Jewish Literature

Faculty

Professors
Alan Mintz
David G. Roskies (on leave, spring 2011)
Raymond Scheindlin (on leave, fall 2010)
Menahem Schmelzer, Emeritus

Associate Professor
Barbara Mann, Chair

Assistant Professor
Anne Lapidus Lerner (on sabbatical)

Adjunct Professor
Tzvee Zahavy

Adjunct Assistant Professors
Kenneth Berger
Jeffrey Hoffman

Adjunct Instructors
Alec Burko
Nachum Lerner
Liati Mayk-Hai

Program

JTS offers the only program that explores the full range of Jewish literary creativity, from medieval to modern times. Unlike other universities, we do not make students choose from among Hebrew, Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, or Jewish writing in European languages. Our Jewish Literature Department offers thematic courses that cut across linguistic and temporal boundaries.

Students achieve proficiency in the language(s) of their choice. As a general rule, literature courses in a specific language (Hebrew or Yiddish) are also taught in that language, thereby bringing students even closer to the modes of self-expression being studied. Students elect specialization in Medieval Hebrew Literature, Modern Hebrew Literature, or Modern Yiddish Literature and work toward the MA, DHL, and PhD degrees.

Degrees

Fall 2010–Spring 2011 Courses

Semester Course Number Course Title
Fall LIT 1051: Beginners' Yiddish I
Fall LIT 1055: Advanced Yiddish I
Fall LIT 2033: Classics of Hebrew Literature
Fall LIT 5154: Modernism in Jewish Literature
Fall LIT 5333: Liturgy of Sabbath and the Three Festivals
Fall LIT 5442: Modern Hebrew and Yiddish Women's Poetry
Fall LIT 5506: Crossing Delancy: Yiddish Writing in America
Fall LIT 5529: Jewish Life Writing from the Renaissance until Today
Fall LIT 5600: Jewish Interpretations of the Human Condition
Spring LIT 1052: Beginners' Yiddish II
Spring LIT 3033: Classics
Spring LIT 3910: Fellows Seminar on Pirkei Avot
Spring LIT 5031: Introduction to Liturgy: The Weekday Prayerbook
Spring LIT 5175: Liturgy of the Days of Awe
Spring LIT 5202: The Fiction of S. Y. Agnon
Spring LIT 5413: From the New Colossus to the New Masses:

Topics in Jewish American Literature and Culture, 1881–1945
Spring LIT 5520: The Revival of the Hebrew Language
Spring LIT 5570: Israeli Theater and Drama
Spring LIT 5675: Literature of the Religious Imagination
Spring LIT 7153: Piyyut for Pulpits