Topics in Judaism (339-0-1)

Topic

Anti-Judaism and Anti-Semitism

Instructors

Barry Wimpfheimer
847 4912618
Crowe Hall, 1860 Campus Drive, 4-140
Barry Wimpfheimer is an assistant professor of Religious Studies and Law at Northwestern University. A specialist in Ancient Judaism, and particularly the Talmud, Wimpfheimer is interested in the relationship betweeen Jewish Law and the traditional literature and culture of Judaism. He is the author of Narrating the Law: A Poetics of Talmudic Legal Stories.

Meeting Info

University Hall 318: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

For over two thousand years, Jews have engendered
antagonism and hatred from some of their neighbors and
erstwhile friends. This course will overview the history of anti-
Jewish ideologies and episodes seeking to taxonomize and
analyze this metahistorical phenomenon. The course will
engage both primary and secondary sources covering over
two millennia of world history while attending to diversity in
time, place, political reality, and majority religion. Much of the
course will be devoted to theorizing anti-Judaism and
antisemitism, engaging different paradigms that look to
history, theology, psychoanalysis, race and power to consider
and reconsider this long-lasting set of hatreds.

Registration Requirements

None.

Learning Objectives

• Achieving a broad understanding of Jewish and world history
• Understanding antisemitism as a complex ideology •
Understanding contemporary issues through a complex lens
informed by a rich and diverse understanding of antisemitism
and its long history

Class Materials (Required)

TBD

Class Attributes

Ethical and Evaluative Thinking Foundational Disci
Ethics & Values Distro Area