Classes

Well, I've been in my classes for around three weeks so far and I figured that it perhaps I should say something about them.

First, I will start with Hebrew. As I mentioned in my Ulpan post, I took the Level Exam half-way through and so I ended up halfway through Bet. Our class began on Chapter 9 and took off, though not as smoothly as I would have liked. There were two classes that finished halfway through; however, we have gotten quite a few additional students who dropped down from a higher level. They don't get along as well with the rest of us and they don't know the vocabulary we already learned, so it makes the class rather tedious. Also, I do not like my teachers as much as my Ulpan teachers. One of them talks too fast and always asks for feedback. She also tells us to sit up straight and scolds us when we talk in English, even if we're just trying to translate. That's the other big problem in my Hebrew class, the teachers refuse to say anything in English. While in theory it's nice to only speak Hebrew, the teachers really aren't good enough at pantomiming or drawing to explain things. Usually, someone in the class ends up looking the word up in the dictionary and telling everyone else what it means.

Apart from Hebrew, I am also taking Jews in the Greco Roman World. As a disclaimer, I would like to say I am not particularly fond of ancient history; however, my teacher is delightful. She attended the Rothberg International School for a year (1965-66) and did Ulpan on a boat. She moved to Israel later on in her life and she is very animated and a good professor. The readings are often dry (unless you like to read the Tanakh and various other Biblical sources) but overall the class is interesting, if not fascinating. I have learned quite a lot, though my favorite thing is perhaps when the professor talks about the Bible and how ancient people did not know how to count, or even be consistent within one text. We also read a lot of Josephus, a Roman Jew, who is one of our main sources. My teacher likes to go on and on about his personality and how priggish and stuck up he was.

My third class is Palestinian history. My professor is very good, though he has a tendency to go off topic. The class is fascinating and I have learned a lot so far. It's interesting reading everything from a different perspective and hearing what an actual Palestinian believes. His lectures are always thought provoking and provocative. His wife also guest lectured and talked about Palestinian family and society. We have yet to reach 1948 in class, but we've discussed the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate system. We also talked about the myth that the Palestinians are descendants of the Philistines (the original inhabitants of Israel, whom the Jews partially defeated, though they still lived in the coastal areas--as I learned in my Greco Roman class). My teacher has a few points he likes to make almost every class. First, he always differentiates between the Land of Israel and the State of Israel. He says that the Palestinians may accept the latter, but they will not accept the former. Secondly, he says, the Jews need to stop building settlements otherwise a two-state solution will be impossible.

My fourth class is about Jewish settlement in the land of Israel. The class is taught by the director of the Rothberg Program, Yoni (Jonathon) Kaplan. So far, the class has been interesting and we have focused mainly on Zionist ideologies and the differing ideas between various groups of Jews. We talked a bit about Hibbat Zion and the origins of the Zionist Movement before moving onto Herzl and other key thinkers like Ahad Ha'am. I am trying to decide on a paper topic for my midterm right now; I'm debating between three choices: the Mufti of Jerusalem's visit to Nazi Germany (and the underlying implications), the diplomacy behind the passage of U.N. Resolution 181, or looking at the ideology of the Lechi. I talked to my professor about all three (we have to get the topic approved ahead of time) and unfortunately he wasn't much help, though he seemed interested in all of the above.

Lastly, I have my internship at the Truman Research Institute. I am helping one of the professors, Dr. Sheldon Gellar with research. He is writing a book about African religions and politics. My main research topics are generally quite broad. So far I have looked at religions in Africa since 1900 (mainly statistics by country), and I have looked at conflicts. I documented most of the major African conflicts since 1960 (or the end of decolonization). Now, I'm looking at religions role in peace processes in Africa, using South Africa as a case study. My next topics of research include globalization and the Pentecostal and Wahhabi movements.

And those are all my classes. Right now, I don't really have a favorite class and it is a lot different than UCLA where things have more structure and classes are usually much larger, especially lectures. I am also usually with younger students, especially in my lower division courses which I'm also not used to anymore and a lot of them are pretty immature and don't understand that college requires a different lifestyle and you shouldn't just go out and get wasted every night but that is a different story.

Overall, I would say I like my classes though I wish the University offered better courses, especially more upper division classes. I would also have preferred more history classes, but since choices were limited I did the best I could. I'll update later on whether or not I really like the classes, especially once I figure out the grading scale (so far I have only been graded in Hebrew and I don't like that class much anyway, though I've been doing fine). Anyway, until next time, ttfn!