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deborahk@arizona.edu
Kaye, Deborah A
Principal Lecturer
deborahk
Currently Teaching
RELI 370B – History of the Jews: Cultural Loss and Resilience from the Middle Ages to the French Revolution
In this course, we will explore key events and themes in Jewish history from Late Antiquity to the 18th century, with a focus on Jewish life in Europe and the Mediterranean. Students will examine how Jewish communities adapted and persisted in the face of challenges like exile, persecution, and political instability, through the close reading of primary sources such as legal texts, autobiographies, chronicles, and letters. They will engage with important questions about how Jewish culture evolved across different regions and historical periods, and what has contributed to its remarkable resilience. This transnational, global course connects Jewish history to broader world events and cultural shifts. For students interested in understanding how cultures endure and adapt, this course provides valuable insights into the historical forces that shape identity and community across time and space, while engaging deeply with primary sources that bring these experiences to life.
In this course, we will explore key events and themes in Jewish history from Late Antiquity to the 18th century, with a focus on Jewish life in Europe and the Mediterranean. Students will examine how Jewish communities adapted and persisted in the face of challenges like exile, persecution, and political instability, through the close reading of primary sources such as legal texts, autobiographies, chronicles, and letters. They will engage with important questions about how Jewish culture evolved across different regions and historical periods, and what has contributed to its remarkable resilience. This transnational, global course connects Jewish history to broader world events and cultural shifts. For students interested in understanding how cultures endure and adapt, this course provides valuable insights into the historical forces that shape identity and community across time and space, while engaging deeply with primary sources that bring these experiences to life.
RELI 372B – Early Judaism and Christianity: One Book, Two Religions Second Temple Judaism and its Legacy
This course surveys scriptures and stories, wisdom texts, histories and apocalyptic visions that Jews living in the Persian and later Greco-Roman worlds produced and circulated in Second Temple period (539 BCE -135 CE). Examining Jewish history and writings of the Second Temple period is key to understanding an important time not only in Jewish religious formation but also the emergence of early Christianity, first as a Jewish sect and later, as a separate religion.
This course surveys scriptures and stories, wisdom texts, histories and apocalyptic visions that Jews living in the Persian and later Greco-Roman worlds produced and circulated in Second Temple period (539 BCE -135 CE). Examining Jewish history and writings of the Second Temple period is key to understanding an important time not only in Jewish religious formation but also the emergence of early Christianity, first as a Jewish sect and later, as a separate religion.