One of the greatest painters of the 20th century, Rothko immigrated to the United States from Russia as a child. His difficult integration, fraught with experiences of marginalization, led to his development as a major player in the social struggle of American artists.
Primo Levi was an Italian scientist and Holocaust survivor, but is best known as a writer and innovative thinker. His work combines a scientist's attentiveness to structure and detail, and a powerful and passionate moral imagination.
The news cycle changes quickly these days.
Join Reva Leizman as she explores the writings of two nationally acclaimed contemporary female writers: Eternal Life by Dara Horn, who has been a two-time National Jewish Book Award winner for fiction, and The Family Markowitz by Allegra Goodman, selected by The New Yorker as one of the 20 best current writers under 40
The works of Maimonides (1138-1204), one of Judaism's most significant scholars, continue to be studied by Jews and non-Jews alike to this day.
Ever try to wrap your head around the Torah's description of Creation? The Creation narrative asks us to imagine what existed before there was existence! What sort of frameworks can we use to penetrate this conundrum? The text tells us that God created humans and desires to have a relationship with them. But what is God? Who is God?
The collapse of communism led to the opening up of archives, as well as collections of testimonies of those who witnessed and experienced the Holocaust as children and young adults. This course draws on these sources to examine how the Holocaust is remembered and forgotten.
The concept of a messiah coalesced during the period of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (about 500 BCE to 70 CE). We will look at what this concept was at that time and meet some messianic figures who appeared then, including Jesus of Nazareth.
Not only has the history of Israel showed much change over many decades, but the state’s founding ideology, namely Zionism, has also seen significant development since its earliest incarnations.