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New Community Education offering

Spending more time at home?

We at the Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at PSU are here for you! Announcing our new

Community Education offering:

Creativity and Resilience: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe, 1500-2020

This course will be taught by Professor Natan Meir and open to the community in Portland and across the world, at no cost. Remote "real time" classes will be held via Zoom on Tuesdays, 5-6:30pm PT, starting April 21 and continuing through May 26.

Two more courses are available to returning Senior Auditors*

Despite the disruption of PSU's Senior Auditors Learning Center (SALC) operations due to COVID-19, here in Judaic Studies we are ready to welcome returning senior auditors who already have PSU odin log in and have accessed D2L in a prior term. If you have these active credentials our professors can enroll you in the following two courses:

Topics in American Cinema and Culture: Mamet

Online course (asynchronous). Flexible start date, begin as early as March 30, finish by June 1.

David Mamet is considered by many to be America’s greatest living playwright. You may know his work as screenwriter and director of numerous films including The Untouchables, Wag the Dog, and Glengarry Glen Ross. Join Professor Michael Weingrad's online course and explore Mamet's work in film. See details below.

Jewish History II: From the Middle Ages to the Present

Start Tuesday March 31, remote instruction via Zoom

Dive into a rich world of religious, cultural, and social developments, and understand how a tiny minority not only survived centuries of sometimes hostile environments but even found places for incredible flourishing and creativity. Join Professor Meir for this popular survey course delivered via remote instruction. See details below.

Please express your interest in any of these courses via our simple google form and we will follow up with you.

Alec Baldwin in David Mamet's film Glengarry Glen Ross.

Topics in American Cinema and Culture: Mamet

Professor Michael Weingrad | Online Course (asynchronous)

Considered by many to be America’s greatest living playwright, and screenwriter and director of numerous films from The Untouchables to Wag the Dog, David Mamet has spent a half century exploring masculinity, desire, knowledge, and the American soul. Let’s see how this Chicago-born, Jewish writer has treated these themes on screen, stage, and page. Films include Glengarry Glen Ross, The Spanish Prisoner, Homicide, Oleanna, Redbelt, and Spartan; plays include The Duck Variations and Speed-the-Plow; writings include The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews.

Jerusalem (Jubilee) Synagogue, Prague

Jewish History II: From the Middle Ages to the Present

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10am-11:50am PT, starts March 31

Professor Natan Meir | Remote instruction via Zoom

Returning Senior Auditors may join registered PSU students in this course taught remotely by Professor Meir. PSU identifes the course as JST/HST 318U | Jewish History II: From the Middle Ages to the Present, CRN: 64573/65105

How do you tell the story of a people dispersed over much of the world with no obvious political, economic, or military history? Dive into a rich world of religious, cultural, and social developments, and understand how a tiny minority not only survived centuries of sometimes hostile environments but even found places for incredible flourishing and creativity.

This survey of Jewish history explores (among many other topics) Jewish-Muslim-Christian relations in the “Golden Age” of medieval Spain, medieval Jewish philosophy, the Crusader massacres of German Jewish communities, the many factors leading to the expulsions of Jews from Spain and other western European countries, the rich and flourishing Jewish cultures that emerged in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire, the struggle for equal rights in 19th-century Europe, intercontinental migrations on a massive scale, the emergence of a Jewish community in the U.S., the Holocaust, and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Prepare to be surprised by: homoerotic Hebrew poetry in the Middle Ages… an antisemitic cartoon from medieval England… a Renaissance-era Jewish messianic figure who converted to Islam… anarchist balls on Yom Kippur… Stalinist Yiddish poetry… and much more.

*Returning Senior Auditors:

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, Our regular PSU registration processes for senior auditors (SALC) have been disrupted for Spring Term. This means we cannot take on new Senior Auditors for this term. However, If you are a returning auditor and already have your active PSU login credentials, then our Judaic Studies professors can assist you in auditing selected courses.

Excellent learning opportunity

Intriguing connections with participants of all ages

one-on-one attention from the professors

University Center Building | Suite 465 | 1881 SW 5th Avenue - Portland, OR 97201 | 503.725.8449

Portland State University | Judaic Studies PO Box 751 | Portland, OR 97207-0751 US

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