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HJS News

UCL Festival of the Arts May 7-17

Start: May 7, 2013 1:00:00 PM
End: May 17, 2013 7:30:00 PM
Location: various venues, UCL Bloomsbury Campus More...

Europe and the Holocaust - Shifts in Public Debates in Poland, Germany and the UK


The panel investigates shifts in the role of the Holocaust in European public debates in the recent past. Contrasting developments in Poland, Germany, and Great Britain, we will identify common threads as well as differences in perceiving, presenting, memorizing the mass murder of European Jewries.
More...

Graduate Student Conference: Jewish Spirituality in Eastern Europe

The Yiddish Forverts has recently published a report from the Graduate Student Conference on ‘Jewish Spirituality in Eastern Europe – a Textual Perspective,’ held at the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, UCL on 6-7 June, 2012. The article, authored by conference participant Adi Mahalel (Columbia University), is available online on the website of the Forverts: http://yiddish.forward.com/node/4589 More...

New publication: The Russian-Jewish Diaspora and European Culture, 1917-1937


Over a period of three years, the Hebrew and Jewish Studies Department at UCL has been cooperating in a research project devoted to 'Cultural Continuitiy in the Diaspora: Paris and Berlin in 1917-1937', based at the Department of European Studies and Modern Languages, University of Bath, and in cooperation with the Centre for European and International Studies at the University of Portsmouth. The project had been funded by the Leverhulme Trust Academic Collaboration-International Network scheme. Among the initiators of the project had been the late John D. Klier. More...

International Graduate Student Conference 2012

The Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at UCL is pleased to announce plans for an International Graduate Student Conference, devoted to explorations of multiple aspects of Jewish spirituality in Eastern Europe, to be held on 5th and 6th of June 2012 in London. The conference organizers invite graduate students and recent PhD holders to submit their proposals. We welcome presentations addressing any aspect of the religious history and religious culture of Eastern European Jewry, with an emphasis on their textual products. We are particularly interested in proposals which open up new perspectives and pose new questions regarding conceptual frameworks and traditional definitions used to describe Eastern Europe in the field of Jewish Studies. Topics may include:
More...


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HEBR7414 / HEBRG016 Jewish Literary Aramaic

Course Code:
 		HEBR74214 (BA)
HEBRG016 (MA)
Tutor:
Dr W. Smelik
Mode of assessment:
BA: 50% final exam and 50% coursework
MA: 80% final exam and one 4,000 word essay
Taught:
In Terms 1 and 2
Classes:
Tuesdays, 1100-1300 in Roberts 103

Course Description

Jewish Aramaic Literature

An introduction to Jewish postbiblical Aramaic literature, beginning with Targum Onqelos, including selected texts from Aramaic poetry, Genesis Apocryphon, Midrashim (Bereshit Rabbah or Echa Rabbah), Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Targum Neofiti, Tosefta-Targum to the Prophets. All texts will be read in Aramaic, with detailed attention to language, the Hebrew original and the mode of translation (if any), exegetical traditions and linguistic developments.

Jewish Aramaic literature belongs to the formative period of rabbinic Judaism, including Biblical Aramaic, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic documents such as letters, gemara, Bible translation and midrash, liturgical poems, responsa literature and zohar. As such, this course will provide an essential introduction to both language and literature.

On the first day of the course, the Aramaic texts will be distributed. Exercises in Aramaic (on average once every two weeks, with a higher frequency in the first term and a lower in the second term) and grammatical extracts will be distributed in class as well.

Aims & Objectives

Educational aims
  • A survey of Aramaic dialects, with special attention to targumic and midrashic literature;
  • Survey of Jewish Aramaic literature in the Classical Rabbinic Period and when possible Qumran Aramaic;
  • Introduction to the exegetical and translational strategies in Targumic literature;
  • Aramaic language acquisition.
Intended learning outcomes
  • Ability to read and translate primary sources independently, with the assistance of appropriate tools;
  • To gain understanding of the strategies and scope of Jewish Aramaic Literature;
  • To know the various phases and genres of the Aramaic dialect;
  • To be able to appreciate and evaluate current issues in scholarship;
  • To be able to express one's own opinion clearly during course hours;
  • To appropriate primary and secondary knowledge and express oneself in a clear, relevant and concise way during the exam;
  • To know how to locate relevant secondary literature.

Assessment

MA assessment

Unseen three-hour written examination 80%

One essay (4000 words) 20%

Essay topics: Choose ONE of the following two topics:

  1. Analyse the function and meaning of the term "Memra" in the Targums
  2. Is targumic literature rabbinic? Discuss.
BA Assessment

Unseen three-hour written examination 50%

Coursework 50%

Coursework 1: 50%

  • Translate the Tosefta Targum to Hosea 2. Your translation should be rendered in idiomatic English, indicating the literal meaning of the words where necessary in square brackets.
  • Parse all verbs in this text
  • Comment on the translation strategies in this text.

Coursework 2: 25%

  • Write a short essay (2000 words) about the "life setting" (Sitz im Leben) of the Targums. Consult the bibliography for the course.

Coursework 3: 25%

  • Translate Poem 40 (JPA) into English. Your translation should be rendered in idiomatic English, indicating the literal meaning of the words where necessary in square brackets.
  • NOTE: in the 21st line, read wzlgt instead of wgzlt.

Texts

The following texts may be read in class:

Targum Onqelos Genesis 19

Tosefta Targum Habakkuk 3

Tosefta Targum Judges 5

!Q20 (Genesis Apocryphon)

Midrash Eikha

Toldot Yeshu

Talmud Yerushalmi fragment

Tobit

Megillat Antiochus

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan

Targum Neofiti

Aramaic piyyutim

Bereshit Rabba

All texts will be distributed in class.