JEWISHST 111 / HDS 3682 – Modern Jewish Thought

NEW COURSE

JEWISHST 111 / HDS 3682 – Modern Jewish Thought

Semester: Spring
Offered: 2026
Instructors: Shaul Magid and Susannah Heschel
Meeting Time: T 12:00-2:00pm

This course will look at a series of issues that were formative for the Jewish integration and participation in modernity/postmodernity. Special attention will be given to social, political, artistic, and intellectual trends from the Enlightenment to the present. These issues will include rationalism, romanticism, nationalism/Zionism, democracy, gender, war/violence, ritual/law/reform, ecumenism, antisemitism, and environmentalism. We will read from a wide variety of Jewish philosophers, rabbis, political leaders, artists, theologians, and ritualists investigating the context of their work, its engagement with the world and issues of the day and vision for the future of Judaism that emerged from their works.

Jointly Offered with: Harvard Divinity School as HDS 3682

For more details please visit the Harvard Course Catalog.