The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This course offers an additional conversational component to the Modern Hebrew: Bet, Lower Intermediate Level I Hebrew course. For an additional 1.5 hours a week the class meets and discusses, debates, and practices conversational skills in Hebrew. This course introduces students to adapted literature and scientific works, and 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 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 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 examines historical, social, and political aspects of contemporary Israeli society. After analyzing the ideologies and groups that played a major role in the formation of Israeli society, class discussion focuses on social and political issues which are at the center of current debate in the country. The course discusses topics including the major social groups in Israeli society, key social and political issues in Israel and the positions of different political and ideological groups on these issues, Israel’s political system, and the character of Israel as both a democracy and Jewish nation-state.

This course analyzes articulated hatred toward Jews as a historical force. After treating precursors in the pagan world of antiquity, classical and medieval Christian doctrine, iconographic anti-semitism, and Shakespeare's Shylock, the course focuses on the modern phenomenon crystallizing in 19th century Europe and reaching its lethal extreme in Nazi ideology, propaganda, and policy. The course explores expressions in the U.S. and in the Arab world, as well as Jewish reactions to anti-semitism.

This course explores the violent, unremitting nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it has shaped Israeli society. It examines topics such as Jerusalem's fate, the Palestinian refugees, the settlements, and security concerns. The course builds a multilayered perspective on conflict resolution efforts through examination of the Oslo peace process and other past and present activities by the Israeli peace camp.

Modern day Israel and Palestine, the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, covers an area that is six times smaller than the state of Pennsylvania, but has about the same population size (about 12.7 million people). In addition to the high density of population, this land is the heart of a religious, ethnic, national, and political conflict. This context makes spatial planning an immense challenge and is often used as a tool for achieving various political agendas. After presenting some brief background on the geography and the history of the land, this course focuses on topics including national and regional planning; the New Towns scheme; water planning issues; transportation planning; Jerusalem's geopolitical question; tourism development in historic cities such as Nazareth, Acre, and Bethlehem; the fence of separation, and affordable housing plans.

This course for absolute beginners teaches the fundamental structures of Hebrew and its basic forms, and the necessary vocabulary for everyday conversations, reading, and writing on a limited scale. Focus is placed on comprehension: listening to short stories and recorded conversations; conversation: simple dialogues and stories from everyday life; reading: easy dialogues and passages without vowels, headlines, and simple, short texts in easy Hebrew; writing: short dialogues and passages on the topics taught in class; and grammatical skills: elementary syntactic and grammatical structures, inflection of the strong verb in the past and present tenses, and frequent weak verbs.

The course addresses the conflicts between religion and state from a number of different perspectives. Historical and philosophical perspectives of the relations between the two will be presented. The particulars of the situation in Israel will be presented in light of Israeli history and in comparison to other states' arrangements. The course aims to give students a view of the variety of relations that have existed and do exist between religious bodies and states and to present the Israeli situation in these perspectives.

This course offers an additional conversational component to the Modern Hebrew: Bet, Lower Intermediate Level II Hebrew course. For an additional 1.5 hours a week the class meets and discusses, debates, and practices conversational skills in Hebrew. The course introduces students to adapted literature and scientific works, and 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 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 investigates the main challenges that political activists need to address, and how protest takes different forms and employs different strategies and tactics in different countries, cultures, and circumstances. The course explores a wide variety of cases around the world, ranging from opposition movements in Socialist and authoritarian countries, environmental and civil rights protests, to peace movements and protests on behalf of foreign nations. Based on an examination of the successes and failures of different groups, the course develops a deeper understanding for the communicative dynamics of protest communication. Building upon this understanding, the course then focuses on a selection of specific protest movements around the globe, mapping their goals and strategies, challenges, and opportunities for achieving political change. The course analyzes these movements' activities communicating their causes toward the media, the public, and political authorities. The course brings together insights from several cases, discusses how different strategies can be applied in different contexts, and reviews the implications for the viability of effective political protest.

This course introduces students to adapted literature and scientific works, and 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 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 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.