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Jewish Studies Program

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Why Take Jewish Studies at Oberlin?

JEWISH STUDIES AT OBERLIN

The Program in JWST at Oberlin offers students the opportunity to ground themselves in inherently interdisciplinary, multi-cultural study that spans periods from antiquity to the present in the study of Jewish experience and expression.

The Program offers majors a choice of two tracks in which to concentrate: Jewish history or Jewish religion and thought, taught by Shulamit Magnus and Abe Socher, respectively. Students interested in focusing on a particular era can combine disciplinary approaches in an individualized major using religion and history, to concentrate on, e.g., medieval, or modern, Jewish culture and society.

The JWST major requires 30 credits; the minor, 15. Approved courses taken elsewhere or in other Oberlin departments (e.g., Comparative Literature, Politics, Art History), may be applied for credit, up to specified limits (see the course catalogue). We encourage intensive study of any Jewish language in approved programs off campus, offering here a two semester course in Modern Hebrew, with the possibility of Intermediate Hebrew and Yiddish as Private Readings. An Honors Program provides advanced students the opportunity for original research and writing under the close supervision of their advisor.

Why take Jewish Studies? Why major in Jewish Studies?

If you’ve studied previously, it’s a way to bring the level of your approach up to the sophistication you experience in your other studies at Oberlin. If you haven’t, it’s a way to gain entry into the history and expression of a minority group that has evolved and persisted for millennia, elaborating a distinct culture while also adopting and adapting from its surroundings in Christian and Muslim societies, which has survived systematic discrimination and persecution, and more recently, benign, liberal environments where cultural and religious distinctiveness are not self-evident choices. We offer courses in rabbinic law and theology, philosophy, social history, nationalism, women’s history, memoir and memory, responses to persecution, identity, as well as introductory surveys in Judaism and Jewish history.

As with any liberal arts study, courses in Jewish Studies teach skills in critical reading, reasoning, and writing that serve our students while here and after graduation. Our majors and minors have gone on to academic careers, to rabbinical and cantorial professions, community work, and education as well as to a host of careers not specifically connected to Jewish Studies.

The Jewish Studies Program often brings scholars of world rank for lectures on campus. We support an annual award for Best Paper in JWST and another for intensive study of a Jewish language (Hebrew; Yiddish; Ladino; Judeo Arabic).

The Program has a residential theme house, Johnson House, a restored Victorian mansion, where cultural activities are centered. These now include a “Hebrew table” (we provide the snacks, as well as the books), and Israeli dancing, as well as film and other cultural events. Students involved in the JWST Program have priority in applications to the House.

All JWST courses except Hebrew are cross-listed with the Departments of Religion or History and count toward those majors and minors, as well. Courses in Hebrew Bible, taught by Cindy Chapman in Religion, count toward our major.

We welcome your interest in majoring or minoring in Jewish Studies. Please come see Abe Socher or Shulamit Magnus.

RAMBI

RAMBI is a database of articles on topics in Jewish Studies. Check it out and use it with your papers!

Catalog

2007-08 Course Catalog for the Jewish Studies Program can be found here.

Letter

Letter to the Editor of the Review.

Jewish Studies Best Paper & Language Study Awards

AWARD FOR BEST PAPER IN JEWISH STUDIES:
This award carries a prize of up to $300.00 and will be awarded annually to the author of the best paper on a topic in Jewish Studies. Students may nominate themselves or be nominated by a professor in any course, including Private Readings, in which the paper was produced. The paper must be written in the context of a course at Oberlin College and may be produced in either of the semesters.

Students should submit their papers to the Director of the Program in Jewish Studies at any time but no later than the last day of the Spring semester exam period for consideration in a current year.

The paper should be the original one submitted in the course, with the Instructor’s grade and comments.

Please also submit a transcript of grades, inclusive to the date of the paper’s submission (or including the first semester’s grades for submission in the Spring semester). Presto transcript acceptable.

AWARD FOR INTENSIVE STUDY OF ANY JEWISH LANGUAGE:
This award carries a prize of up to $400.00 and will be awarded for intensive study of any Jewish language (Hebrew; Yiddish; Ladino; Judeo-Arabic), in any approved language program in the US or abroad .

Applicants must submit to the Director of the Program in JWST a request for the award and an Oberlin transcript (Presto transcript acceptable); details of the program they will attend; and proof of acceptance. The award is contingent on the applicant meeting all other expenses, including travel, room and board, and successfully completing the language program with a minimum grade of B.