Below are courses currently offered in the Jewish Studies departments of Laurier and Waterloo.
Wilfrid Laurier University, through Martin Luther University College:
Fall 2023
GC270A Jewish Studies and Practice - Dr. Daniel Maoz
Wednesdays 7:00-9:50 p.m.
This course will introduce the student to contemporary steams of Jewish religious practice, focusing on various expressions of the four main branches of Orthodoxy, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist.
GC270B Jewish Studies and Practice - Dr. Daniel Maoz
Wednesdays 4:00-6:50 p.m.
This course will introduce the student to contemporary steams of Jewish religious practice, focusing on various expressions of the four main branches of Orthodoxy, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist.
GC380E Judaism, Care, and Counselling - Rabbi Dr. Rena Arshinoff
Tuesdays 1:00-3:50 p.m.
This course will weave together Jewish content with contemporary thoughts about mental health and counselling. We will explore how mental health issues, including grief, relationships, identity, depression, trauma, addiction, and anxiety, are addressed in Jewish art, poetry, music, and film, as well as critical Jewish scholarship. Course materials will include texts and videos about mental health and counselling, as well Jewish arts, and letters. By the end of the course, students should have a functional understanding of some basic contemporary mental health frameworks and be able to discuss them from the perspective of everyday Jewish experiences. This course will also draw on feminist, decolonizing, queer, and antiracist perspectives, as well as focus on covid-related mental health issues.
Winter 2024
GC280G Jewish Medical Ethics - Rabbi Moshe Goldman
Wednesdays 1:00-3:50 p.m.
This course will offer an introductory-level overview of the fascinating field of Jewish medical ethics. [Jewish medical ethics combine ancient Jewish legal and ethical principles together with the most cutting-edge scientific research. As progress is made in curing disease, ethical dilemmas will only continue to arise. The field of Jewish medical ethics offers a coherent and objective framework for framing the conversation about these problems and offers clear moral guidance for a path forward.]
GC373 Abrahamic Faiths: History & Beliefs - Dr. Daniel Maoz
Tuesdays 7:00-9:50 p.m.
This course will consist of presentations on the three Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity and
Islam) followed by reading texts that deal with key persons and themes in the three traditions
(history and beliefs). Primary source readings from the three traditions will also be assigned.
Guest lectures from spiritual authorities of each tradition supplement readings and class
interactions. All presentations and texts are introductory in nature.
GC374 Bob Dylan & Jewish Ethics
Dr. Daniel Maoz
Wednesdays 7:00-9:50 p.m.
This course explores basic principles and practices of ethics in Jewish tradition as reflected in the life, writings and experiences of Bob Dylan. An academic approach to Jewish ethics includes identification of standard ethical teachings and practices within which Jewish thought and practice exist. Jewish ethical principles and practices set within the context in which they are practiced will be analyzed through the lens of Bob Dylan’s life and writings as primary text – an emphasis will be placed on readings of his lyrics and autobiography. In order to situate the ethical themes found in the life and writings of Dylan, attention will be given to principal ethical thought and practice within Judaism through interaction with a contemporary study of ethical code by a foremost thinker in the field (Rabbi Joseph Telushkin).
Spring 2024
GC275 Antisemitism, Anti-Judaism
Wednesdays 1:00-3:50 p.m.
Dr. Steven Mock
This course will trace the historical origins of anti-Semitism from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome and will clarify and document related terminology, including anti-Judaism and Judeophobia. Topics include Judeophobia in Antiquity, anti-Judaism and the New Testament, Jewish-Christian relations through modern times; nineteenth and twentieth-century political and racial anti-Semitism; the new anti-Semitism, and current trends.
University of Waterloo:
FALL