University of Houston                                                                                                        RELS 2330

Fall Semester, 2009                                                                                     www.houstonhillel.org/UH

 

Judaism

 

Rabbi Kenny Weiss                                                                Tuesday - Thursday, 10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

713-526-4918                                                                              Room AH 204 – Agnes Arnold Hall

kweiss@uh.edu

 

Course Description and Goals

This course will expose students to Jewish faith and practice, help students understand Jewish text from a Jewish perspective, give students an understanding of the various movements within American Judaism, provide a framework through which students can better understand contemporary Jewish issues including Zionism and Middle Eastern political issues, and engender a genuine appreciation for the Jewish people and culture. 

 

Upon completion of this course, and during this course through oral and written exercises, students will be able to:

1.     Demonstrate an awareness of the scope and variety of historic forces that shaped the ongoing development of Judaism, as well as its beliefs and practices.

2.     Appreciate the role that ritual, sacred literature and theology play as the lens through which the course will examine issues and trends in Jewish life.

3.     Respond critically to the transition of Judaism from the pre-modern to post-modern periods, with particular attention paid to the relationship between God, Torah and (the people) Israel.

4.     Understand and express two approaches to Judaism:  A) That Judaism is a human creation which may be studied, analyzed, and interpreted according to the canons of normal scholarly disciplines, and B) That the examination of particular texts and beliefs will demand that the course consider Judaism as a Divine creation, so that we can understand the world view of the peoples and communities that created those same texts and beliefs.

5.     Articulate their personal reactions to Jewish liturgy and worship, including reflections and observations comparing and contrasting Jewish worship with the students’ own religious experiences and faith traditions.

6.     Express their critique of and personal reactions to a book of Jewish content of their choosing.

7.     Follow, understand and explain the changes and developments that Judaism has experienced through time.

8.     Realize that no one form of Judaism is better than or more authentic than any other form, and consequently understand, analyze and interpret the various structures that are known as Judaism without evaluating their legitimacy with regard to one another or determining which, if any, is true.

 

Required Texts

Breslauer, S. Daniel. Understanding Judaism through History. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003.

Dosick, Wayne. Living Judaism: The Complete Guide to Jewish Belief, Tradition, and Practice. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

Class Packet – available online at www.houstonhillel.org/UH

You may find a Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures) helpful. (Christian Bibles number some verses differently.)

 

 

 

Rabbi Weiss’ Availability

Rabbi Weiss can be contacted by calling Houston Hillel, 713-526-4918, or via email, kweiss@uh.edu.  He can meet with students after class sessions and by appointment.

 

Assignments and Grading

  1. Attendance, Participation & Article Presentation (10%).  Students are expected to attend all classes and arrive on time.  A student who misses more than three class sessions will see a detrimental impact upon his or her grade.  You must have in class paper or electronic access to the Class Packet and the reading assignment on the date for which it is assigned, having read it and prepared to discuss it.  Each student will present at least one article during the semester.
  2. Quizzes (15%).  Students will take three quizzes of the terms in the “Glossary of Jewish Terms” which is available at www.houstonhillel.org/UH.  The September 17 quiz will cover all terms through “Jewish Worship.”  The October 22 quiz will cover all terms through “Responsa.”  The November 19 quiz will cover all terms in the Glossary.
  3. Synagogue Attendance and Reflection Paper (15%) – Must be submitted to turnitin.com prior to the beginning of class on Thursday, October 8.  You will be required to attend two Shabbat (Sabbath) services at local synagogues, and compose an essay of about 1200 words both describing and contextualizing your experience.  Please plan ahead when scheduling your visits.  A list of suggested synagogues and specific areas to be addressed in your essay is available at www.houstonhillel.org/UH.
  4. Book Review (25%) – Must be submitted to turnitin.com prior to the beginning of class on Thursday, November 5.  You will write a book-review of about 1800 words of a scholarly book on the History of Judaism; Jews; Jewish Culture, Society, or Literature to be chosen from a specific list to be distributed in class.  Rabbi Weiss must approve your book choice by Thursday, September 10.  The instructions concerning the book review are available at www.houstonhillel.org/UH.
  5. Take-home Final Examination (35%) – Must be submitted to turnitin.com by Noon on Thursday, December 10. 

 

All assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade for the course.  Letter grades have the following meaning:  

A         Well written, accurate, intelligent, and creative contribution that not only integrates class discussions and the assigned reading, but also transcends that attribute with original thought, questions, conjecture and conclusions;

B          Accurate and complete grasp of the material covered but without creative contribution;

C          Adequate and correct, but not complete;

D         Close, but not correct or adequate;

F          Not even close.

 

Failure to submit a writing assignment on time will result in the loss of 1/2 grade for each class period the assignment is late.

 

Writing assignments will be returned with the instructor’s comments and critique with regard to content and style.

 

All written work must be submitted to www.turnitin.com prior to the beginning of class on the day that the assignment is due. To submit your assignments, log on to www.turnitin.com. (If this is your first time using turnitin.com select “Create a user profile” at the top right of the webpage.) The class ID is 2762216 and the password is “RELS2330” (without spaces). Contact me if you have difficulty submitting assignments.

 

Some thoughts about writing

The written assignments in this course ask for your personal reflections and require you to present your own thoughts and opinions. Nonetheless, your papers (and your grade) will greatly benefit from a thorough demonstration that you have not only completed the reading and attended class sessions, but also, that you can apply that knowledge to your paper.  You should use brief notes and bibliographic citations in the body of your paper to support its content. Please do not pad your papers with quotations; please do not quote Rabbi Weiss in your papers.

 

Please do not cite web pages such as Wikipedia because they do not operate under the usual controls and reviews that are the norm for academic print media. There are only two exceptions to this:

a. Documents that have appeared in print, but are only accessible over the web may be used if you provide both the print citation and the URL where you found the material.

b. Statistical information pertinent to specific organizations or to their areas of expertise, provided that the information comes from the web page of the organization itself.

 

Do not cite original languages, such as Hebrew, if you do not know the language yourself.

 

Biblical citations, whether parenthetical or in the body of a sentence, should use a 3-5 letter abbreviation for the book in question (thus "Gen" for Genesis, but "Ruth" for Ruth), followed by a space, the chapter number, a colon, and the verse numbers. Consecutive verses are indicated with a hyphen or dash, non-consecutive verses with commas. Thus: "Gen 6:20" or "Ruth 12:2-4, 10-15." Separate non-consecutive citations should be separated with semi-colons. Thus: "Gen 6:20; 13:34-35; Ruth 4:15." When referring to an entire biblical book do not use abbreviations.

 

When you refer to human beings attempt to do so in such a way that both genders are grammatically indicated. "They" is increasingly an acceptable singular neuter pronoun; "s/he" is acceptable as well. Do not use "Man" or "Mankind" to denote the human race. However, when the reality to which you are referring is exclusive, by all means reflect that in your language.

 

Avoid pious usages, if it is at all possible to do so in good conscience; an instructor should not force you to write "God" if anything other than "G-d" offends your sensibilities. The language of your written work should not impose your own religious beliefs upon the reader, and references in the first-person plural to religious or other ideological commitments - such as "what we believe" or "our Lord" - are unacceptable. However, you should feel free to include your beliefs in an academically appropriate manner when an assignment asks for your own opinion or reflection on a topic or material.

 

Students with Disabilities

Students who anticipate problems with fulfilling course requirements because of the way they see, hear, read, or get around campus should advise me within the first two weeks of class. Special arrangements

will be made in cooperation with staff at the Center for Students with Disabilities.

University of Houston                                                                                                        RELS 2330

Fall Semester, 2009                                                                                                                             

Judaism

 

 

Class Schedule and Readings

 

Tuesday, August 25               Introduction

 

Thursday, August 27                         Jewish Calendar and Shabbat

Required Reading          Breslauer 1-25; Dosick 119-123

Article Presentation     Thienhaus, Ole. “Jewish Time: Ancient Practice, Hellenistic and Modern Habits, Freud’s Reclaiming.” Judaism 48.4 (1999): 442-49.

 

Tuesday, September 1                     Jewish Holidays

Required Reading          Dosick 123-138, 147-182, 195-199

Article Presentation     Frymer-Kensky, Tikva. “On Feminine God-Talk.” The Reconstructionist 59.1 (Spring 1994): 48-55.           

 

Thursday, September 3        NO CLASS

 

Tuesday, September 8                      Jewish Lifecycle: Birth – Coming of Age

Required Reading          Dosick 285-295

Article Presentation     Eisenberg Sasso, Sandy. “When Your Children Ask: A Jewish Theology of Childhood.” Conservative Judaism 53.4 (Summer 2001): 9-18.

 

Thursday, September 10      Jewish Life Cycle: Marriage, Death, & Conversion to Judaism

Required Reading          Dosick 295-322

Article Presentation     Ellman, Barat. “Defining Community: Bar/Bat Mitzvah Ritual.” Conservative Judaism 56.2 (Winter 2004): 32-46.

Book Review selection due at the beginning of class

 

Tuesday, September 15        Jewish Worship

Required Reading          Dosick 201-245

Article Presentation     Weiner, Hollace Ava. “The Mixers: The Role of Rabbis Deep in the Heart of Texas.” American Jewish History 85:3 (September 1997): 289-332.

 

Thursday, September 17      The Jewish Home                                                                    Quiz

Required Reading          Dosick 247-284

Article Presentation     Waskow, Arthur. “The Emergence of Eco-Judaism.” CCAR Journal (Winter 2001): 27-37.

 

Tuesday, September 22        Sex and Sexuality

Article Presentation     Levkovitz, Alon. “A Halachic Approach to Transgender.” CCAR Journal (Fall 2005): 84-93.

 

Thursday, September 24      Formative Judaism

Required Reading          Breslauer 26-54; Dosick 73-91

Article Presentation     Sandmel, David. “Jewish and Christian Understandings of Israel.” Judaism 52.3-4 (2003): 131-39.

 

Tuesday, September 29        Rabbinic Jewish Thought

Required Reading          Breslauer 55-81; Dosick 7-54

 

Thursday, October 1             Mishnah

Required Reading          Dosick 93-118

Article Presentation:    Kalmanofsky, Jeremy. “Amen and Amen: Blessings of a Heretic (Like Me).” Judaism 51:2 (Spring 2002): 175-193.

 

Tuesday, October 6               Talmud

Article Presentation:    Salkin, Allen. “Where Have You Gone, Sandy Koufax?” Heeb: The New Jew Review 5 Winter 2004: 36-41.

 

Thursday, October 8             Midrash

Article Presentation     Michael Peppard. “Reclaiming the Postmodern Jew.” Judaism 51:4 (2002): 397-405.

Synagogue Attendance and Reflection Paper due at the beginning of class

 

Tuesday, October 13             Medieval Judaism and Maimonides

Required Reading          Breslauer 82-117 

Article Presentation:    Matt, Daniel. “Beyond the Personal God.” The Reconstructionist 59.1 (Spring 1994): 38-47.

 

Thursday, October 15                       Eastern Europe: Shtetl Judaism, Hasidim and Mitnagdim

Required Reading          Breslauer 118-153

Article Presentation:    Shandler, Jeffery. “On the Frontiers of Ashkenaz: Translating into Yiddish, Then and Now.” Judaism 54:1-2 (2005): 3-12.

 

Tuesday, October 20             Responsa

 

Thursday, October 22                       Enlightenment, Emancipation & the Rise of Secularism                        Quiz

Required Reading          Eisner, Will. The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: New York:Norton, 2005. (Available on reserve)

Article Presentation:    Cohen, Alfred. “Internet Commerce on Shabbat.” The Journal of Halacha and Contemporary Society 50 (Fall 2005): 38-61.

 

Tuesday October 27              The Movements Emerge

Required Reading          Neusner, Jacob, and Alan J. Avery-Peck. The Blackwell Companion to Judaism. Malden: Blackwell, 2000. 291-333. (Available on reserve)

Article Presentation     Saperstein, David. “The Use and Abuse of Jewish Tradition in Political Debate.” CCAR Journal (Spring 2008): 13-33.

 

Thursday, October 29                       American Judaism

Required Reading          Neusner, Jacob, and Alan J. Avery-Peck. The Blackwell Companion to Judaism. Malden: Blackwell, 2000. 334-370. (Available on reserve)

 

Tuesday, November 3                        Modern Jewish Thought

Required Reading          Breslauer 154-180; Dosick 55-71

Article Presentation     Sanger-Katz, Margot. “Blitzkrieg: The Department of Justice is still Storming the Country looking for geriatric ex-Nazis.” Legal Affairs July-August 2004: 69-71.  

 

Thursday, November 5          Shoah

Guest Speaker              Holocaust Survivor Helen Colin

            book review due at the beginning of class

 

Tuesday, November 10                      Zionism

Required Reading          Dosick 323-355          

Article Presentation:    Stone, Ira. “From Middot to Mitzvot” and responses. Conservative Judaism 57:4 (Summer, 2005): 18-49.

 

Thursday, November 12        Israel Today

Article Presentation     Karsh, Efraim. “Israel’s Arabs v. Israel.” Commentary 116.5 (December, 2003): 21-27.

 

Tuesday, November 17                      Contemporary Jewish Communities

Article Presentation     Sussman, Lance. “The Myth of the Trefa Banquet: American Culinary Culture and the Radicalization of Food Policy in American Reform Judaism.” The American Jewish Archives Journal 57.1-2 (2005): 28-52.           

 

Thursday, November 19        Modern Hebrew Poetry                                                           Quiz

Article Presentation     Zollman, Joellyn. “The Gifts of the Jews: Ideology and Material Culture in the American Synagogue Gift Shop.” The American Jewish Archives Journal 58.1-2 (2006): 50-77.       

 

Tuesday, November 24                      NO CLASS

 

Thursday, November 26        NO CLASS – Thanksgiving

 

Tuesday, December 1                        Conclusion

            Final Exams will be distributed during class

 

Thursday, December 3                      NO CLASS

 

Thursday, December 10

Final Examination due by Noon