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If you want to get more information about the program click here, or you can approach Prof. Arnon Atzmon the head of the program:
Arnon Atzmon [email protected].
Our multidisciplinary program, which is taught entirely in English, offers four main concentrations in which students have a choice of introductory and advanced-level courses. These are Bible, Jewish History, Jewish Philosophy, and Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology. The program also includes a wide variety of electives from other departments in the Faculty of Jewish Studies, such as Talmud, Hebrew and Semitic Languages, Hebrew Literature, Yiddish and Ladino, Jewish Art, and Middle Eastern Studies. The department allows students to create individualized curricula, which best reflect their interests within the field of Jewish Studies. See below for a list of suggested “Courses and Descriptions”.
Students may register for a dual-major in our department, combining their program with English Literature or Communications (also in English) or with any other undergraduate program given in Hebrew (for those with the appropriate level of Hebrew). Students who wish to register for the Jewish Studies program as an expanded single major should contact the Multidisciplinary Department. This degree can be completed in 3 or 4 years, depending on the student.
The Department also offers an honors program called “Cramim”, taught in Hebrew, which is open to candidates with very high scores. Interested candidates are invited to contact the department.
The Multidisciplinary Department of Jewish Studies enables students to create their own degrees from a wide variety of courses in all departments and fields that are included within the Faculty of Jewish Studies. They can even choose courses from other faculties like Communications, English, or Political Science. Read this article, which was written about the launch of this exciting new degree, to find out why Prof. Arnon Atzmon, head of the Multidisciplinary Department of Jewish Studies, believes this is such an interesting option for undergraduate students.
The Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar-Ilan University is the largest and most varied of its kind in the world and includes nine departments in the different specialties within Jewish Studies. All of these are open to students of the Multidisciplinary Department, which breaks down the traditional boundaries between the various disciplines and brings them together in a program that is rich in content and unique in its variety. Each student in the department is guided in their studies by a senior academic advisor.
Jewish Studies include a vast array of different topics, creating a multi-faceted mosaic of traditions, which together form the foundations of our civilization. In an increasingly complex world, the ability to handle different fields of knowledge and different ways of thinking is an invaluable asset. Our graduates are welcome everywhere that embraces critical thinking, evaluating and integrating texts, processes, and relationships.
See here for more information on Bar-Ilan Credits
*All students at Bar-Ilan are required to take 10 credits of Basic Jewish Studies. These credits are covered by our program.
**If the student’s dual major does not add up to 64 credits. General Studies courses are any courses offered (more than 6,000) at the university that are not related to the student’s major and are not Basic Jewish Studies. Students with the appropriate level of Hebrew are permitted to take courses in Hebrew, should they choose.
*** Depending on their English language test scores, students may be required to take additional classes in English as a foreign language. Students who graduated high school in English-speaking countries are exempt.
Year 1:
Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls
Introduction to the Literature of the Bible
Introduction to Biblical Poetry
Israel in the Biblical Period
Prophets and Kings, Text and Transmission of the Book of Samuel
Year 2:
The Wisdom Literature of the Bible and the Ancient Near East
The Book of Isaiah
War and Peace in the Hebrew Bible
The Fugitive Hero in the Bible and the Ancient Near East
Women of the Bible in Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period
The Narrative of Ruth
Year 3:
Humor in the Bible
Genesis: The Primeval History and the Abraham Narratives
The Book of Lamentations
The Problem of Evil in the Biblical World
The Book of Qohelet
Year 1:
Introduction to the History of Israel in the Biblical Period
The Israelite Settlement in Canaan
The Emergence of Monarchy in Israel
Introduction to Jewish History from Babylon to the Hasmoneans
Introduction to Jewish History from the Hasmoneans to the Diaspora Revolt
The Holocaust and Jewish anti-Nazi Resistance in the Former Soviet Union
Between Silence and Hope: The History of Soviet Jewry
The Holocaust and Jewish anti-Nazi Resistance
Year 2:
Religion and Cult in Biblical Israel
Scripts, Writing and Inscriptions in Ancient Israel
Jewish Society in the Second Temple Period and the Period of the Mishnah
Jewish Religious Movements and Religious Leadership in the Second Temple Period and the Period of the Mishnah
Charity and Community in Medieval and Early Modern Times
Jewish Women and Families in Early Modern Europe
Year 3:
The Return to Zion: Israel Under the Persian Empire
History Bible and Archaeology Selected Issues
Kaplan – Medieval Jewish Women and Family 1
Year 1:
Introduction to Kabbalah
Introduction to Modern Jewish Philosophy
Introduction to Medieval Jewish Philosophy
Dimensions of Existentialism: Jewish Philosophy in the 20th Century
Jewish Philosophy for a Postmodern Age
Year 2:
Maimonides’ Guide for the Perplexed
The Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas
Modern Neo-Maimonidean Judaism
Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav Likutei Moharan
Critique and Defense: Philosophical Approaches to Rationality
Rational Messianism in Modern Rabbinic Thought
Leo Baeck and the Essence of Judaism
Year 3:
Martin Buber and Dialogical Thought Seminar
Interreligious Theology from a Jewish Vantage Point
Year 1:
Introduction to the Land of Israel in the Modern Period
Biblical Archaeology: The Archaeology of Israel and Judah in the Iron Age
Introduction to Archaeology of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods
Introduction to Archaeology of the Late Roman and Byzantine Periods
The Holy Land between the Crusader and Ottoman Conquests
Fundamentals of Physical Geography
Fundamentals of Geomorphology
Weapons and Warfare in the Ancient Near East
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Year 2:
Ethnicity in the Jewish People and in the State of Israel
Household Archaeology
Ancient Revolutions of Prehistoric Man
Plants and Human Affairs
The First Sedentary Societies
The Province Iudaea-Palaestina from the Destruction of the Second Temple to the Age of Constantine
Year 3:
Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period
Jewish Jerusalem as Jesus Knew It
The Everyday Life of Jewish Children in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine Times
Year 1:
Contextualizing Jewish Temples
Turning Points in Jewish Identity
Introduction to Islam
Art, Culture, and Hasidism
Dictatorship and Democracy in the Middle East
Year 2:
Iran and Shiism
Jews in Muslim and Christian Spain
Museology and Jewish Art from Afar and Close
Palestinian Nationalism: Past and Present
Year 3:
The Jewish Experience: Symbiosis and Rejection
Soviet Art and the Jewish Experience
Tribe, State, and Society in the Modern Middle East
Sample Electives (Offerings vary each year)
Multidisciplinary Department office: [email protected]
International School
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan, Israel 5290002
Tel: +972-3-738-4245
Email for further information
[email protected]
The minimum requirement is a score of 90 from high school (only from accredited countries) or a score of 1000 on the SAT.
Additionally, you must submit a Letter of Intent.
