General Materials

• Syllabus
• Suggested Reading
• Judaism: 10 Points

Session 1: October 11

What is a Jew? – Defining basic terms;
The People of the Book – Torah and the ever-expanding Jewish Library

• Qualifications for Being a Jew
• Books of the Hebrew Bible
• Chronology of Jewish Religious History
• Jewish People, Jewish Thought
• Evolution of Jewish Law
• The Talmud
• Moses in Rabbi Akiva's Study House
• The Oven of Akhnai
• Maimonides
• The Vocabulary of Kabbalah

Session 2: October 18

Great Ages and Ideas of Judaism I –
The Formative Period: Ancient Israel
through the Talmudic Period

• Evolution of Jewish Law
• The Talmud
• About the Greatest Commandment
• The Negation of the Jews in the Church Fathers and Afterwards
• Medieval Poetry
• Chronology of Jewish Religious History

Session 3: October 25

Great Ages and Ideas of Judaism II –
Creativity and Persecution: The Medieval and
Early Modern Periods, Antisemitism

• Medieval Poetry
• Anti-Judaic Tradition
• Negation of the Jewish in the Church Fathers and Afterwards
• Maimonides
• The Vocabulary of Kabbalah
• Capital Punishment and The Christian Anti-Judaic Tradition

Session 4: November 1

Great Ages and Ideas of Judaism III – 
Flourishing and Diversity: America, Zionism/Israel,
Modern Jewish Religious Movements

• The Modern Jewish Experience
• Parisian Sanhedrin: 1806
• The Jew in the Modern World
• True or False: The Jewish Religious Movements
• Jewish Religious Responses to Modernity

Session 5: November 8

The Path We Walk -
Halakhah, Mitzvot, Shabbat, Kashrut

• Permitted Foods in the Bible
• Torah Dietary Laws
• What/How Jews Eat
• Tzedakah
• Communal Responsibility
• Jewish Values and Human Sexuality
• Notes on Kashrut
• About the Greatest Commandment

Session 6: November 15

How We Talk to God

• Prayer Choreography
• The Way We Pray
• Prayer Wear
• Structure of the Service
• Tefillah Vocabulary
• The Last Jedi

Session 7: November 29

Jewish Time Tables -
Seasons and Festivals of the Jewish Calendar

• Days of the Jewish Year
• The Jewish Calendar
• The Luni-Solar Jewish Calendar

Session 8: December 6

Rhythms of our Lives -
From Birth to Death and Beyond

• Stages of Life
• Birth
• Conversion
• Marriage
• Death

Session 9: December 13

“Jewish Values”
Concepts from Tradition applied to contemporary times

Session 10: December 20

The Many Jewish Views of God

Sources for Class Reading:

• Jewish Literacy, Joseph Telushkin
• A Short History of the Jewish People, Raymond Scheindlin
• Judaism's 10 Best Ideas: A Brief Guide for Seekers, Arthur Green        
• Entering Jewish Prayer:  A Guide to Personal Devotion and the Worship Service, Reuven Hammer 
• The Sabbath:  Its Meaning For Modern Man, Abraham Joshua Heschel
• Living a Jewish Life, Anita Diamant
• Finding God, Rifat Soncino and Daniel Syme
• Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends, Anita Diamant
• To Life!  A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking, Harold Kushner