Bachelor of Arts Degree -
Academic Requirements
The degree will be housed in the Department of Religious Studies, as a new major. Students will receive a B.A. in Religious Studies with a concentration in Jewish Studies. Similar models of this type of major include the B.A. in Asian Studies with concentrations in Chinese, Japanese, or South Asian Studies.
CORE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MAJOR
• Languages: credit for four levels of Biblical or Modern Hebrew study
(through RELI 404 or HEBR 204/JWST 204 or the equivalents)
• Eight courses including:
• JWST 100/RELI 123 (Introduction to Jewish Studies)
• JWST 697 (Capstone Course: Themes and Methodologies in Jewish
Studies), generally taken in the fall semester of the senior year
• 1 course on the ancient period
• 1 course on the medieval or early modern period
• 1 course on the period from 1750 to the present
• At least 3 courses with Jewish Studies content that are taught outside the Department of Religious Studies
• Students must take 2 courses at or above the 400 level, exclusive of the Capstone seminar.
JWST 697 - CAPSTONE COURSE
Themes and Methodologies in Jewish Studies
• JWST 697 is a new course which will feature different instructors and a range of topics, but will always
delve into a compelling aspect of Jewish Studies. The Capstone Course is required for those with a Jewish Studies major and is also open to non-major students.
STUDENT ADVISING
• Students wishing to learn more about the program, the degree requirements, and how to declare the major, should contactProfessor Jonathan Hess:
Dr. Jonathan M. Hess
Director, Carolina Center for Jewish Studies
Moses M. and Hannah L. Malkin
Distinguished Term Professor of
Jewish History and Culture
Professor, Department of Germanic
Languages and Literatures
jmhess@email.unc.edu
(919) 962-4866
MASTER LIST OF COURSES COUNTING TOWARD
THE JEWISH STUDIES MAJOR
Note: new courses may be added each year
AMST 360 The Jewish Writer in American Life
AMST/JWST 486 Shalom Y’all: The Jewish Experience in the American South
AMST/JWST/WMST 253 A Social History of Jewish Women in America
ASIA 235 Israeli Cinema: Gender, Nation, and Ethnicity
HEBR 305/JWST 305 Advanced Modern Hebrew I
HEBR 306/JWST 306 Advanced Modern Hebrew 2
ASIA/HIST/PWAD 277 The Conflict over Israel/Palestine
CLAR/JWST/RELI 110, 512 Archaeology of Palestine in the New Testament Period
CMPL 270/GERM 270/JWST 239/RELI 239 German Culture and the Jewish Question
ENGL/JWST 289; Jewish American Literature and Culture of the 20th Century
GERM 225 Pop and Pious: Early Modern Jewish Literature
HEBR 436 Language, Exile, and Homeland in Zionist Thought and Practice
HIST/JWST/PWAD 262 History of the Holocaust: Destruction of the European Jews
JWST/SLAV 469 Coming to America: The Slavic Immigrant Experience in Literature
JWST/PLSH 412 20th-Century Polish Literature and Culture
JWST/PWAD/SLAV 465 Literature of Atrocity: The Gulag and the Holocaust in Russia and Eastern Europe
JWST 100/RELI 123 Introduction to Jewish Studies
JWST/RELI 103 Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Literature
JWST/RELI 106 Introduction to Early Judaism
JWST/RELI 107 Introduction to Modern Judaism
JWST/RELI 143 Judaism in Our Time
JWST/RELI 205 Legends of Genesis
JWST/RELI 206 Prophecy and Divination in Ancient Israel and Judah
JWST/RELI 243 Introduction to American Judaism
JWST/RELI 343 Religion in Modern Israel
JWST/RELI 444 Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Judaism
JWST/RELI 503 Exploring the Dead Sea Scrolls
JWST/RELI 602 What Are the Holy Scriptures? Formation of the Hebrew Canon
JWST/SLAV 464 Imagined Jews: Jewish Themes in Polish and Russian Literature
RELI 108 Jewish Writing through History
RELI 109 History and Culture of Ancient Israel
RELI 446 Christian-Jewish Relations throughout the Ages
RELI 450 Sexuality and Marriage in Jewish Tradition and History
RELI 565 Medieval Jews and the Bible
RELI 566 Jewish Legal Literature
RELI 605 Joseph–King of Dreams: Joseph in Bible and Tradition
RELI 608 The Messiah and the Apocalypse
