodox Jews by American Jews on both page and screen. This course should equip you to understand—historically and critically—the core factors in this contemporary culture war such as (gender, religious authority, political affiliation) as well as to empathetically appreciate current concern over acculturation, Americanization, and Jewish continuity.

Location

(T 2:00PM - 4:40PM)

The category of “guilt” floats between theology, psychology, and criminology. Sometimes as a feeling, sometimes as a purported objective condition, guilt stars in big stories moderns tell about what it is to be a member of a society, what it is to be a religious person, and how it feels to be a creature with sexual appetites. Meanwhile, for legal and mental health professions, proof of guilt is used to sort the good from the bad, the normal from the deviant, and the socially respectable from the socially disposable. Not all is so dour, however. Guilt lives in confession, denunciation, and in criminal sentencing, but it is also the stuff of jokes, of ethnic pride, and of eroticism. Toward an anatomy of guilt, in this course we will draw on the works of Freud, Nietzsche, Arendt, Foucault, Janet Malcolm and Sarah Schulman, and we will wrestle with the films—and complicated legacies—of Alfred Hitchcock and Woody Allen, two filmmakers who are preoccupied with (and implicated by) guilt, as feeling and as fact.

Location

(MW 11:50AM - 1:05PM)

This course will provide a non-partisan introduction to the conflict between these two national movements. Discussion will focus on an examination of historical documents, in addition to understanding of how it plays out in literature and film.

Location

(TR 12:30PM - 1:45PM)

This course provides undergraduate students the opportunity to pursue in-depth, independent exploration of a topic not regularly offered in the curriculum, under the supervision of a faculty member in the form of independent study, practicum, internship or research. The objectives and content are determined in consultation between students and full-time members of the teaching faculty. Responsibilities and expectations vary by course and department. Registration for Independent Study courses needs to be completed through the Internship Registration form ( https://secure1.rochester.edu/registrar/forms/internship-registration-form.php)

Location

( 7:00PM - 7:00PM)