Judaism

Welcome to graduate work in Judaism.  Students interested in doing graduate work in Judaism can study in a variety of ways. We have three different rubrics within Religious Studies for this study:

Students who have particularly strong backgrounds in Hebrew and/or Aramaic and considerable experience reading classical Jewish texts can study Rabbinic Judaism, defined in broad historical terms to include medieval and modern texts, within the Religious Studies Department. Such students draw upon the faculty resources both in the Religious Studies Department (Barry Wimpfheimer and Laurie Zoloth) and in the Jewish Studies Program (Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, Marcus Moseley, Peter Hayes and Kenneth Seeskin).  We aim to develop skills in close textual reading and in restoring the historical context to Rabbinic texts.

Students interested in classic, contemporary, or post-modern Jewish moral philosophy and social ethics can study within the Religion, Ethics and Public Life (REPL) track. In this track, students study Jewish philosophy and bioethics with Laurie Zoloth (Religious Studies and Medicine), gaining historical depth for their work in the study of Maimonides with Kenneth Seeskin (Philosophy and Religious Studies) and in the rabbinic tradition with Barry Wimpfheimer (Religious Studies and Law). To complement their historical, literary and theological study, which focuses on close textual and Scriptural reasoning, students in Jewish bioethics do clinical work at Northwestern university-affiliated hospitals and are expected to take an active role in the ongoing science research grants at Northwestern University.

Students interested in Jewish practice and thought as a matter of comparative interest, or who have an interest in the life world of Jewish communities in the contemporary world can study within the Contemporary Religions (CR)  track. In this track, students will receive broad theoretical and methodological training within the discipline of Religious Studies, and then apply this training within the context of contemporary Judaism. Students in this track will draw upon the Core Faculty of Contemporary Religions for their guidance in theory and method, and will receive mentorship in Jewish content from faculty associated with the Jewish Studies Program. In this track, we suggest that students study with scholars of the social sciences and do field work in communities in America and Israel.

Core Faculty

• Mira Balberg (Ancient Judaism, early Rabbinic literature)
• Kenneth Seeskin (Jewish Philosophy)
• Barry Wimpfheimer (Rabbinic Literature)
• Laurie Zoloth (Jewish moral philosophy, bioethics, social justice)

Support Faculty

• Rachel Gordan