COURSES
FIRST WEEK
• Foundations & Orientation: 3 credits -- History
FIRST SEMESTER
• Morning Seder: 3 credits -- Philosophy / Law
• First-Year Writing/Seminar: 3 credits -- Writing/Composition / Introduction to Academic Inquiry
• Ulpan (Hebrew-language study at Ulpan La-Inyan in Jerusalem): 3 credits -- Language Credits
• Chaburot (small-group study of special topics in Jewish political thought): 3 credits -- Philosophy / Political Theory
• Fieldwork: 3 credits -- Anthropology / Geography
SECOND SEMESTER
• Morning Seder: 3 credits -- Philosophy / Law
• Am Yisrael (the Jewish People): 3 credits -- Social Sciences (Sociology, Demography, Public Health, Human Geography)
• Machshevet Yisrael (Jewish Thought): 3 credits -- Philosophy / Political Theory
• Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel): 3 credits -- Environmental Studies (Field Ecology, Physical Geography, Regional & Urban Planning)
• Medinat Yisrael (the State of Israel): 3 credits -- Political Science / Political Economy
Our second-semester courses each have four main components: We begin by learning key Jewish texts and various disciplinary concepts, tools, and methods. We engage each of these first for their own sake, attending closely to them and seeking to understand them in and of themselves. Then, we use them as lenses through which to analyze current issues, questions, and problems in the area of study staked out by each respective course: the Jewish People, Jewish thought, the Land of Israel, and the State of Israel.
By applying what they have learned, students progress to a more advanced understanding of all of the material, integrating it and solidifying their grasp on it. They come to know it more thoroughly and from additional angles, they recognize how it intersects with other material, and they come to a sharpened understanding of how it is real and relevant. By using the texts and concepts to develop new questions about the issues, they come to know each of these thoroughly, deeply, and from the inside out.
In addition to providing academic credit for disciplinary and/or distribution requirements, these courses also fulfill various institutions' requirements for writing-intensive courses (i.e. courses, regardless of their primary discipline, that emphasize writing assignments and that approach writing as a means of thinking through the course material).