Boston University College of Arts & Sciences

 

Jewish Studies Annual Academic Planning Self-Study Update 2015

STEP I. THE CURRICULAR CONTEXT Throughout this self-study, please add any explanatory notes you believe will help us understand the situation. A. Degrees, Minors, and Certificates offered by your program, individually or jointly

1. List all undergraduate and graduate degrees offered by your program (i.e. BA majors, Master’s degrees, doctoral degrees) and all joint degrees for which your program is responsible. M.A. in Jewish Studies (administered by GDRS) Ph.D. in Jewish Studies (administered by GDRS)

2. List all undergraduate minors offered by your program. Jewish Studies Hebrew (administered by MLCL)

B. Undergraduate majors offered by other departments and programs that depend on coursework in your program

1. Undergraduate Majors in CAS: Using the listing of BA programs at http://www.bu.edu/academics/cas/programs/ to ensure completeness, list all CAS majors other than those administered individually or jointly in your department whose requirements (as spelled out in departmental sections of the bulletin) include coursework in your department. Archaeology: AR 342 Archaeology of the Holy Land Cinema and Media Studies (CIMS):

CI 269 Holocaust Literature and Film CI 270 Israeli Culture through Film

Classics:

CL 315 Josephus and Ancient Judaism (formerly: First Century Judaism) CL 406 Advanced Topics in Classical Civilization (depending on topic)

Comparative Literature:

XL 281 Holocaust Literature and Film XL 356 The Heretical Jew (not currently offered) XL 459/LI 459 Primo Levi Within Holocaust Literature

English: EN 125 Reading Modern Literature; one section currently offered by the post-doc in JS History:

HI 219 Jews in the Modern World HI 271 The Nazis (new course)

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HI 276 Jewish Culture HI 275 Hist of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe HI 388 Foundations of Jewish Politics (not currently offered) HI 392 Israel: History, Politics, Culture, Identity (formerly: The History of Israel: An

Introduction) HI 393 Topics in the History of Israel (Topic Israeli-Palestinian Conflict) HI 410 Religion, Community, and Culture in Medieval Spain (=RN410, which satisfies requirements in History for 400 level seminar, European geographic distribution, and Premodern) HI 443 Jews and Germans (formerly: Jews in Modern German History) HI 450 Hist Pop Cult (section on Ritual Murder and other Myths of Jewish Conspiracy) HI 552 Topics in Jewish History HI 592 The Birth of a State: Israel 1945-1955* HI 593 Youth on the Agenda: Roles and Images of Young People in the Jewish Nation* * rarely offered or should be retired

IR/Middle East Track

RN 220 Holy City: Jerusalem Middle East and North Africa Studies:

LH 250, 283, 284, 330, 350, 351, 453; HI 392, 393 RN 201, 216, 220, 308, 323, 331, 332, 334, 335, 338 toward Humanities (List B); AR 342/RN 390, HI392, 393, 592, 593 toward Social Science (List C); LH 111-330 toward Language requirement (List D).

Philosophy:

PH 408 History of Medieval Philosophy (only when x-listed with RN323 or 338) PH 409 Maimonides (x-listed with RN420) PH 415 Nineteenth-Century Philosophy (only when x-listed with RN329)

Religion:

RN 101 The Bible (comparative) RN 116 Morality and Ethics: Jewish Perspectives (new course, not yet offered) RN 207 Topics in Religion and Literature (depending on topic, currently offered by JS post-doctoral fellow) RN 216 Judaism (JS core course) RN 201 Hebrew Bible RN 202 From Jesus to Christ (comparative) RN 220 Holy City (comparative) RN 221 Moses (comparative) RN 301 Varieties of Early Christianity (comparative; HUM div. extended list) RN 304 Jewish Music* RN 308 The Open Heaven: Apocalyptic Literature RN 319 Midrash* RN 321 Wisdom Tradition in Ancient Israel and Judaism* RN 322 History of Judaism* RN 323 Classical Jewish Thought (HUM div., extended list)

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RN 324 Introduction to Rabbinic Literature RN 325 Jewish Mysticism I RN 326 Kabbalah (formerly: Jewish Mystical Movements and Modernization) RN 327 Jews and Christians in Italy (Padua Program)* RN 328 Judaism in the Modern Period* RN 329 Modern Jewish Thought RN 330 American Jewish Experience* RN 331 Zionism and the State of Israel* RN 332 Foundations of Jewish Politics* RN 333 Antisemitism* RN 334 Dead Sea Scrolls RN 335 Josephus and Ancient Judaism* RN 336 The Heretical Jew* RN 337 Gender and Judaism RN 338 Mysticism and Philosophy: Jewish and Islamic Perspectives RN 339 The Modern Jew* RN 384 The Holocaust RN 385 Representations of the Holocaust in Literature and Film (originates in XL) RN 390 Arch of Holy Land (originates in AR) RN 410 Religion, Community, and Culture in Medieval Spain (x-list for HI 410) RN 420 Maimonides RN 439 Jewish Bioethics RN 460 Seminar on the Holocaust

*rarely offered; should be revised or retired

Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality: WS305 Topics in Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies (Section B1 scheduled for Spring 2016 to be offered by JS post-doc fellow).

2. Undergraduate majors and degrees outside CAS: Using the list of BU Schools and Colleges at

http://www.bu.edu/academics/ to ensure completeness, list all non-CAS undergraduate degree programs whose requirements include coursework in your department. COM CI 270 Israeli Culture through Film COM FT 569 Holocaust on Film

3. Undergraduate minors: Using the listing of minors at http://www.bu.edu/academics/cas/programs/, list all (CAS and other) minors whose requirements can be fulfilled by required or elective coursework in your department. Religion: the minor in religion can be satisfied by taking JS courses.

C. Graduate programs offered by other departments and schools that depend on coursework in your program

1. GRS Master’s Programs outside your department. Using the list at http://www.bu.edu/academics/grs/programs/, list all Master’s degree programs whose requirements (as spelled out in departmental sections of the bulletin) include coursework in your department.

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n/a 2. GRS Doctoral Programs. Using the list at http://www.bu.edu/academics/grs/programs/, list all doctoral

programs whose requirements (as spelled out in departmental sections of the bulletin) include coursework in your department.

n/a 3. Non-GRS Graduate Degrees. Using the list of Schools and Colleges at http://www.bu.edu/academics/, list any

non-GRS graduate programs whose requirements include coursework in your department. STH MDiv and MTS students can earn required elective credit in cluster 1 (Texts and Traditions) and

cluster 2 (Contemporary) by taking a number of cross-listed JS courses, including STH TX 805 Holocaust Studies STH TX 806 Readings in Classical Hebrew STH TX 812 Heretical Jew STH TX 818 Jewish Mysticism STH TX 822 History of Judaism STH TX 823 Classic Jewish Thought STH TX 824 Introduction to Rabbinic Literature SHT TX 828 Modern Jew STH TX 829 Modern Jewish Thought STH TX 834 Dead Sea Scrolls STH TX 837 Gender and Judaism STH TX 848 Zionism and the State of Israel STH TX 859 Jewish Bioethics STH TX 865 Topics in Judaic Studies STH TX 876 Midrash: Classical Rabbinic Biblical Interpretation STH TX 879 Maimonides STH TX 884 Holocaust STH TX 895 Core Texts of Western Religions STH TX 896 American Jewish Experiences STH TX 899 Holocaust Literature & Film

STH: Biblical Studies (JS core faculty Botta and Darr)

STH TO 704: Hebrew Bible I STH TO 723: Biblical Hebrew I STH TO 724: Biblical Hebrew II STH TO 802: The Prophetic Tradition STH TO 804: The Book of Ezekiel STH TO 807: History of Israelite Religion STH TO 813: Proverbs STH TO 814: The Cultural Background of the Hebrew Bible STH TO 815: Hebrew Reading and Exegesis I STH TO 816: Hebrew Wisdom STH TO 819: Hebrew Reading and Exegesis II STH TO 821: The Book of Psalms STH TO 823: The Book of Jeremiah STH TO 827: Violence in the Hebrew Bible STH TO 829: Genesis STH TO 835: Current Issues in Biblical Interpretation STH TO 838: Biblical Interpretation from Hispanic and Latin American Perspectives

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STH: Philosophy and Systematic Theology

STH TT 811 Mysticism & Philosophy: Jewish and Islamic Perspectives STH TT 854 Classic Jewish Thought STH TT 901 Core Texts and Motifs: Western Traditions

School of Public Health: SPH LW 739 Jewish Bioethics and Holocaust Studies

D. College Requirements and Programs: Writing, Foreign Language, Math, Core Curriculum, Divisional Studies In general, all departments and programs have responsibilities for selected aspects of the CAS curriculum that go beyond the major. Describe your department’s typical role in any of the following in which it has participated. (In what ways has your department contributed? To what extent?) For any aspect in which your department (including through individual faculty) has not played a recent role, enter “None.”

1. Core Curriculum Jewish Studies core and affiliated faculty participate in the CORE on a regular basis, teaching sections (Gillman, Rabinovitch, Litvin) or lecturing (Zank, Gillman, Klawans). Prof. Arkin (JS affiliate) was involved in the revision of the Social Sciences component of the CORE. Elie Wiesel used to lecture regularly in the CORE Humanities and there is a strong mutual interest in maintaining this legacy and connection between Jewish studies and the Core. For this reason, the Elie Wiesel Center and the Core initiated a post-doctoral lectureship in Jewish Studies and the CAS Core Curriculum, funded by the Elie Wiesel Center, with primary teaching responsibility in the CORE and secondary teaching responsibility in Jewish studies. The first fellow, Dr. Alexandra Herzog (PhD in American Jewish Literature, Brandeis University), is now in her second year.

2. Kilachand Honors College Prof.s Frankfurter and Zank occasionally offer freshman seminars in KHC. Prof. Zatlin (core faculty) co-directs KHC. Prof. Dellheim, founding director of KHC, is affiliated JS faculty.

3. Teaching seminars toward fulfillment of the College Writing requirement One of our recent Jewish studies PhD’s (GDRS), Ingrid Anderson, teaches as a full-time lecturer in CAS Writing where she offers three Jewish studies-related writing courses every semester.

4. Implementation of the foreign language requirement Hebrew program faculty Abigail Gillman (JS core faculty), head-teacher Miriam Angrist, and staff.

5. Offering Divisional Studies courses that also serve as gateways to your major(s) Zank: RN101, Klepper/Klawans: RN104. All 100- and 200-level courses in Religion listed above satisfy Humanities Divisional Studies requirement.

6. Offering Divisional Studies courses that do not also count toward majors in your department or division n/a

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7. Offering selected courses that are not important for fulfilling requirements for your major(s) or

minor(s), but are in very high demand by students because of their interests RN101 The Bible (Zank) RN220 Holy City (Zank) RN384 Holocaust (Katz) HI393 Topics in Israel Studies (Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; course funded by EWJCS)

8. Any other aspects of the CAS/GRS curriculum you want to mention

The Political Science Department secured an Israel Institute grant to recruit a colleague from Bar Ilan University (Prof. Inbar) who currently offers an advanced seminar on Israeli Security. CAS PO 580 Readings in International Relations in Political Science Topic for Fall 2015: Israel's National Security

Additional Comments:

1. Jewish Studies include both the Humanities and the Social Sciences Jewish studies courses—including many courses offered in Religion—are not exclusively in the Humanities. While we remain committed to a strong grounding in text/tradition, literature, thought and philosophy, we offer a growing number of courses anchored in history and the social sciences. Social Sciences courses in Jewish Studies include:

AR 342 Archaeology of the Holy Land HI 219 Jews in the Modern World HI 271 The Nazis HI 276 Jewish Culture HI 275 Hist of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe HI 388 Foundations of Jewish Politics HI 392 Israel: History, Politics, Culture, Identity HI 393 Topics in the History of Israel (Topic: Israeli Palestinian Conflict) HI 443 Jews and Germans HI 450 Topics in Pop Culture; section on Ritual Murder and other Myths of Jewish Conspiracy HI 552 Topics in Jewish History HI 592 The Birth of a State: Israel 1945-1955 HI 593 Youth on the Agenda: Roles and Images of Young People in the Jewish Nation RN 220 Holy City: Jerusalem RN 322 History of Judaism RN 327 Jews and Christians in Italy (Padua Program) RN 330 American Jewish Experience RN 331 Zionism and the State of Israel RN 332 Foundations of Jewish Politics RN 333 Antisemitism RN 337 Gender and Judaism RN 356 The Heretical Jew RN 384 The Holocaust RN 410 Religion, Community, and Culture in Medieval Spain

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RN 460 Seminar on the Holocaust

We aim to to grow our offerings in history and other social sciences, emphasizing contemporary issues that are of interest to many students across and beyond CAS, especially when taught in comparative perspective, such as courses on diaspora, minority identity, nationalism, Mid-East politics, etc.

2. Jewish studies courses in Religion 37 out of 95 courses listed in the Religion department Academic Planning Self-Study Update 2015 are in Jewish Studies! Out of these 37 courses, only two are offered on the 100-level and only five are offered on the 200-level. The remainder of these courses is offered on 300- and higher levels. This picture is misleading because not all of these courses are in fact active and some are about to be retired. When we remove redundant, comparative, topics courses, and other misleading information (e.g. “Moses” course listed under two different numbers; removal of rarely if ever offered courses; courses that originate in other departments) from this list, we have only 17 regularly offered Jewish studies courses in Religion (one on the 100-level, 2 on the 200-level, and fourteen on the 300-level). This is a much more healthy and sustainable picture from within Religion.

We encourage JS faculty to develop more courses on the 100 or 200 level in Religion and other departments to provide popular and accessible offerings and gateway options. But that is not in itself a solution to low enrollments. The newly developed RN 116 Morality and Ethics: Jewish Perspective was to provide such a new option but didn’t enroll enough students in Fall 2015 to run. Prof. Klepper is planning to offer it as a non-credit bearing FY 103 sequence in Spring 2016. – At this point our strongest new courses are the Writing courses offered by Ingrid Anderson and a new course in Jewish literature offered by our post-doc in JS and the CAS Core Curriculum. Offering Jewish studies content in CAS Writing and linking up with the Core seems to provide us with genuinely promising recruitment opportunities. We will see whether this strategy translates into better enrollments in our upper level classes. It may help to introduce a dedicated course designation for Jewish studies courses with a different numbering system that reflects our rich offerings in Jewish studies across departments and makes courses more approachable. For example, there is no reason, from a JS perspective that “Introduction to Rabbinic Literature” should be offered as a 300-level Religion class and not also as a 100 or 200-level ‘JS’ class. The same is true for many other Jewish studies courses that the Religion numbering system casts as specialized.

As you will notice in the following assessment of curricular obligations and needs, the use of numbering and course designations from other departments makes it very confusing and perplexing to understand the courses and course-types we actually offer consistently. This is very opaque and should be simplified and clarified for our own planning purposes and for student access.

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STEP II. ASSESSMENT OF CURRICULAR OBLIGATIONS AND NEEDS In updating this assessment, you should be guided in large part by past enrollment patterns — both high and low demand — and what these imply about patterns of demand over time. Point to evidence from past enrollments to make predictions about projected demand for courses. In this step of the self-study, you will identify the courses your department or program ought to offer regularly for curricular reasons and determine how often they should be offered. Please note that CAS undergraduate courses need minimum enrollments of 10 and graduate courses need minimum enrollments of 8 in order to be considered sufficiently in demand to be offered; courses that have attracted fewer students will be considered for possible cancellation. A. OBLIGATIONS TOWARD UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION.

We usually offer about fifteen courses each semester that can be organized by curricular clusters. This allows students and their advisors to identify meaningful follow-up courses. This also allows students to distinguish courses along themes and divisions (HUM, SocSci). We use the following schema of curricular clusters in our inventory and on our website, when possible (see fall 2015 course list as a model; at http://www.bu.edu/jewishstudies/undergraduate/fall-2015/)

WR100/WR150 Courses

Hebrew Language Courses

Humanities Courses

● Sacred Texts and Traditions ● Jewish Thought and Philosophy ● Literature and the Arts

Social Science Courses

● History and Society ● Holocaust and Genocide Studies ● Hebrew and Israel Studies

1. Which courses and course types should be offered every semester? Course type: WRITING COURSES with JS content

Currently three courses every semester, taught by Dr. Ingrid Anderson. Course type: COMPARATIVE, ENTRY LEVEL INTRODUCTION TO JEWISH TEXTS, SYMBOLS, AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICES

Two courses per semester Fall semester: RN101 The Bible; RN104 World Religions I: Western; Spring semester: RN220 Holy City; RN104 World Religions I: Western.

Course Type: HOLOCAUST STUDIES

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One introductory course every semester, usually RN384 in the Fall and 385 in the Spring. Alternatively, RN384 could be offered every semester, as it is in high demand and fills up consistently. The course should be x-listed in History to allow History faculty (Zatlin) to be part of rotation.

Course Type: ISRAEL STUDIES

At least one per semester. History currently offers one Israel-related course every semester (HI 392 in the Fall and HI 393 in the Spring). While Fall enrollments have declined, the spring course remains popular because of the topic and perhaps also because of the instructor (Jacobson). Staffing and funding for these courses is currently provided by the Elie Wiesel Center.

Course type: HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.

First, second and third-year Hebrew language courses as required for the Hebrew minor and optional for MENA majors. Hebrew literature courses in translation as required for the Hebrew minor. Staffed and scheduled by MLCL.

2. Which courses and course types should be offered annually?

Required core course: RN216 Judaism. As a required course, this needs to be offered at least once a year. We need about one or two additional courses per year in each of the following curricular areas: SACRED TEXTS AND TRADITIONS:

RN201 Hebrew Bible RN319 Midrash RN324 Intro to Rabbinic Literature

JEWISH THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY:

RN116 Morality and Ethics: Jewish Perspectives RN323 Classical Jewish Thought RN325 Jewish Mysticism or RN326 Kabbalah or RN338 Mysticism and Philosophy RN329 Modern Jewish Thought RN420/PH409 Maimonides

JEWISH HISTORY AND SOCIETY

AR342 Archaeology of the Holy Land HI219 Jews in the Modern World and one of the following: HI276 Jewish Culture HI275 Hist of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe

JEWISH AND/OR ISRAELI FILM, LITERATURE, AND ART (including Hebrew literature in translation):

LH283 Israeli Culture Through Film LH250 Masterpieces of Modern Hebrew Lit LH330 Israeli Popular Music

3. Which courses and course types should be offered every other academic year or every third year?

Most of our active 300- and higher-level courses are offered on a two or three-year rotation as faculty proposes. Some more specialized courses are offered less frequently.

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B. OBLIGATIONS TOWARD GRADUATE EDUCATION. Taking into account your department’s obligations in graduate education as specified in Step I above, list specific courses (number and name) and course types that your faculty should offer in order to serve students well in allowing them to finish their degrees in a timely way. Every department and program also ought to offer a wider set of courses that enrich the educational program, take advantage of faculty expertise, etc.

1. Which courses and course types should be offered every semester? n/a

2. Which courses and course types should be offered annually? Course type: Text and tradition on the 600- or higher level, usually piggy-backed on 300- or higher-level undergraduate courses. These courses are needed to maintain GDRS Jewish studies and early Christianity coverage in Track I Text and Traditions. Course type: Jewish thought and philosophy on the 600- or higher level, usually piggy-backed on 300- or higher-level undergraduate courses. These courses are needed to maintain GDRS Jewish studies coverage in Track II Religious Thought.

3. Which courses and course types should be offered every other academic year or every third year?

Course type: Upper level seminars (e.g., on Maimonides, Holocaust studies) that serve the RN major as well as MA and PhD level student interest in Tracks I, II, and III of GDRS, as well as provide opportunity for current research-based teaching, development of graduate and advanced undergraduate research skills and projects.

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STEP III. PLANNING FOR EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT, EQUITABLE, AND SUSTAINABLE COURSE STAFFING The core of the process of developing a course roster requires starting with the course rotation needs identified in Step II of this document. Although we develop course rosters from one year to the next, the exercise really requires curricular planning over a longer time period that takes account of the shifting availability of specific faculty and other constraints. This section of the self-study asks you to devise a plan for staffing your core course rotation needs over the upcoming three-year period. The most straightforward way to do it is to list each course (or type of course, where multiple courses could cover the requirement) for which your department or program has indicated a core need and indicate how your department proposes to cover the obligation over the next three-years (2016/2017, 2017/2018, 2018/2019).

Core course and high demand courses RN216 Judaism is the only required core course for the minor in Jewish studies and needs to be taught at least once a year. For the past several years, this course has been offered in the spring semester, in rotation by Prof.s Klawans and Katz. Prof. Katz is teaching it in spring 2016. Prof. Klawans will offer it in spring 2017 when Prof. Katz is on sabbatical. Prof. Katz will teach it again in spring 2018. – In terms of curriculum, we are thinking about redesigning this course from an Introduction to Judaism that fits with the parameters of the 200-level courses in Religion to offering it as an Introduction to Jewish Studies, as other programs do that offer a minor or major in Jewish studies. RN101 Bible is usually offered by Prof. Zank (Fall). In the past, the course enrolled between 63 and 88 students but recently experienced a drop to 40, then 20, but now is back at 38. This trend was typical for enrollment patterns over the past four years across the Humanities. The course will not be offered in fall 2016. Zank will teach it again in the fall of 2017. Beyond 2017, Prof. Knust has expressed an interest in joining Prof. Zank in a rotation for this course. RN104 Religions of the World: Western is offered both semesters and rotates between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam faculty (Ali, Frankfurter, Klawans, Klepper), so coverage is not a problem. The Religion department is debating whether the 103/104 sequence is still the best way of satisfying the breadth requirement of majors, but in the meantime these courses will continue. RN220 Holy City is offered annually by Prof. Zank. It continues to be a popular courses for students in MENA, IR, and COM, where it satisfies an external world history requirement. Due to multiple sabbatical leaves next year that will affect Jewish studies in particular (Frankfurter, Katz, Zank, Seligman), and possibly reduced teaching loads for two further JS faculty with administrative responsibility, the Religion Department has decided to cancel the class during Prof. Zank’s leave. RN384 Holocaust. Used to be offered every semester, alternating between Professors Katz and Levine. Now offered annually in the Fall semester by Prof. Katz who will be on leave in 2016/17. Prof. Zatlin (HI) has expressed an interest in teaching the course but cannot offer it next fall. It would make sense to hire an adjunct. In addition to the general popularity of the course, we need to consider the needs of the proposal of a minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, which is currently under review and proposes RN 384 as one of two required core courses. HI 392 and 393 is the sequence of Israel studies courses the EWCJS has been staffing and funding. This started with an external grant provided by the America-Israel Cooperative Enterprise that

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allowed us to offer two courses in Israel Studies each semester that used to be x-listed in Religion and History for several years. (Hence some of the additional course numbers and titles in the inventory, including HI 552, HI 592, HI 593 and corresponding courses in Religion (RN331, RN499), which have not been offered since the grant ran out, in 2012. That year, to provide basic coverage, we hired two adjunct lecturers who are now in their third year of teaching one course each semester. Prof. Karlinsky (BGU and MIT) teaches HI 392 in the fall and Dr. Jacobson teaches HI 393 in the spring. The fall course was recently renamed and redescribed to reflect the current content. It is now called “Israel: History, Politics, Culture, Identity.” [MENA and History bulletins still list the course by its old title “The History of Israel: an Introduction”]. The spring course is a topics course but we would like to update that as well, to make it easier for students to find it. The course now consistently focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Staffing these important courses with adjuncts is onerous and creates problems in keeping participating programs informed, visiting faculty appointed in a timely manner, and the word out to students in a timely manner. We urge CAS to regularize these courses by creating a regular, CAS-funded instructorship, or by making Israel-studies a priority hire.

All LH courses are scheduled and staffed by MLCL. Enrollments in Hebrew language courses are up. We believe that our consistent support for Israel studies has helped to boost the Hebrew language and literature program. We consider these two curricular areas as an integrated cluster of Hebrew and Israel Studies. With the growing interest in MENA and incentives offered by the Elie Wiesel Center for study abroad in Israel, as well with an increasingly better known reputation of what we stand for as a program unit, it should be possible to grow this program area further. We regularly reach out to the BU Hillel community and various Israel-centered student organizations, including graduates of the “Birthright Israel” travel program to “market” our courses as a meaningful follow-up.

Staffing and scheduling of other courses and course types: SACRED TEXTS AND TRADITIONS RN 201 Hebrew Bible is taught by Prof. Klawans. Should be offered at least every other year. RN319 Midrash was very successfully taught by visiting professor Marcie Lenk but has since been dormant. Prof. Klawans has expressed an interest in reviving it. If we were to make a hire in Religion and Literature with a specialization in Hebrew and Jewish literature, this course could become part of a regular rotation. Ideally this course should be offered at least every other year, as it also serves graduate students in Track I of GDRS and is an elective for MDiv and MTS students.

RN324 Introduction to Rabbinic Literature. An extremely important course for any serious Jewish studies program, this is taught every other year by Prof. Klawans. Could be offered on a lower level to make it more accessible and attractive to beginning students, provided this does not prevent the course from serving the graduate programs in GDRS Track I and STH it currently serves. (See comments above, on JS numbering system.) – For the undergraduate program it may be desirable to develop a new course “introduction to Jewish literature” that could alternate with more advanced courses. RN334 Dead Sea Scrolls. Taught by Prof. Klawans, this is an important course for graduate students in Early Judaism/Christianity and also attracts select undergraduate students. Should be offered every three years.

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JEWISH THOUGHT AND PHILOSOPHY RN116 Morality and Ethics: Jewish Perspective was introduced by Prof.s Klepper and Zank. it was designed as an early evening, two-credit course that was to offer both theoretical (and textual) as well as practical and applied components. Enrollment the first time this was offered didn’t warrant to run the course. Prof. Klepper is planning to offer it in spring 2016 as a non-credit first year experience seminar. RN323 Classical Jewish Thought (x-list with STH TT 854 and PH 408) attracts few Religion students but does reasonably well with students in Philosophy and Theology. This is true for all of the courses in Jewish thought and philosophy, including RN420/PH409 Maimonides and RN329 Modern Jewish Thought, which was most recently offered by an EWCJS-funded visiting professor. Demand for this type of course is still strong among the small cohort of Track II PhD students in GDRS. RN 325 Jewish Mysticism I: Formative Traditions is taught by Prof. Katz. Offered every other year. RN 326 Kabbalah (formerly: Jewish Mystical Movements and Modernization). This new course will be offered in Spring of 2016 by adjunct lecturer Yair Lior. Could be offered by Prof. Katz every other year, alternating with RN 325. RN338 Mysticism and Philosophy: Jewish and Islamic Perspectives. Taught by Prof. Lobel. Should be offered in years when RN 325 or 326 are not offered, or at least in different semesters.

JEWISH HISTORY AND SOCIETY AR 342 Archaeology of the Holy Land (meets with RN390/690, AR342, AR742, STH TX815) is taught by Prof. Andrea Berlin every other year. HI 219 Jews in the Modern World, offered by Prof. Rabinovitch every other year. HI 271 The Nazis, taught by Prof. Zatlin. Should be offered every other year.

HI 276 Jewish Culture; taught by Prof. Rabinovitch every other year. HI 275 Hist of Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe; taught by Prof. Rabinovitch. Should be taught annually or every other year. HI 443 Jews and Germans, taught by Prof. Zatlin, should be taught every other year.

JEWISH AND/OR ISRAELI FILM, LITERATURE, AND ART LH 283 Israeli Culture Through Film (also LH 283/453, CAS/COM CI 270) is taught by Prof. Gillman every year. LH 250 Masterpieces of Modern Hebrew Literature. Carries HUM div credit. Taught by Prof. Gillman every other year.

LH 330 Israeli Popular Music. Taught by Mira Angrist as an advanced-intermediate Hebrew course.

New in 2015/16 and continued in 2016/17: The post-doctoral fellow in JS and Core, Alexandra Herzog, is offering two new courses in modern Jewish literature. Currently (Fall 2015) she is offering a section of EN125 Readings in English

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Literature x-listed with RN 207 Religion and Literature (Topic: Modern Jewish Writers). In Spring 2016, she will be offering a section of WS 305/XL 381 (Topic: Sex in the Shtetl). Enrollments in the current course are very strong in both sections, which suggests that placing a lecturer in Core works as a recruitment strategy. Dr. Herzog’s courses in EN/WS/XL also show that there’s demand for Jewish studies beyond Religion and History. Other courses RN 332 The Political Jew (= HI 388 Foundations of Jewish Politics), RN 336 The Heretical Jew (=XL 356), and RN 339 The Modern Jew were developed collaboratively by Prof.s Gillman, Seligman, and Zank, with the help of a Posen Foundation grant. 339 was offered twice (once by Gillman and Zank, once by Zank), 336 was offered once (by Seligman and Gillman), and 332 was taught once by Israel studies adjunct faculty and scheduled again by Prof. Rabinovitch but was then cancelled due to low enrollment. Prof. Klawans has expressed interest in revamping and offering 336 at some point. 339 can be offered in years when RN 328 or HI 219 are not offered. RN 330 American Jewish Experiences, RN 332 History of Judaism, RN 333 Antisemitism were part of Prof. Levine’s portfolio. RN 332 always clashed with RN 216 and should be retired. Prof.s Ali and Seligman (Religion) have expressed interest in developing a course on anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim rhetoric and attitudes, in keeping with the Religion department’s demand for more comparative courses. This course would replace RN 333, which has not been offered in a while. RN 330 American Jewish Experiences could be revamped if we were to hire someone in American Jewish studies (see below). RN 337 Gender and Judaism. First developed by Prof. Zank, the course has been successfully taught by Prof. Klepper. Should be offered every other year, if it can be staffed. RN 439 Jewish Bioethics, taught by Prof. Grodin. The course is offered every Spring semester and remains popular. Its focus on questions and cases from the Holocaust make it an important component of the proposed minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

STEP IV: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF UPDATES AND TEN-YEAR PLANNING 1. UPDATES: Please list all major updates that you made to this document this year.

This document has been completely rewritten. It reflects a better understanding of program administration in CAS; offers a comprehensive listing of current courses and up-to-date details on courses and staffing; reflects progress we made in organizing our curriculum in clusters for the purposes of advertising and advising; and suggests a way to improve enrollments across our curriculum: create a JS course designation and numbering system that makes sense to faculty and students.

2. GOALS AND PLANNING: With continuing reference to the three preceding sections of this Self-Study, please discuss significant changes, beyond those already documented above, that your unit is planning or that you foresee occurring over the next three years, and assess the potential impact of those changes on the scope and quality of academic programs.

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A. The Curricular Context: How will your unit’s set of commitments and priorities in undergraduate and graduate education evolve (include enrollment projections in cases where you foresee a substantial change in student numbers)? List any academic programs that you are currently proposing/developing/reviewing/revising or planning to propose/develop/review/revise, either within your department or in collaboration with other units of the College and University.

Minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Proposed by Prof.s Harrowitz and Grodin, in cooperation with Prof.s Longman (African Studies, IR, Pardee DRTS) and Payaslian (History/Armenian studies). Major in Jewish Studies: The number and range of courses we offer on a regular basis would be sufficient for us to offer a major in Jewish Studies. We have been discussing this and we will work on a proposal to that effect. We believe that a major in Jewish Studies would significantly raise the profile of Jewish studies at BU, enhance student recruitment, and increase our reach in development and alumni relations.

Please take advantage of this opportunity not only to think about new initiatives and growth areas, but also to assess the costs and benefits of any degree programs or minors currently offered or staffed by your unit that enroll fewer than 20 students. Note: The future of low-enrollment programs will be a particular focus of our follow-up discussions with you this year.

Until recently, the CAS minor in Jewish Studies was effectively administered by the Religion department. This explains why 37 out of 95 courses listed in the Religion course inventory are in Jewish studies (see details above, p. 7 under “Additional Comments”). Administrative and curricular responsibilities have now shifted to the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies and are a matter of JS core faculty academic policy decisions. As an academic program administration, we depend on cooperating departments, especially the departments of Religion and History, for staffing and scheduling the majority of our courses. The Religion department expects us to take the lead on scheduling to assure that scheduling conflicts are avoided; chronic low-enrollments are eliminated; curricular pressures on the Religion faculty are alleviated by shifting some of the burden of staffing and scheduling to other departments and generally by proactive and dynamic program development and marketing of all of our courses.

Over the past fifteen years, the number of graduating minors remained stable with about five students per year. This means that there are usually about fifteen to twenty students at any given time who articulate a strong interest in the JS minor. Most of these are enrolled in schools or programs outside of CAS. The 2015 graduates were from CFA, Questrom, and COM (see http://www.bu.edu/jewishstudies/undergraduate/students/). To reach out to more students in CAS, we initiated and funded the post-doctoral fellowship in JS and the CAS Core Curriculum, now in its second year. This is the first semester that the post-doc fellow also teaches her own classes in CAS (EN/RN, next semester: XL/WS). Enrollments are very promising. Dr. Anderson, full-time instructor in CAS Writing Program, has been similarly successful in getting students excited about Jewish studies by offering courses on “Jewish Masculinity,” “After Auschwitz,” and “Reading Elie Wiesel: Beyond

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Night.” It remains to be seen whether these new initiatives will lead to a significant growth in the minor or to increased enrollments in our upper level courses. A question that is raised every time we discuss enrollments and that should be laid to rest once and for all is the relationship between CAS-JS and the BU Hillel. We consistently reach out to the BU Hillel community in many ways and on many occasions. The current student board president, Erin Miller (CAS ’17) is a JS minor and research assistant in Prof. Grodin’s Medicine in the Holocaust project, now housed at the EWCJS. Attempts at reaching out to, and coordinating with, the Hillel administration are ongoing but have proven to be of limited value. We cannot expect Hillel to supply us with the panacea for the needs of an academic program. Like every other academic unit on campus, Jewish Studies courses and degree programs are not exclusively or primarily designed to reach heritage learners but aim to serve the entire range of BU students. This is as true of biblical studies as it is of modern Israel studies. Our courses are based on inquiry, not advocacy. A course on the Hebrew Bible will strike students unused to critical approaches as “too critical.” Similarly, an academically responsible course on modern Israel will strike some as “too pro-Israel” and others as “too anti-Israel.” If anything, we need to establish a clearer distinction, in the minds of students, faculty, and alumni, between the academic programs and aspirations of the Elie Wiesel Center and the Hillel House.

B. Specific Course Needs: In what significant ways will the changes listed in “A” above affect the courses (kind, size, format, offering patterns) you will need to offer?

We need a JS course designation and numbering of courses that reflects the breadth and depth of our curriculum. We also need to encourage the development of more 100-level and 200-level courses that can draw students to Jewish studies.

C. Course Staffing: How do you see the next ten years of turnover and renewal affecting the composition and profile of your faculty? Please think especially of how you will use replacement positions to build areas of new or continuing high priority in research and teaching. How will these changes affect your planning for the implementation of current and future curricula?

Over the past few years, we invested a lot of staff-time, attention, and money in the search, recruitment, placing and scheduling of visiting faculty and a post-doctoral fellow. This has helped us to grow our program meaningfully and in new directions. To maintain the momentum and provide relief from having to go through repeated actions of appointment and scheduling of adjunct, we would like to see a regularization of the position in Israel studies.

Post-doctoral fellow Dr. Herzog’s initial success offering classes in American Jewish literature suggests that a hire in American Jewish Literature might help not just the Jewish studies program grow in a new direction but also boost several other program areas, including American studies and Religion and Literature.

Thank you for taking the time to engage in this exercise. It will help us serve our students and faculty better. We will take account of the responses in responding to specific proposals, requests for temporary lecturers, and requests for new and replacement faculty positions. We will also use the self-study as one basis for continuing discussions in the College about strategic planning.

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