Moss, Galan lead Jewish Studies focus area

Two weeks ago, the Jewish Studies and International Studies programs added a Jewish Studies focus area to the International Studies major.

The concentration, entitled “Global Modernity and the Jewish Experience,” will allow students to apply the program’s social scientific and comparative dimensions toward a deeper understanding of modern Jewish history, contemporary Jewish life and the politics, society and culture of the State of Israel.

A concentration has been one requirement of the International Studies major at Hopkins since its inception at Johns Hopkins.

In recent years, however, the need for an option of narrower focus within the major became apparent.

Associate Director of the International Studies Program, Julia Galan, explained the department’s steps to fill this need.

“Given that International Studies is a program that uses the resources of a variety of different departments, it was often felt that the major did not provide students with the opportunity to develop a strong in-depth focus in one particular area,” Galan wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

The idea for the “Global Modernity and the Jewish Experience” track, coordinated by Julia Galan and Kenneth Moss, was sparked in part by a large student interest in Jewish Studies and was finalized over Intersession 2013.

Moss, Director of the Jewish Studies Program and Associate Professor in the History Department, noted that the focus area made sense because of the clear Jewish Studies and International Studies connection.

“The Jewish Studies program happens to have a strong concentration of associated faculty who work on Jewish politics, culture, and thought in the modern period and/or who work directly on forms of interaction between Jews, the larger society, and the state,” Moss wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

Moss commented on the significance of this new track explaining that it connects core components of the International Studies major to issues surrounding humanity in the Jewish experience.

“I think that in general, it’s important that students ground the comparative and general social-scientific concerns associated with the International Studies major in specific human experience,” he wrote.

The focus area is comprised of six courses including two semesters of Hebrew, Arabic or Yiddish. The focus area also leads to a minor in Jewish Studies.

In general, students seem to be supportive of this new focus area.

“The Middle East has continued to be one of the most politically charged areas for decades, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict certainly lies at the root of many of the issues that occur,” sophomore Rachel Riegelhaupt said.

She explained the complexities of the region.

“Though the conflict is by no means solely a religious one, someone wishing to understand it holistically would need to learn the religious basis underlying much of the region’s politics. A concentration in Jewish Studies would cover one side of that need.”

Similarly, Galan sensed that before the addition of this program, there was a need for greater options and guidance within the broad field of International Studies.

Sophomore Christian Wright was in favor of additional programs like this one, and he shared that he still believes that there is room for improvement within the International Studies major.

“It’s good that they’re adding more opportunities for study within the I.S. major,” Wright said. “But I would still like it if they had more classes that you could take for Econ.”