Jewish Studies (minor)

The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Jewish Studies Program is dedicated to the study of Jewish history, literature, language, politics, and religion. Offering an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor, the program provides students with the opportunity to explore more than three millennia of Jewish culture and civilization from biblical to contemporary times. With core faculty members in history, German and Romance languages and literatures, philosophy, and political science, the program spans a broad array of humanities and social science disciplines, serving as an excellent complement to any major and providing indispensable intellectual training for those interested in the study of cultures and civilizations in which Jews and Judaism play an important role: Christianity, Islam, or modernity, for example.

Academic Details

Overview of the Undergraduate Curriculum

Students working towards a minor in Jewish studies have the opportunity to create their own program, choosing from a wide array of approved courses. Those that are selected must be from at least two departments, and at least three must be upper-level courses. Students are encouraged to acquire intermediate proficiency in Hebrew or some other language central to the Jewish experience (e.g. Yiddish, Arabic, etc.)

Student Stories

Research

The Jewish Studies Program offers two awards to support travel and research. The Stulman award is granted on a competitive basis to undergraduate and graduate students proposing a worthy plan of study or research that requires material support. Past projects have ranged from studies of Yiddish to an examination of Jewish soldiers who participated in the French Revolution. The John Koren Award for Holocaust Research and Education is granted annually to a student researching the Shoah. Alexandra McClure ’13, the 2011 recipient, used the award to travel to Berlin in order to examine postwar memorial architecture and assess how successfully Germany has grappled with the guilt associated with the Holocaust. To read more about the research awards visit the Jewish studies website.

Internships

Many of the Jewish studies courses at Johns Hopkins take advantage of the resources at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Students may also decide to pursue internships at the museum, located in downtown Baltimore, through their internships program.

Study Abroad

Israel is a popular study abroad destination for students minoring in Jewish studies, with students spending time at Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Other students have also studied in the Czech Republic.