Jewish studies offered at UCLA Extension

UCLA Extension will offer two Jewish studies courses this fall. "Social, Cultural, and Religious Institutions of Judaism" will examine Judaism’s basic beliefs, institutions and practices. Topics will include the development of biblical and rabbinic Judaism; the concepts of God, sin, repentance, prayer and the messiah; the history of the Talmud and synagogue; the evolution of folk beliefs; and year-cycle and life-cycle practices.

Taught by Rachel Jagoda, director of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the course will be presented from 7 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 23 through Dec. 16, in Room 1329 Public Policy Building on the UCLA campus in Westwood.

"Jewish Intellectual History: Modern Period" will explore some of the most important currents and figures in Jewish intellectual history from the 18th Century to the present. The course covers the diversity of Jewish experience, controversy about what is a Jew, the Jewish response to modernity and religious reform movements, the emergence of Hasidism, the birth of political Zionism, Holocaust and post-Holocaust identity, and Jewish identity in the 20th Century.

Students will read works by Immanuel Kant, Bruno Bauer, Moses Mendelssohn, Theodor Herzl, Frank Rosenzweig, Solomon Maimon, Gershom Scholem and others.

Taught by Dr. Tamas Ungvari, Fulbright Teaching Fellow, the course will be presented from 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 24 through Dec. 10, in Room A25 Haines Hall on the UCLA campus.

For either course, the fee is $365 with credit or $250 without. For more information, call (310) 825-2301 or visit the Internet Website at www.uclaextension.edu for complete course descriptions and online enrollment.