The Israeli Studies minor provides students with the knowledge and multidisciplinary skills to examine Israeli history, politics, and culture. It serves students with a wide range of interests and backgrounds and complements majors in Anthropology, Arabic, Art History, Comparative Literature, Geography, History, Judaic Studies, Political Science, and Sociology. Students who are pre-law or pre-health, but interested in the humanities and social sciences will find a home in Israel Studies.

A certificate in Modern Hebrew is an introductory qualification in Hebrew and Israeli Studies. Students can study full-time (1 year) or part-time (2 or 3 years). Four units must be taken and passed to gain the certificate. For students with good prior knowledge of Modern Hebrew other combinations are possible, allowing the study of language and literature at a more advanced level.

This fall we will be offering the following ancient language courses at our Jerusalem Campus, and/or Online as indicated under course descriptions: Latin (Levels I, II, & III), Ancient Greek (All Levels), Biblical Hebrew (Levels I, II, & IV), Classical Syriac (Level I), and Coptic (Level I). All courses are taught using the Polis Method, which is based on total language immersion from the very first class.

This fall we will be offering the following language courses at our Jerusalem Campus, and/or Online as indicated under course descriptions: Modern Hebrew (All Levels), Spoken Arabic (All Levels), and Modern Standard Arabic (Levels 1 & III). Modern Hebrew is the majority spoken language in Israel, and one of the country’s two official languages. Arabic is the language of 22 Member States of UNESCO, a language with more than 422 million speakers in the Arab world.

The objective of this new one-year graduate program is to appreciate Jerusalem in its cultural, historical, and linguistic diversity. Students will spend considerable time in direct contact with various communities in order to gain a firsthand understanding. This will include overseeing socio-linguistic questionnaires, recording interviews, visiting historically significant sites, and meeting with community representatives. In addition, they will explore primary historical sources such as the writings of Josephus, Byzantine pilgrims, and Muslim geographers. They will learn the science of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) with field trips to decipher Greek and Arabic incscriptions. They will discover the "other" languages of Jerusalem such as Syriac, Latin, Coptic, and Greek.

When they consider what subject to take up at university, only a few students will think immediately of Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew or Arabic Studies. Yet there are many good reasons to do so. The languages themselves may be a little complicated, but they are fascinating, as are the histories, literature, politics, and cultures of the areas in which they are spoken.

This award aims to increase the students’ linguistic abilities in order that they can engage with the Jewish corpus as well as further develop their exegetical and hermeneutical skills. In this year this process is deepened even further as students are challenged by ever more complex texts, both rabbinic and biblical.