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MSt in Jewish Studies:
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"The Master of Studies (MSt) in Jewish Studies offered at Oxford is extraordinary. The year-long course combines intensive language scholarship with a diverse array of lectures in the world's foremost educational environment. The Master's course can certainly be tailored to one's individual needs. The lecturers, professors and staff affiliated with the Centre consistently prioritize the students above all else. It is refreshing to be a part of such a close and positive academic environment. I have found my masters work here to be wholly fulfilling academically and socially. Studying at Oxford is an extraordinary opportunity because so many world experts make their homes here. During the year I have been able to expand the scope of my interest. Officially a modern religious historian focusing on 20th century Czechoslovakia, I have been able to study ancient Jewish history, biblical Hebrew, Second Temple-era Judaism and rabbinics. In each classroom endeavor I have been satisfied with the personal attention my instructors have given me. Oxford's success lies in close faculty-student relationships. Always attentive, responsive and intelligent, the Centre's teaching faculty is the core of this program. Nowhere else in the world can you read for a degree such as this in just one year with such highly-regarded professionals. I wholeheartedly recommend this program to those looking to expand their understanding of Jewish Studies in whichever construct, theologically, historically or linguistically. Further, the generous scholarships offered by the Centre allow students to make academic study their first priority. Overall, I feel that the MSt in Jewish Studies offered here has better prepared me for further doctoral work in Jewish history. Sarah Cramsey, Student 2005-2006 |
Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Israel: the Iron Age (1200-332 B.C.E.)This course aims to provide an introduction to and overview of the discipline of Near Eastern Archaeology with particular reference to the Iron Age and the Persian Period. The course will provide the student with the archaeological background to the historical events of the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE) and the Persian period (537-332 BCE); equip the student with the basic elements of the subject, including the role of excavation, the limits of time and space, basic terminology, important sites and personalities, significant finds, and the relevance to the biblical account; and to enable the student to assess the right and wrong uses of archaeology. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. Israel: State, Society, IdentityThere are probably few states in the world that trigger such strong opinions and emotions as the State of Israel. While these responses are generally linked to Israel’s foreign relations and the Arab-Israeli conflict, this course aims at primarily “looking inside” Israel. It will introduce students to the politics, society, and institutions of modern Israel by paying special attention to the prevailing societal diversity and fragmentation as well as their political implications. In particular, the dynamics of Israeli politics, society, and foreign relations will be linked to the construction of Israel’s identity (and the different interpretations of the latter) from the early days of the state until the advent of the peace process in the 1990s and its collapse. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. Jewish and Christian Bible Translation and Interpretation in AntiquityThis is an introduction to the way the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament was regarded and interpreted in early Christian and Jewish communities, and to the primary sources for reception history. The course provides a guide to the main sources and exegetes, as well as practice in analysing their preoccupations and methodology, whether in the original languages or in translation. Each session will take the form of a lecture followed by a close reading of selected primary texts and a discussion of their approach. Students will be assigned secondary literature to read in advance of the classes. Topics of importance to Jews and Christians, e.g. the “Fall”, the Binding of Isaac, the Messiah, the Decalogue, will be a particular focus of the course readings. A mid-term essay will be set for purposes of internal assessment, and each student will be expected to make at least one timed presentation in class. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. Jewish History 200 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.This course covers the political, social, economic, and religious history of the Jews from 200 B.C.E. to 70 C.E. The set text will be Josephus, The Jewish War, but students will also be expected to learn how other literary sources, archaeological material and religious texts can be used to understand the history of this period. This course will be examined by a three-hour written examination to be held at the end of Trinity Term. Jewish LiturgyThis course will focus primarily on the way the traditional liturgy for home and synagogue encapsulates biblical themes and rabbinic thinking about the world. We will consider key scriptural scenes and their midrashic interpretations, in order to define some of the core ideas of the sacred narrative from creation to the messiah, and will then trace their language and motifs in liturgical passages. It will become clear that central rabbinic ideas are explored in the liturgy in occasionally subversive ways, as the prayer book interprets human experience from birth to death. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. Jewish-Muslim Relations through the AgesThis course surveys and analyses the interaction between Jews and Muslims, from the rise of Islam until the Modern period. The course aims to introduce students to the legal and political forces that shaped the Jewish-Muslim encounter, while also considering the cultural output that resulted from this interaction. The diversity of Jewish experiences of ‘Islam’ will be stressed throughout, and various periods and regions of the Islamic World will be compared and contrasted in this context. The course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. A survey course covering the period from the mid-eighteenth century to the Second World War. The course aims to provide an overview of the Jewish experience as a minority group in Europe and Russia, introducing students to the main themes, ideologies and movements of modern Jewish history. Among the topics examined are emancipation and the Enlightenment, Jewish politics, migration, antisemitism and the Holocaust. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. EITHER Modern Jewish Intellectual History
This course provides a survey of the major intellectual developments in modern Jewish history. The social fragmentation experienced by Jews in modernity is mirrored in the multiple ways in which Jews tried to render intelligible the emergence of secular ideologies and institutions, the privatization of Jewish life and Judaism, and the rise of nationalism and socialism. While Modern Jewish philosophy is often studied through specific thinkers and their works, we will look at the role education institutions, forms of patronage, and political associations played in promoting certain types of ideas and marginalizing others. Likewise, we will seek to contextualize the assigned readings within the broader rubric of Modern Western thought, to allow for a more robust understanding of Modern Jewish intellectual history. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. OR The Talmud in Jewish History
This course attempts to offer an introduction to the most well known text in rabbinic literature, the Talmud. Specifically, it will investigate the formation and development of the Talmud and Talmudic study in Jewish History, addressing the texts and social forces that contributed to its creation and reception. Contrary to certain historical studies that postulate a 7th-9th century redaction date for the Talmud, this class will examine the fluid and open nature of the text well into the early modern period. Our class will show the multiple and often conflicting ways in which the Talmud has been studied (reception-history) and taught throughout Jewish History. The Talmud encountered and interpreted by early medieval sages differs drastically with one encountered and interpreted by those scholars of the modern Wissenschaft School and modern rabbinic learning cultures. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. The Diaspora in the Roman Empire: Jews, Pagans and Christians to 450 C.E.This course explores the Jewish diaspora which was spread over large parts of the Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman Empire, and is also found in the city of Rome, and later in the Latin-speaking west. It is well known from pagan, Jewish and Christian literature, especially the Acts of the Apostles, and from inscriptions, papyri and the archaeological remains of synagogues. For the first three centuries CE both Judaism and Christianity, which grew out of it, were minority beliefs, tolerated and on occasion persecuted. With the conversion of Constantine in 312, the relations of the three religions changed dramatically. This course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays. The Study of Ancient Israelite ReligionThis course will be concerned with the study of ancient Israelite religion and culture in and against its ancient Near Eastern context. Topics of study will include conceptions of divinity and cult, as well as the derivative social institutions, prophecy, priesthood, kingship, and temple. Through the study of such topics, the aim is to familiarize students with the means by which ancient Israelites worshipped and functioned within a religious society, and thus, how they conceived of themselves as the distinct people of God. There will be the opportunity to discuss various biblical texts which pertain to each subject and further opportunity for independent research. While some knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and Biblical Hebrew will be helpful, it is not required. This course will be examined by a three-hour written examination to be held at the end of Trinity Term. Unhappy In Their Own Way: Hebrew and Yiddish as a Literary FamilyIn the period of the modern formative development of Hebrew and Yiddish literature–literatures which were largely written by the same authors, living in the same communities–these literatures’ relationship to the Jewish culture of which they were a part may be paraphrased as one fruit, two juices. This course aims to explore this rich complexity by analyzing the startling variety in literary language, forms, thematic content, etc., especially as reflected in the similarities as well as differences between them. Reading these two literatures together offers a corrective to monolithic or reductive ideas about the nature of Hebrew or Yiddish language and literature, and complicates our understanding of modern Jewish culture. The course will be examined by means of two pre-submitted essays.
Biblical HebrewElementary: Intermediate: Advanced: Modern HebrewDaphna Witztum Elementary: Intermediate: Advanced: YiddishElementary: Intermediate: Advanced: |
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