Jewish Studies
Academic Program Introduction
Jewish studies is the interdisciplinary study of Jewish people, ideas, culture, and institutions. Any student’s intellectual journey can include Jewish studies. We are a small, flexible program. Students explore religion, history, philosophy, art, literature, cultural patterns, and institutions. We offer robust financial and logistical support to students who want to learn a language, study abroad, or complete an internship in the U.S. or overseas.
Learning goals
- Understand the breadth and diversity of Jewish civilization through interdisciplinary learning.
- Build specialized knowledge in one area, e.g., biblical studies, Sephardi history, Yiddish language and literature, or U.S. Jewish culture.
- Establish proficiency in Hebrew, either biblical or modern, or another relevant language.
Programs of study
Jewish studies major and minor
Students gain an understanding of foundational texts, central ideas, and institutions that have influenced Jewish history and culture.
Course highlights
Jews, African-Americans, and Other Minorities in U.S. Comics and Graphic Novel
JWST290
Comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels have throughout their history in the United States had a complex relationship with members of minority groups, who have often been represented in racist and dehumanizing ways. Meanwhile, though, American Jews played influential roles in the development of the medium, and African-American, Latinx, Asian-American, and LGBTQ artists have more recently found innovative ways to use this medium to tell their stories. In this course, we will survey the history of comics in the U.S., focusing on the problems and opportunities they present for the representation of racial, ethnic, and sexual difference. Comics we may read include Abie the Agent, Krazy Kat, Torchy Brown, Superman, and Love & Rockets, as well as Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, and Mira Jacob’s Good Talk.
(CPLT 290 and ENG 290 and JWST 290 are cross-listed courses.)-
Banned Books
JWST289
Why do books get banned, and what are the effects of censorship? In this course, students will read legal, historical, and literary documents to explore the dynamics at play when governments and other institutions assert control over what can or can’t be published, with cases studies from France, England, the U.S., and Israel. Guest lectures from other Wellesley faculty will introduce other relevant cases. We will consider cases in which censorship seems wrong-headed and evil, and others in which some degree of control over publications might seem necessary or sympathetic. Students should be prepared to consider distressing and offensive texts, so as to be able to discuss why they might (or might not) need to be controlled. Banned books we’ll consider, in whole or in part, will include Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Sholem Asch’s God of Vengeance, Eve Adams’ Lesbian Love, and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer. (CPLT 289 and JWST 289 are cross-listed courses.) -
Jews, African-Americans, and Other Minorities in U.S. Comics and Graphic Novel
JWST290
Comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels have throughout their history in the United States had a complex relationship with members of minority groups, who have often been represented in racist and dehumanizing ways. Meanwhile, though, American Jews played influential roles in the development of the medium, and African-American, Latinx, Asian-American, and LGBTQ artists have more recently found innovative ways to use this medium to tell their stories. In this course, we will survey the history of comics in the U.S., focusing on the problems and opportunities they present for the representation of racial, ethnic, and sexual difference. Comics we may read include Abie the Agent, Krazy Kat, Torchy Brown, Superman, and Love & Rockets, as well as Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, and Mira Jacob’s Good Talk. (CPLT 290 and ENG 290 and JWST 290 are cross-listed courses.)
Research highlights
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“Now You’re in the Sunken Place,” by Eric X. Jarrard, visiting lecturer in religion, appeared in the April 2022 issue of the journal Biblical Interpretation. Jarrard compares Daniel 7 and the film Get Out to show how early Jewish communities living in the Hellenistic empire and contemporary Black Americans render the political status quo of their times in monstrous form and use the horror narrative to dramatize their struggles.
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In summer 2022, Jacq Roderick ’23, worked as a research assistant for Josh Lambert, examining the papers of the poet Adrienne Rich at Harvard to explore Rich’s thinking about Jewish identity and politics.
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Ayelet Kaminer ’25 presented a paper, “Perverting the Past: A Comparative Analysis of Ka-Tzetnik’s House of Dolls and the Stalag Novella I Was Colonel Schultz’s Private B****,” at the 2023 Undergraduate Judaic Studies Conference at the University of Chicago.
Opportunities
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Financial support
We offer financial support for on- and off-campus opportunities related to Jewish studies. Successful applications have included production costs for a student performance and travel costs for a visit to a cultural landmark. Financial support is also available for students to study Jewish languages or intern with Jewish nonprofit organizations.
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Diarna internships
We award up to three paid internships per year with Diarna: The Geo-Museum of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Life. Diarna works to preserve endangered ancient sites through digital mapping technology, traditional scholarship, and field research. Diarna creates virtual entry points to once vibrant, now largely vanished, communities.
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The Jacqueline Krieger Klein ’53 Fellowship
The fellowship enables graduating seniors and recent alums in any field to pursue further education in the field of Jewish studies.
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Our newsletter
Published annually, our newsletter features recent or upcoming classes, students’ first-hand accounts of summer internship or language study experiences, interviews with faculty, recent publications of alums and faculty, and more.
Jewish Studies Program
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481