Spertus | MAJPS | Jewish Studies

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"The Spertus program enriches my work... Judaism offers an enormous depth of wisdom — even to contemporary problems."
Cynthia Barnard,
Spertus Student
Director, Quality Strategies-Northwestern Memorial Hospital Chicago, IL

Jewish Studies Degree Programs

Master of Arts in Jewish Professional Studies

Jewish Studies Component

The Core Jewish Studies Curriculum of the program—to be studied by all students—is based on central Jewish ideas and values that have shaped Jewish experience throughout the ages. This curriculum will be organized around themes and issues that are central to contemporary Jewish life. These themes will be studied through classical and contemporary texts and sources. This training will provide the non-academic and non-rabbinic professional with the sources and tools to make the issues come alive for contemporary Jews.

Course Descriptions

Who Are the Jews?
The question of defining the nature of the Jewish people remains one of the main issues of Jewish study and life. The diverse approaches to the definition will be examined (tribe, nation, civilization, religion, race, family, “non-Christians” or “non-Muslims,” secular culture) in classical and contemporary texts. Current Jewish scholarship has devoted much thought to the discussion of methodologies of studying the Jews. The implications of this analysis will be translated into the daily work of the Jewish professional.

Diversity and Pluralism in Jewish Civilization
Contemporary Jewish life has made pluralism one of its keystones. It is important to study the roots of this concept in Jewish society. From its earliest times Jewish society has been marked as a culture of commentary, diverse "schools," differing traditions, and alternative interpretations. The nature of Jewish diversity—its rules of interpretation and the limits to its scope—are an important dimension of understanding Jewish thought over the ages. The study of the conflicts of Jews (priest and prophet, Masada and Yavneh, Pharisees and Sadducees, Hasidim and Mitnagdim, Haskalah and Traditionalists, and differences between contemporary denominations) also provides important background for the student of Jewish life.

The Aesthetics of Jewish Civilization
Jewish life has given rise to an aesthetic tradition that encompasses music, art, literature, dance, ritual objects, food, and other aesthetic expressions. The diverse aesthetics of Jewish civilization reflect Jewish religious expressions and non-Jewish influences of the host cultures in which Jews have lived. The aesthetic sphere speaks directly and powerfully to many Jews and is a powerful medium for communicating with Jews today.

The Israel-Diaspora Connection
Israel is central to contemporary Jewry. It must be seen as an indispensable backdrop to the constant, yet changing notion of Jewish civilization throughout the ages. The topics to be discussed in this course include: the Biblical notion of Covenant and Chosen Land, idealized versions of Heavenly Jerusalem, the concepts of exile and Diaspora, the impact of nineteenth-century nationalism and the emergence of the Zionist Movement, Brandeisian Zionism, the creation of the State of Israel, philanthropy and Israel, the Israeli and Diaspora historiographies, and the contemporary forms of connection between Israel and American Jewry.

Conceptions of Community and Communal Organization over the Ages
Contemporary Jewry, like all Jewish culture previously, places a high premium on community. The notion of kehilla has been a core principle of Jewish experience throughout the ages. This concept has Biblical origins and is developed in rabbinic conceptions of community, in medieval and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century forms of communal life in diverse Diaspora communities, and in contemporary forms of Jewish local, national, and international organization. The implications of this development for facilitating the notion of community in twenty-first century Jewish organizational life will be explored.

Judaism's Confrontation with the General World and with Other Faiths
Today most Jews live as fully integrated citizens in general society. In the eras known as modern times and post-modern times, the confrontation with the general world (sometimes denoted as the challenge of the "twin nobilities") has been the defining quality of Jewish life. For much of American Jewry the promise of living comfortably in two great cultures is one of the major promises, but for others it is a major question mark. Contemporary American Jewish professionals need to be versed in the history of Jewish life as it relates to this sphere, spanning from ancient Middle Eastern cultures, to life in Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities, to the impact of medieval societies, the Renaissance, the Haskalah or "Jewish Enlightenment," and modern nationalism.

Similarly, interfaith relationships are of central importance to Jews as a group and to the lives of many individual Jews in the contemporary world. From its beginnings, Jewish civilization has interacted with other religions. Interactions with religions of the ancient Near East, paganism, Greek culture and religion, Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, and other diverse religious belief systems affected the nature of Jewish life over the ages. Most contemporary Jews live in non-Jewish societies and many ultimately bind their personal lives to significant others of different religions. The understanding of this complex topic across the ages is an indispensable prerequisite for anyone working in the contemporary Jewish community.

Modern and Post Modern Jewry
The modern and post-modern world differ dramatically from traditional Jewish societies, and it is important to understand the key sociological issues of contemporary Jewish life. This course deals with these issue, including: demography, marriage, birth and death statistics, intermarriage, economic developments and opportunities, the impact of the Holocaust, the establishment of the State of Israel, the rise of denominations, intermarriage, assimilation, and anti-Semitism.

Major Jewish Value Concepts
As contemporary Jews face daily life, they ask what are the core values that underlie Jewish civilization and that guide their lives today. Similarly, Jewish professionals must understand the core Jewish values that inform their daily professional work and life styles. Middot have been an important component of Jewish experience from the era of the patriarchs to prophetic times, to the ethical literature of medieval times, in Hasidic Mussar movements, and in contemporary American Jewish spiritual and ethical living.