Jewish Studies

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Overview Jewish Studies allows students to focus on the history, languages, and literature of the Jewish people; the beliefs and practices of Judaism; and the enduring contributions of Jewish wisdom to human civilization. These contributions range from Biblical monotheism and ethics; to Rabbinic traditions of text study and interpretation; to Jewish literary responses to marginality, oppression, and suffering in modern times; and to monuments of the twentieth-century Jewish experience, including the revival of Hebrew as a living language, the establishment of Israel as an independent political state, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and the thriving of diverse forms of Jewish community throughout the world. Students can take courses in Biblical and Modern Hebrew, Yiddish, Bible, Rabbinic literature, ancient, medieval, and modern Jewish history, Jewish literature and culture, Holocaust studies, Jewish theology, and Jewish communities and cultures worldwide. Jewish Studies students are encouraged to study abroad in Israel or in other centers of Jewry beyond America. The UVa program in Jewish Studies also reflects the unique strengths and interests of the UVa faculty, generating such areas of interdisciplinary inquiry as “The Holocaust and Law,” “Jewish-Muslim Relations,” “Modern Jewish Thought,” and “Jewish Material Culture,” and “German Jewish History.” Additional information may be found at www.jewishstudies.as.virginia.edu.

Faculty The interdisciplinary program includes faculty members drawn from many academic departments: The ever-growing list of faculty members who offer courses that count for the Jewish Studies major and minor or who serve as advising members of the Jewish Studies faculty include: James Loeffler (Director of Jewish Studies; History);  Manuela Achilles, Caroline Kahlenberg (History); Elizabeth Shanks Alexander, Jessica Andruss, Asher Biemann, Jennifer Geddes, Gregory Goering, Martien Halverson-Taylor, Peter Ochs, Vanessa Ochs (Religious Studies); Jeffrey Grossman (German); Daniel Lefkowitz (Anthropology and MESALC); Zvi Gilboa (MESALC); Gerard Alexander (Politics); Caroline Rody (English); Bonnie Gordon and Michelle Kisliuk (Music); Jeffrey Olick (Sociology); Micah Schwartzman (Law).

Students who major and minor in Jewish Studies go on to a variety of careers, becoming educators, writers, community leaders, government officials, family-educators, healthcare professionals, chaplains, ethicists, rabbis, cantors, clergy, lawyers; some go into media, non-profit organizations, urban planning, museum work, foreign affairs, publishing, and social services.