Program in Jewish Studies
Web site: www.gsu.edu/js
The Jewish Studies program at Georgia State is designed to introduce students to Jews' complex encounter with the modern world. Students study topics including Jews' assimilation and civil rights struggle; religious reform and the rise of ultraorthodoxy; immigration and urbanization; ethnic identity formation; Zionism, Israel, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict; socialism and Communism; feminism and changing gender roles; anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; American Jewish culture, history and politics; Jewish cultures (Yiddish, Hebrew, and vernacular); interfaith and interethnic alliances; and human rights advocacy.
The Jewish Studies program is interdisciplinary in method and global in scope. It helps students to combine insights from numerous fields, including history, sociology, language and literature, religious studies, communication, political science, psychology, and women's studies. Students encounter Jews in historical settings ranging from the ancient Mediterranean to modern Europe, to North and South America, to the Middle East. The program highlights the fascinating and volatile compound of religion, ethnicity, nationality, and diaspora that comprises modern Jewish life today. Students have the opportunity to analyze Jews' experience, both on its own terms and in comparison with the parallel experiences of other groups.
The Jewish studies program sponsors lectures by prominent experts on issues in contemporary Jewish life. Its first speaker was Professor Sander Gilman, author of Jewish Self-Hatred, Smart Jews, and The Jew's Body, and the General Editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Contemporary Jewish Culture. Professor Gilman is the former President of the Modern Language Association and the Founding Director of the Humanities Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His lecture, “Is Multiculturalism Good for the Jews?" took place on April 8, 2003.
For questions, please contact Professor Michael Galchinsky, Coordinator, Program in Jewish Studies, 404-413-5821, mgalchinsky@gsu.edu.
Contacts
Middle East Institute
Georgia State University
P.O. Box 4089
Atlanta, GA 30302-4089
Director
Dona J. Stewart, Ph. D.
Room 2006, 34 Peachtree
404/413-6140
djstewart@gsu.edu
Outreach Director
Alta Schwartz
Room 2017, 34 Peachtree
404/413-6146
aschwartz@gsu.edu
Business Manager
Letitia Williams
2010, 34 Peachtree
404/413-6145
daslaw@langate.gsu.edu
Location - Directions
34 Peachtree Street
Suite 2010
Atlanta, GA 30302
Fax: 404/413-6141
