Israel

This course is intended for students with a good command of Hebrew and concentrates on the written language, in particular literature and the press. Students read the popular Israeli daily newspapers as well as Israeli literature at the appropriate level. They expand their knowledge of synonyms and the subtle differences between words, as well as of idiomatic Hebrew. Vocabularies are substantially increased, and the students can now use a Hebrew dictionary without translation into their native languages. Students view Israeli films and videotapes without subtitles. By the end of the course, the students have a good command of most verbal and syntactical structures, including exceptions to the rules.

This course introduces students to the field of inclusive early childhood education. The course discusses early child development, as well as the process of identifying specific developmental needs in early childhood and how individuals think about targeting educational interventions for these needs. The course reviews the history of inclusive special education as well as current ethical perspectives, approaches, trends, and challenges in the education of all infants, toddlers, and young children. Students read and discuss theoretical material, case examples, and empirical research, and consider their implications for inclusive educational practice.

After the Holocaust it perhaps appeared that an age old conflict between Judaism and Western Civilization had finally come to an end. Indeed, since 1945 Jewish life in Israel and in the Diaspora has relied on the "values and interests" that the Jewish People seems to share with the principles of Liberal Democracy that defeated Nazism in WWII. Despite this alliance (which has its roots in the humanism of the Enlightenment), the relationship between Jewish identity and the Western values of Liberal Democracy still seems complicated. Our hypothesis in this course is that modern Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic anti-Zionism and even assimilation are products of an identity based conflict that has yet to be resolved and whose sources we shall try to trace by analyzing some key differences between Jewish and Western philosophies of identity. The course focuses on the connection between Heidegger's Being and Time (1927) and his membership in the Nazi party. The course examines the relative impact of Heidegger's Nazism on Deconstruction considering the relative impact of Heidegger and Wittgenstein on the post-modern philosophy of Derrida and Foucault. The course concludes by drawing upon this analysis to offer a fresh portrayal of the meaning of identity in the writings of Jewish thinkers such as the Ba'al Hatanya, Nefesh Hachayim, Rav Kook and Buber.

The course will deal with the involvement of Jews as a group and as individuals in the civic and political life of the United States, during the period since 1920. The course will be given in English. The students will learn about the complex character of civic participation in a changing American political landscape, in which Jews have expressed their interests and taken part in the discourse of political events and public affairs.

This course focuses on the topic of negotiations and conflict resolution in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1977 through the present. It is divided into three parts. First, the course examines the general theoretical framework for explaining and understanding negotiations in international relations. In addition, students study the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the main issues and patterns of negotiations. Second, the course addresses several case-studies of successes and failures of negotiations between Israel and its several Arab neighbors including Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinians. In this context, the students understand the failure of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Finally, in the last part of the course, students conduct a simulation and present their papers and research.

This course is an introduction to the Hebrew language, and following the communicative approach, it make extensive use of the four language skills: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Likewise, it puts an emphasis on the cultural aspects of Hebrew and mainly on basic every day conversation. Topics include an introduction to Hebrew writing and pronunciation; basic conversational skills; gender and number: singular and plural feminine suffixes; verbs: conjugation, present tense, masculine and feminine, singular, plural, infinitive; sentence structure: forming a question; forming a simple sentence, using a plural verb without a pronoun, impersonal form; adjectives: singular and plural, masculine and feminine; pronouns: personal, singular, and plural demonstrative; the definite article; agreement of nouns and adjectives; telling time; negation in the present tense; and vocabulary.

This course is a study in advanced practical Hebrew. It emphasizes communication, oral skills, and listening comprehension. 

Not long after the canonization of the Bible, it had already become the subject of fierce debate between Jews and the nascent Christian church. With the appearance of Islam centuries later, all three major monotheistic religions took part in such polemics. These polemics involved both technical issues surrounding the biblical text and larger theoretical issues such as the method by which it should be interpreted, the identity of its author(s), and the editorial process which it underwent. For each of these issues, the course proceeds chronologically from the earliest Jewish-Christian debates in the ancient period to the polemics involving Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Middle Ages. Finally, as the course moves into the modern period, it explores the pivotal role that Jewish-Christian disputes played in the evolution of modern biblical criticism. Examining the inter-religious debate about the Bible throughout the ages provides a window into central themes in the history of these religions as well as familiarizing us with the questions that form the core of modern biblical studies.

This course addresses aspects of pluralism and multiculturalism from a socio-psychological perspective. The course focuses on various kinds of minorities in contemporary Israel society including immigrants (“Olim”), Palestinian Arabs, Israeli Druze, and others. Students analyze the complexity of biculturalism, and its relationship with psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. Finally, students review the DOPA model as a conceptual and methodological tool for the mapping and measurement of perceptions and orientations toward cultural diversity in educational contexts.

This course begins with an examination of the Zionist idea; its common denominators and variegated factions. Due consideration is given to the late-nineteenth century European context in order to appreciate the socio-economic, political, and cultural factors that impacted upon the Zionist movement. The course explores how competing visions for the Jewish state responded to the realities of Palestine, its local Arab population, Ottoman rulers, and existing Jewish population. The class discusses the McMahon-Hussein correspondence, the Sykes-Picot agreement, and the Balfour Declaration in order to appreciate whether Palestine was “a twice promised land.” The class examines the various British attempts to restore law and order and placate the ambitions of the Arab national movement whilst at the same time not giving the appearance of abandoning its commitments to the Zionist movement. The course studies the Peel Commission partition plan (1937) and the reactions of the Zionists, Palestinian Arabs, and emerging Arab states. The course discusses Arab and Zionist approaches towards the Allied war effort as well as their respective attitudes towards the future of the territory in a post-war settlement. The course explains the various claims as to why the British left Palestine, the recommendations of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, and its majority proposal for the partition of the territory. Students discuss the first Arab-Israeli war, the refugee crisis, and the Rhodes armistice agreements. Students are introduced to the writings of the New Historians and their critics. At this half way point the course turns its attention to internal and external dilemmas that faced and indeed continue to face the Israeli state. The schism surrounding religious – secular relations is studied both in its manifestation in the early years of statehood as well in ensuing years. The claim that Israel adopted a position of consociational politics in this arena is examined. A further field of study will be the approach of the hegemonic Labor movement towards the Mizrachi-Oriental immigrations of the 1950s and early 1960s. Expressions of alienation and discrimination are explored as well the claim that the ethnic gap remains real and not only symbolic in contemporary Israel. The course proceeds to examine other competing voices in Israeli society including those of its Arab citizens. It asks whether existing tensions can be accommodated by a reaffirmation of the Jewish-democratic characterization of the state or whether alternative paradigms might be considered. The various expressions of the Israel-Arab conflict are given due consideration as well as the efforts at peace making, particularly those with Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinians. The failure of the negotiations at Camp David in 2000 are addressed as well as the second intifada. Classes take the form of lectures, discussion based on the assigned readings, and one on-site visit.