The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This course provides the tools and methods for conducting independent, empirical research on smart cities topics. As such, the course provides the methodological and practical infrastructure for writing a seminar paper. The course addresses issues such as data generation and collection, choosing the research methodology, finding the appropriate analytic tools, and deriving socially-relevant insights from the research. All topics are illustrated using examples from the world of smart cities. 

This course explores various perspectives on identity and life in Israel. It includes meetings with representatives of Israeli cultural, religious, and national groups to learn from them about their work and life and explore how these experiences shape their identity. Students conduct observation and interview assignments in different locations of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and participate in excursions to other parts of the country to understand the complexity and intersection of culture, language, religion, and national identities in Israel. Students reflect on these experiences, field trips, and course readings through a research report on identity and experience in Israel.

This course engages critical and creative discussions about the various aspects of Jerusalem as a rallying point for the contesting groups in the Middle East. Topics include competing narratives; the clash of ethos; city boundaries and territory; demographic and social challenges; citizenship rights; the national and religious character of the city; Islam and nationalism in the local, regional, and international realms; the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa controversy and the future of the Old City and the Holy Basin; Arab neighborhoods and the security barrier; and the struggle for sovereignty and negotiating the Jerusalem issue in the peace process. The course provides an opportunity to conduct a simulation of negotiating the future of Jerusalem within the framework of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

This course explores religious education and the different approaches to religious education in general. It evaluates religious education in Israel and the different approaches held in diverse school systems. The course exposes how the religion of the “other” is presented in various educational systems and how it impacts the view of the “other.” It provides insight to the connection between religious education and multidimensional conflicts (political, social, religious). Moreover, it illuminates the link between religious education and peace building and provides an intersectional and critical lens to religious education in Israel and beyond.

This course covers conversational Arabic, pronunciation, the conjugation of the verbs, declension of the nouns and the prepositions, and introduces a large vocabulary from different fields of daily life. The course focuses on listening comprehension and active use of the spoken dialect. The course utilizes the AL-KITAAB text book series. The course includes both modern standard Arabic (with an emphasis on the foundations of literary Arabic) and colloquial Arabic (Palestinian dialect). Topics include: acquaintance, self-presentation and greetings, proverbs and other expressions, family and kinship terminology, languages and nationalities, numbers, and colors.

This is an advanced version of HEBREW 11 and HEBREW 11Q. The course introduces students to adapted literature and scientific works, increases their vocabulary (with an additional 800 words), in particular with regard to the daily use of Hebrew as well as the understanding of articles written in easy Hebrew from the press and scientific journals. Students also gain command of the fundamental structures of Hebrew and its basic grammatical forms. The class also consolidates and broadens the grammatical structures and vocabulary studied in level Aleph. By the end of this course, the student is familiar with the basic structure of the Hebrew language, including: comprehension: listening to the news, recorded radio programs and lectures in easy Hebrew; conversation: conversations, discussions and short lectures based on the passages read and heard; informal meetings with Israelis, reported on afterwards in class; reading: passages from stories and texts adapted into easy Hebrew and short newspaper articles in easy Hebrew; writing: writing structured compositions and short passages on the topics studied; and grammatical skills: syntactic consolidation and elaboration of basic structures, inflection of the strong verbs in the future tense and frequent weak verbs.

This course explores the philosophical, cultural, and political aspects of the growing polarization between secular and religious communities in Israel and other Western democracies, and examines prospects for a constructive dialogue between seemingly opposed worldviews. The course includes visits to religious and secular communities and organizations in Israel.

The course introduces students to “regular” Hebrew (vs. “easy” Hebrew) by exposing them to literature and scientific works as well as the press in the original Hebrew. Students become familiar with synonyms and the subtle differences between words, as well as expressions and idioms in Hebrew. Students acquire the ability to view films and videotapes, as well as to comprehend lectures (all with advanced preparation in class). Students also gain a good command of the various verbal structures including exceptions to the rules, and become familiar with many syntactical structures. Focus is placed on comprehension: listening to the news, recorded radio programs and lectures in easy Hebrew; conversation: conversations, discussions and short lectures based on the passages read and heard; informal meetings with Israelis, reported on afterwards in class; reading: first encounter with unadapted texts, gradual transition from the easy Hebrew press to simple bulletins and articles in regular Hebrew; extensive reading of books in easy Hebrew; writing: beginning of practical writing on topics discussed in class; writing about personal experiences; writing of structured compositions; and also, grammatical skills: completion of syntactic study of main structures; study of the weak verb.

This course introduces students to philosophical thinking and some of the classic philosophical questions as they are exemplified in films and television series such as THE MATRIX, BLADE RUNNER, CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, BREAKING BAD, LOUIS CK, BLACK MIRROR, and others. The films serve as “triggers” for philosophical inquiry into topics such as morality, faith, knowledge, mind, meaning, interpretation, and the human condition accompanied by philosophical text and commentaries. The course also examines the question of the relation between film and philosophy and the possible contribution that each field could have for the other.

This course offers a study of marriage and sexuality in the classical sources of rabbinic Judaism. It focuses on the development of these concepts in the Judaism of antiquity and compare them to similar ideas of sexuality in the surrounding Greco-Roman and Christian cultures.