Courses

CJS200H1 F: Introduction to Jewish Thought

Fall Semester, Tuesdays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, Thursdays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Instructor: Sol Goldberg & Michael Rosenthal

A balanced presentation of the multifaceted approach to the discipline by treating Jewish religion and thought. The course introduces students not only to a chronological and thematic overview of the subject but also to different methodological approaches

CJS444H1 F: Topics in the Study of Antisemitism: "Measurement, Law, and Policy"

Fall Semester, Mondays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm 

Instructor: Ron Levi & Sol Goldberg

This seminar explores in depth one of the many theoretical or methodological issues that confront scholars of antisemitism. Possible topics include: definitions of antisemitism and their purposes; philosemitism and its conceptual and real connection with antisemitism; Jewish self-hatred; contextualist vs eternalist accounts of antisemitism; classic and contemporary theories of antisemitism.

Recommended Preparation: RLG344H1

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

CJS290H1 S: Topics in Jewish Studies: "Zionism, Anti-Zionism, and Post-Zionism"

Winter Semester, Mondays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm 

Instructor: Sol Goldberg

Zionism emerged in late nineteenth century Europe (alongside other species of Jewish nationalisms) with a radical proposal to change not only Jews’ social and cultural conditions as an ethno-religious minority, but also their basic self-conception. This proposal, at once a renewal and a repudiation of Jewish tradition, has been debated by Jews inside and outside the movement ever since. Internally, political Zionists, cultural Zionists, religious Zionists, liberal Zionists, revolutionary Zionists, etc. disagreed among themselves about the movements’ ideals and goals as well as about the proper means to their realization, while, externally, ultraorthodox Jews, Reform Jews, and assimilationist Jews all had their reasons to oppose Zionism in general.

In the wake of the Holocaust, most of the world’s remaining Jews acknowledged Zionism’s necessity and took pride in its incredible success in establishing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Yet, even then, debates about Zionism’s purposes and principles persisted among Jews both within and beyond the new state’s borders. Recent years have witnessed a dramatic intensification of these debates, as Jewish communities around the world find themselves fractured into Zionist, anti-Zionist, and post-Zionist camps that offer competing narratives and assessments about the past 150 years of Jewish history.  

What might Jews mean today when they identify as Zionist, anti-Zionist, or post-Zionist? What reasons do they give to themselves and to other Jews to justify these identities? How do other Jews respond to Jewish identities that contradict their own? This course takes up these questions in an effort to help students understand better these live and heated debates among Zionists, anti-Zionists, and Post-Zionists about Jews’ identity, flourishing, and future.  

CJS331H1 F: Encounters between Jewish and Modern Thought: Sartre's Anti-Semite and Jew

Fall Semester, Thursdays 1:00 - 3:00 pm 

Instructor: Sol Goldberg

Prerequisite: Completion of at least 4.0 credits.

Recommended Preparation: CJS200H1

Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief, and Behavior (2)

HIS304H1 S: Topics in Middle East Histories: French Colonialism and the Jews

Winter Semester, Tuesday 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm 

Instructor: TBA

This course examines the place of Jews—politically, socially, and conceptually—within both metropolitan France and its Middle Eastern and North African colonies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In an era of liberalism and emancipation at home, the conquest of foreign lands and rule over their diverse peoples raised new questions around minority status and civil and political rights abroad. Jews, as a minority group native both to France and several of its colonies, present a unique case study of for the ways these questions were answered. Readings will include both primary sources and historical scholarship on topics including civil and political emancipation, national belonging, the “civilizing mission,” philanthropy, and antisemitism. Special focus will be paid to French Algeria, at once the only overseas territory in which most Jews attained French citizenship and a central node of Francophone antisemitism.

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

JJH370H1 F: Soviet Jewish History, Culture, and Diaspora

Fall Semester, Tuesdays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Instructor: Anna Shternshis

The course examines history, culture and diaspora of Russian-speaking Jews in the 20th and 21st century. We will discuss how Jews experienced Russian Revolutions of 1917, Stalinism, Soviet Great Terror of 1937, World War II and the Holocaust, post-war challenges, the “Thaw” of the 1960s, “Stagnation of the 1980s”, Dissident movement, Perestroika, collapse of the Soviet Union and the development of post-Soviet diasporas. We will read works by both Soviet Jewish authors, including Vassily Grossman, Shira Gorshman, Isaac Babel, Rivka Levin and post-Soviet ones, such as David Bezmozgis, Lara Vapnyar and Boris Fishman, study artifacts of anti-religious propaganda such as Red Passover Celebration scripts, discuss oral histories of Soviet Jews, read scripts of Yiddish theater performances (in English translation), and scrutinize (and maybe even try) recipes of Soviet Jewish food. No prior knowledge is required, but if you took a course on European history or Jewish history, it will be an asset.

Prerequisite: Completion of at least 4.0 credits.

Exclusions: CJS391H1 (Soviet Jewish History, Culture, and Diaspora), offered in Fall 2024.

Recommended Preparation: CJS201H1 or HIS208Y1

Breadth Requirement: Society and Its Institutions(3)

HIS338H1 F: The Holocaust, to 1942

Fall Semester, Fridays 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Instructor: Gavin Weins

German state policy towards the Jews in the context of racist ideology, bureaucratic structures, and varying conditions in German-occupied Europe. Second Term considers responses of Jews, European populations and governments, the Allies, churches, and political movements.

Prerequisite: Completion of 6.0 FCE.

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS361H1 S: The Holocaust, from 1942

Fall Semester, Fridays 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Instructor: Gavin Weins

Follows on HIS338H1. Themes include: resistance by Jews and non- Jews; local collaboration; the roles of European governments, the Allies, the churches, and other international organizations; the varieties of Jewish responses. We will also focus on postwar repercussions of the Holocaust in areas such as justice, memory and memorialization, popular culture and politics.

Prerequisite: Completion of 6.0 FCE.

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS386H1 F: Fascism

Fall Semester, Wednesdays  11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Instructor: Andres Kasekamp

A comparative and transnational examination of fascist movements and regimes in Europe during 1919-1945. Beginning with Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany, this course analyzes manifestations of the phenomenon in various European countries, including France, Spain, the Baltic states, Central Europe and Scandinavia. We analyze the factors that led to fascist movements obtaining power in certain countries and to their failure in others. Collaboration with Nazi Germany during the Second World War is also explored. Finally, we discuss whether the concept of ‘generic’ fascism can also be applied to other regions and periods.

Prerequisite: 9.0 credits, including 1.0 HIS credit excluding HIS262H1

Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

HIS452H1 S: Advanced Topics in European History: War and Sites of Memory in Poland and Ukraine Since 1914: Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews

Winter 2026, Thursdays 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Instructor: Michal Mylnarz

This advanced fourth-year seminar explores the intertwined histories of Poland and Ukraine during the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on how war, genocide, and shifting borders have shaped historical memory and national identity. Centered on contested spaces like Galicia and Volhynia—what historian Timothy Snyder has termed “the Bloodlands”—the course examines how political regimes, war, and imperial collapse have led to the destruction and redefinition of culture, space, heritage and memory across the region. Students will study key episodes of violence, erasure, and resistance, including the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918–1919, the Nazi German and Soviet occupations of Poland and Ukraine, the Holocaust by bullets in smaller communities, mass population transfers, the Volhynian massacres, and Operation Vistula. Through archival sources, memoirs, museum reports, maps, film, and scholarly analysis, we will explore how these events are remembered—or silenced—in public discourse, and how memory has become a new battleground in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some familiarity with the history and cultures of Poland, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe—particularly 20th-century nationalism, the Holocaust, empire, and memory—will enhance your experience in this seminar. This course assumes a high level of critical thinking, close reading skills, and above all an interest in primary source interpretation and the subject matter.

Prerequisite: 9.0 credits including one of HIS241H1, HIS242H1, HIS243H1, HIS244H1, and a minimum 1.0 HIS credit

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

MUN180H1 S: Hitler and Stalin Today

Winter Semester, Tuesdays, 9:00 am - 11:00 am

Instructor: Timothy Snyder

Democracy requires strategies for the future, but these depend upon a reckoning with the past. How is freedom defined in a post-colonial world? How can a mass society protect individual citizens? A study of European totalitarianism and the American present prepares us to answer these questions. To that end, this course studies the Stalinist and Nazi regimes, reviews the mass atrocities of the mid-twentieth century, and considers the legacies of these regimes in contemporary memory and politics.

Breadth Requirement: Society and Its Institutions (3)

MUN200H1 S: Understanding Global Controversies

Winter Semester, Wednesdays, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Instructor: Jason Stanley

This course provides students from different programs with a forum to discuss and engage with major global issues within the framework of thematic and regional studies and with comparative and multidisciplinary perspectives. Because this course will be team-taught by Munk faculty from the Humanities and Social Sciences, it will provide students with an introduction to interdisciplinary studies. The course envisions examining several topics which will be based on current global controversies including climate change, sustainability, inequality, democracy, migration and conflict.

Prerequisites: MUN105Y1 or MUN100H1

Breadth Requirement: Society and Its Institutions (3)

RLG344H1 S: Antisemitism

Winter Semester, Wednesdays, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Instructor: TBA

Explores how Jews have been viewed (often mistakenly and confusedly) in various contexts from pre-Christian antiquity to the contemporary world. Emphasis is on problems involved in defining and explaining antisemitism, especially concerning the difference between religious and racial forms of antisemitism.

Prerequisites: Completion of 4.0 credits

Breadth Requirement: Society and Its Institutions (3)