With the construction of the new Hillel House and an ever-increasing population of students studying Judaism at Boston University, the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies has added a handful of new classes to wet the palate, and other university departments are doing the same.
“The center keeps growing,” said Director of Judaic Studies Steven Katz. “We’re trying to make a new change to the curriculum each year because of the limited number of faculty.”
To combat the center’s understaffed faculty, Katz said the center is experimenting with a visiting faculty program, where professors can teach at BU on a limited basis.
Acclaimed Jewish author Ehud Luz will be BU’s first visiting professor, Katz said, and he will teach a series on modern Jewish thought next year.
“We wanted a distinguished person who’d be a credit and who would teach something interesting,” he said.
While Luz’s class invites philosophy majors, College of Fine Arts professor Ludmilla Leibman is aiming to integrate the field of music with Judaic Studies in a new course on traditional Jewish music.
“Students liked her Holocaust and music course, but she needed to support it with a class about the history of Jewish music,” Katz said. “It didn’t make sense alone.”
In addition, BU’s new Jewish Studies Program in London will offer “strong traditional languages such as Yiddish,” Katz said, courses not available in the program in Haifa, Israel.
CAS Dean Jeffrey Henderson praised what Katz and his team have done.
“I am very gratified at the continuing success of the [Elie] Wiesel Center in nurturing all aspects of our fine Jewish Studies curriculum, in enhancing our resources in this area and in providing a host of excellent academic and cultural events for campus and community alike,” he said in an email.
CAS senior Melissa Meyers switched her major to an independent concentration in Jewish history and literature after taking a class on Hasidic literature. She said she was surprised that she enjoyed her class so much because Judaism is more conservative then her own religion.
“It’s not just Jews that are interested,” Meyers said. “People in my classes have included American Buddhists, Muslims, Protestants and Anglican Clergy women who related Hasidic stories to church … That’s not something you’ll find anywhere else.”
A CAMPUS TREND
While the Center for Judaic Studies hopes to integrate the fine arts into their curriculum, CFA hopes to attract more students to its programs.
Next semester, CFA will open three visual arts courses – which were originally exclusive to visual arts majors – to all BU students.
Similarly, the Music Department will offer private piano lessons to non-majors for the first time next semester.
“Graduate students have offered to give private music lessons to non-majors,” said CFA Student Records Manager Samantha Collins. “The lessons do come at a price [$1,000 a semester] but it’s a deal because it’s a lot more expensive outside of the university.”
Students can also now gain experience in the business of film production and management with a new course offered by College of Communication professor Bill Linsman.
Linsman said he will use his real-world experience and guest speakers to introduce students to the wide range of responsibilities of the film world, such as “leasing, rentals, hours and locations.”
“I have produced for 30 years,” he said. “I have a lot of experience in conflict resolution and I have a lot of war stories.”
While Linsman and his students battle their way through the trenches of the film industry, political science professor Judith Swanson said she will teach “Freedom,” a Political Science class covering the political and economic convictions of freedom in literature.
“Freedom has always been an intellectual interest of mine,” Swanson said. “It should be of interest to anyone who embraces the idea of freedom.”
The Economics Department will also reinstate two classes next year that they have not offered for several years, including a course on the economics of the workplace taught by professor Peter Doeringer.
“The economics department tries to provide a rich and varied group of electives to undergraduates that reflects the specializations of its faculty and the interests of undergraduate concentrators,” Doeringer said. “[Economics of the Workplace and Public Policy] is a course that I am particularly qualified to teach and it has enjoyed considerable popularity in the past, so I was asked to teach it next fall.”
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