Miriam Schapiro, "The Matriarchs," Stained glass windows at Temple Shalom, Chicago

​INTRODUCTION TO JUDAISM
CWRU, SPRING 2025
PROFESSOR ALANNA E. COOPER

​Like all religions, Judaism structures the way its adherents view the world and inhabit it.  In this course we will explore five aspects of the human experience, and interrogate the ways in which Judaism provides frameworks for navigating each one.   TIME:  How is time marked, measured and experienced?  SPACE:  What sort of cultural work is done to create religious and cultural home/s?  THE DIVINE:  How might God be described and understood?  And what is the nature of the relationship between the Divine and humanity? TEXTS:  What are the Jewish sacred texts?  When did they appear, who authored them and how were they canonized (or not)?  How are they read, studied and understood? COMMUNITY:  What are the contours of Jewish community, and how are boundaries drawn between who belongs and who does not?