Minor in Jewish Studies
About the Jewish Studies Minor
The Jewish Studies minor introduces students to a multi-disciplinary study of Jewish histories, Jewish texts and their multiple interpretations, Jewish experiences and Jewish identities. Our students learn a broad range of methods and critical concepts in order to investigate these issues within their social, cultural, historical and political contexts.
The Program offers scholarships to Jewish Studies minors who have taken at least two courses toward their minor requirements.
THE JEWISH STUDIES MINOR CONSISTS OF 20 UNITS, ONLY FIVE COURSES!
Students must complete:
One lower-division course (4 units) selected from the following:
- HIS 11 History of the Jewish People in the Modern World
- JST 010 Introduction to Jewish Cultures
- RST 012 Emergence of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
- RST 021 Hebrew Scriptures
- RST 023 Introduction to Judaism
- AND -
Any 4 upper-division courses (16 units) selected from the following list:
- Comparative Literature
- COM 147 Modern Jewish Writers
- English
- ENG 171A The Bible as Literature: The Old Testament
- German
- GER 116 Readings in Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture
- GER 117 After the Catastrophe: Jews and Jewish Life in Post-1945 Germany
- GER 127 Major Writers in German (When a course covers a Jewish writer)
- GER 141 The Holocaust and its Literary Representation
- Hebrew
- HEB 100A Advanced Modern Hebrew I
- HEB 100B Advanced Modern Hebrew II
- HEB 100C Advanced Modern Hebrew III
- History
- HIS 110 Themes in World History (When topic is Antisemitism and Islamophobia)
- HIS 112A Topics Pre-Modern Jewish History
- HIS 112B Topics in Modern Jewish History
- HIS 112C History of Jews in the Muslim World
- HIS 113 History of Modern Israel
- HIS 142A History of the Holocaust
- HIS 142B The Memory of the Holocaust
- Jewish Studies
- JST 101 Topics in Jewish Thought
- JST 110 Selected Topics in Jewish Literature
- JST 111 Israeli Writing Since 1960
- JST 112 Readings in Jewish Writing and Thought in German Culture
- JST 120 Cinema and the American Jewish Experience
- JST 121 Oral History and Jewish Life
- Political Science
- POL 135 International Politics of the Middle East
- POL 136 The Arab-Israeli Conflict
- POL 179 Special Studies in Comparative Politics (When topic is Israeli Politics)
- Religious Studies
- RST 102 Christian Origins
- RST 123 Sex and Gender in the Bible
- RST 124 Topics in Judaism
- RST 125 Dead Sea Scrolls
- RST 126 Formation of the Rabbinic Tradition
- RST 130 Topics in Religious Studies (When topic is Doom: The End of the World and After)
- RST 135 The Bible and Film
- Russian
- RUS 120--Topics in Russian Literature and Culture (When topic is Jews in Russian Literature and Culture)
- Sociology
- SOC 174 American Jewish Identities and Communities
Other courses with significant content related to Jews and Judaism may count toward the major with the approval of the Director.
For advising and any questions regarding the Minor, please e-mail the Jewish Studies Program Director, Prof. Sven-Erik Rose at serose@ucdavis.edu.