In 2024, the Helen Diller Institute established a minor in Israel studies at UC Berkeley. Sponsoring the Israel studies minor is a key part of the Institute’s vision to bring a rigorous academic lens to the study of Israel at an elite public university.
UC Berkeley’s Israel Studies Minor offers an institutionalized path to gaining an expertise in Israel studies. The minor reflects the rich and multidisciplinary nature of the academic field of Israel studies, intersecting the social sciences and humanities as well as law, business, science and technology. Moreover, the minor allows students in diverse disciplines — from liberal arts to engineering — to gain expertise in the study of Israel, complementing their primary fields of study.
A total of five upper-division courses (20 units), the Israel Studies Minor includes two core courses drawn from Legal Studies, Political Science, and History and three electives selected from course offerings in a broad range of fields, including Anthropology, Geography, Education, Economics, Architecture, Jewish Studies, Comparative Literature, and others.
The Israel Studies Minor provides coverage in core competency areas while allowing students to tailor electives to their areas of interest. The Helen Diller Institute’s experiential learning programs in Israel are also essential to its vision for the minor, linking the study of Israel with on-the-ground learning.
For more information on the minor, please contact Dr. Rebecca Golbert, Executive Director, at rlgolbert@berkeley.edu; or Matthew Gordan, Assistant Director for Student Engagement and Programs, at mgordan@berkeley.edu.