Jewish studies
Its principal objective, as it was then defined in the Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (1822), was the study of Judaism by subjecting it to criticism and modern methods of research.
The subject of antisemitism and the Holocaust, as well as the establishment of the modern State of Israel and the revival of the Hebrew language have all stimulated unusual interest in greater in-depth academic study, research, reading and lecturing about these core areas of knowledge related to current events.
In the United States, the unique position that Jewish Americans have held within the nation's complex social structure has created substantial scholarship, especially with regards to topics such as interfaith marriage, political activism, and influence on popular culture.
Band was among the first to call attention to the "spread of Jewish studies as an accepted academic discipline in the American liberal arts colleges and universities since the Second World War".
Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel, has the world's largest school of Jewish studies, which includes 14 teaching departments, 21 research institutes, some 300 faculty members and over 2,000 students.
AJU is host to two "think tanks," the Center for Israel Studies (CIS) and the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust.
In addition to spending time in the classroom, these faculty make frequent media appearances and work with a wide range of scholarly and cultural institutions in our nation's capital and beyond dedicated to advancing knowledge of Jewish civilization to a wider public.
[26] The graduate program grants MA and PhD degrees in Bible and Ancient Near East, Jewish Studies, and Arab and Islamic Civilizations.
[27] Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island offers an interdisciplinary Judaic studies program that includes an undergraduate concentration and graduate MA and PhD degrees.
The Bennett Center's goal is to provide Fairfield University students exposure to and contact with Jewish ideas, culture, and thinking through lectures and other events.
As part of the Dororthy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the curriculum emphasizes historical transformations and comparative frameworks among various Jewish communities and with other groups and religions.
Students may pursue an undergraduate major or minor in areas such as Jewish Civilization, History, Israel, Holocaust Studies, Arts and Culture, Religion, Politics and Social Issues.
The Pines School provides unlimited access to extraordinary resources at HUC's Cincinnati campus: the Klau Library network (the second-largest Jewish library in the world), the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives, the Archaeology Center, and the Skirball Museum, as well as the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology in Jerusalem.
Rabbis ordained at HUC or another accredited Jewish seminary can enroll in the Doctor of Hebrew Letters Program, with opportunities for non-residency independent study and coursework.
HUC's New York campus offers the Interfaith Doctor of Ministry Program in Pastoral Counseling, designed for ordained clergy of all faiths.
The Jerome H. Louchheim School for Judaic Studies, based at HUC-JIR's Jack H. Skirball Campus in Los Angeles, offers courses for undergraduate students at the neighboring University of Southern California.
Majors may choose one of five areas of concentration: Jews in Antiquity; Israel Studies; Judaism; Literature, Culture, and the Arts; or Modern Jewish History.
The Judaic Studies (JST) department[69] at UAlbany[70] offers undergraduate courses at elementary and advanced levels in Jewish history and culture, as well as Hebrew.
There are also opportunities for students to earn independent study credit through which they can work on an idea or question particular to their own interests, while also gaining valuable research and writing experience.
The Anthropology Department, in conjunction with the Judaic Studies Program, offers graduate training in Near Eastern archaeology with a focus on Israel and Jordan.
[81][82] The Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan was formed as an independent program under the leadership of Jehuda Reinharz in 1976 and expanded into its current model in 1988.
Other leading faculty members include Zvi Gitelman, Todd Endelman, Anita Norich, Madeline Kochen, Mikhail Krutikov, Elliot Ginsburg, Scott Spector and Julian Levinson.
Recent arrivals include Ryan Szpiech (Spanish, Sephardic Culture, Medieval Iberia) and Rachel Neis (rabbinics, Late Antique Judaism).
[88] The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is the only institution in the world devoted exclusively to post-doctoral research on Jewish civilization in all its historical and cultural manifestations.
It contains about 6,000 non-circulating resources for study including "...the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary (CAD); Biblical and multi-lingual dictionaries; grammars; important facsimiles and transcriptions of Sumerian and Northwest Semitic primary sources; critical Biblical editions and commentaries; Tannaitic, Amoraic, Midrashic, Geonic, and Responsa literatures; sixty-nine scholarly journals, including thirty-nine currently received periodicals.
The Schusterman Center houses the Nathan Snyder Memorial Library and a collection of original artwork by Latin American Jewish visual artists.
[103] Yeshiva University in New York City has one of the largest departments of Jewish studies outside Israel and is the home of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, the leading modern-orthodox rabbinical college in the United States.
Prominent Jewish studies faculty members include Richard C Steiner, Barry Eichler, Debra Kaplan, Haym Soloveitchik, Ephraim Kanarfogel, David Berger, Mordechai Z. Cohen, Shalom Carmy, Steven Fine, Adam Zachary Newton, and Jeffrey S. Gurock.
Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid (1778–1859), one of the leading figures in the struggle for Jewish emancipation in England, was among the principal founders of University College and the chief promoter of its Hebrew department.
While the proximity to the historical heritage of Ashkenaz provides decisive impetus for both academic and religious work, its interest invariably extends beyond to all areas of geography and chronology as to consider Jewish cultures at large.
