Fall 2020 Courses
Minority Rights: The Israeli Balance
Legal Studies 190
Prof. Roy Peled, College of Management – Academic Studies
This course offers an opportunity to look into the forces behind different kinds of ethnic, racial and national hostilities, to understand their sources and to look at how the law in Israel and the US as well as international law deals with them. We will discuss basic concepts of group rights and minority rights in general and will then present some of the choices made in Israeli policy, politics, and law as to the balance between the various competing right and interests’.
Information, Media and the Public Discourse in Politicized Societies : Israel and the US
Legal Studies/Media Studies
Prof. Roy Peled, College of Management – Academic Studies
This course will provoke you to think of current debates on media and free speech through the lens of their impact on political public discourse. It will analyze contemporary dilemmas regarding the regulation of the media, free flow of information and social networks, through 21st century cases in Israel and the US. Topics will include: access to government information, transparency in the media and tech companies, regulation of online media, political funding and advertising and libel.
Introduction to Jewish Mysticism
Jewish Studies/Near Eastern Studies
Prof. Tomer Persico, Tel Aviv University; Hartman Institute
A course on trends in Jewish religious, cultural, and social life. The course will study innovative and conservative aspects of thought, ritual, and belief in relation to contemporary life and traditional Jewish values in at least one country other than the United States.
Israel’s Security and Foreign Relations
Political Science
Ehud Eiran
The course examines the factors and processes that shaped Israel’s security and foreign relations in the Middle East and the international arena. The course offers a view of both domestic and international variables at play. The course begins with a brief introduction to the ideational and political realities that explain Israel’s institutional make-up, and strategic preferences. It then investigates the relevance of the Israeli case for a broader set of debates in international relations.
Spring 2021 Courses
History of Modern Israel
History 100M
Prof. Eran Kaplan, Goldman Chair in Israel Studies, SFSU
This course examines the formation and the development of modern Israel. The course focuses on the historical, social and cultural origins of Zionist ideology, Israel’s founding ideology, as well as on role of the Holocaust; the Arab-Jewish conflict; the Ashkenazi-Mizrahi and secular-religious divide in the development of contemporary Israeli society.
Comparative Constitutional Law: The Case of Israel
Legal Studies 174
Prof. Roy Peled, College of Management – Academic Studies
This course will provide an introduction to constitutional law using Israel as a case study. Topics include: Constitutionalism and judicial review, state neutrality and self-determination, minority rights, state and religion, Human Rights Law, the concept of “defensive democracy” and ban of non-democratic political parties, legal aspects of the fight on terror, freedom of expression, equality and anti-discrimination, social rights, and constitutional limitations on privatization.
Contemporay Judaism in Israel: Swaying Religion and Nationality
Jewish Studies/Near Eastern Studies
Prof. Tomer Persico, Tel Aviv University; Hartman Institute
This course shall study the divergent forms of Judaism in Israel since the 1990’s, apprehending the ideological and social fluctuations each stream has experienced over the last three decades as it parted from its previous formulations, and noting the way every major expression of Judaism in Israel at this time is in the midst of an identity crisis. It will also examine the tense relations between religion and state in Israel, analyzing the clashes and concurrences between different Israeli-Jewish identities and explaining Religious Jewish radicalism on the one hand, and the secular/spiritual “Jewish Renaissance” on the other.
Tel Aviv: A City From the Sands
History/Near Eastern Studies/Jewish Studies
Prof. Stephanie Rotem, Tel Aviv University
This course will follow the history of Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city, from its birth in 1909 as “a city from the sands”, to its present position as a global metropolis. Tel Aviv, planned as a ‘Garden City’, quickly became the center of political and cultural activity in Israel. We will study various aspects of the city’s life: history, architecture, urban planning, culture, politics and the arts. This examination will include the study of photography, art works and exhibitions, poetry and popular songs, performance, theatre, and film.
Holocaust Museums in Israel and the World
History/Near Eastern Studies/Jewish Studies
Prof. Stephanie Rotem, Tel Aviv University
Holocaust museums have become over the past years, one of the most popular mediums of Holocaust commemoration. This course will explore the history, exhibitions, and design of various Holocaust museums around the world, and study their social, cultural and political agendas.This examination will reveal their role and responsibility in Holocaust commemoration.
War in the Middle East
Political Science
Prof. Ron Hassner, Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies, UC Berkeley
This class begins with a historical overview of war in the region. The second part of the class introduces theories that complement and elaborate on theories from PS124A: arguments about the relationship between war and resources,religion, authoritarianism, civil military relations, territorial disputes, sovereignty, and power. In the third part of the course, we will explore current policy concerns related to conflict in the region: Nuclear proliferation, terrorism, the civil war in Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, drone warfare, and the U.S. role in the region.
The Dangers of Online Hate
Legal Studies
Prof. Ken Bamberger, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Law
Through this course, students will become empowered to act as agents of change and critical consumers of online content by learning to spot misinformation, disinformation, and fake news on the Internet. Students will also have the opportunity to critically engage with law, technology, policy professionals, and professors about their work on hate speech, and specifically antisemitism, in the online sphere.
Graduate Seminar: Comparative Constitutional Law and Israel
Law
Prof. Roy Peled, College of Management – Academic Studies
How are fundamental rights — freedom of speech and religion, equality, property, privacy, voting, due process –defined and protected in other constitutional democracies? How is judicial independence maintained? How are questions of standing, justiciability and remedies handled? And most importantly: what lessons can we learn from the constitutional experience of other jurisdictions? These questions will be at the heart of our foray into the comparative constitutional realm. Obviously, we will also be mindful of emergency powers and their impact.
Jewish Law
Law
Prof. Ken Bamberger, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Professor of Law
This course provides an introduction to Jewish law. The course will consider foundational questions about the relation between law and ethics, the advocacy system and its alternatives, the legal role of rights and obligations, and legal evolution in the face of change — and offer a comparative lens from which to reflect on the US legal system. It will consider a variety of substantive legal areas to illuminate overarching themes. Students will be expected to write short reflection papers.