Below is a sampling of relevant courses for graduate students interested in Jewish Studies at the University of Nebraska. Graduate-level special topics seminars and independent reading/research credits are frequently available as well.
HEBR 101 Elementary Hebrew (3 credits)
Fundamentals of grammar; reading and writing of simple Biblical Hebrew.
HEBR 896 Graduate Readings and Research in Biblical Hebrew (3 credits)
Independent reading and research. Prereq: Permission of instructor
HIST 809 Religion of Late Western Antiquity (3 credits)
Examination of the religious institutions, philosophies, and lifeways of the Hellenistic Age from Alexander to Constantine. Includes civic religion of Greece and Rome, popular religion, mystery cults, Judaism, Christianity, popular and school philosophies (Platonism, Aristotelianism, Epicureanism, Cynicism, Stoicism), Gnosticism. History, interrelationships, emerging world view of these movements. (Cross-listed as CLAS 809)
HIST 834 Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (3 credits)
Traces the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict from the 19th century up to the present. Explores the role of ideology, political actors, social history, economic and infrastructural problems, and regional and international interaction, as well as prospects for peace in the 21st century. Examines the related historiographical debates, especially those focusing on the Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948 and 1967.
HIST 839 The Holocaust (3 credits)
Europe-wide programs of persecution and genocide carried out under the auspices of the Nazi-German regime between 1933 and 1945. Focuses primarily on the Jewish dimension of the Holocaust, but also examines Nazi policies targeted against Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled Germans, and other groups. Events analyzed from the perspectives of victims, perpetrators, and bystanders.
POLS 876 Ethnic Conflict and Identity (3 credits)
Theories of nationalism and ethnic conflict. Case studies of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The post-Cold War era as multi-polar and multi-civilizational. The states and different cultures that compete for influence and authority to dominate the "New World order." The division of the world along ethnic, religious, and class lines rather than by ideology. The future of international politics and the reassessment of the causes of "conflicts of culture" and their containment.
POLS 877 Israel and the Middle East (3 credits)
Israeli politics, society, and relations with its neighbors, particularly the Palestinians. Rise of Zionism and the Palestinian response to it; wars between Israel and Arab neighbors, and the eventual peace agreements between the two; the internal dynamics of Israeli political life; and state of Zionism today.
SOCI 852 Sociology of Religion (3 credits)
Consideration of sources and nature of religion, drawing on contributions of anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and others. Emphasis on interaction of religion and society.
ENGL 862A Ideas of Ethnicity in Medieval Literature (3 credits)
Medieval and Renaissance literary texts that involve encounters between different religions and cultures. Readings from chronicles, romances, travel writings, debates, and epics.