J E W I S H. S T U D I E S

The following feature article appeared in the campus publication Mosaic in December, 1998. Although some of the courses, students, and faculty members referenced in the story may have changed in the meantime, it still provides a full and accurate picture of the Jewish Studies Program. For the most current course information and faculty listing, we encourage you to visit the program's homepage.

INVESTIGATING THE ANCIENT ORIGINS AND CONTEMPORARY FACE OF JEWISH CIVILIZATION

With a number of experts in Jewish history, civilization, and religion on the faculty, long-established ties with a vibrant local Jewish community, and the capacity to offer both biblical and modern Hebrew language courses, Trinity has quietly been developing something special. Director of the College's Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life Mark R. Silk says the quality and incredible range of offerings relating to Jewish studies have been "the best-kept secret at Trinity."

As of last spring, when the College's Board of Trustees voted to establish the Jewish studies program—a secular, multidisciplinary investigation of Jewish civilization across the globe from ancient times to the present—the cat is out of the bag. Terry J. Rifkin ’99, a former religion and Middle Eastern studies major, will be Trinity’s first graduating senior with a major in Jewish studies.

Associate Professor of Religion Ronald Kiener, who is the director of the program, notes that only a small subset of the nation’s liberal arts colleges offer a Jewish studies program. Such programs are more likely to be found at major research universities and the Ivy League schools. "We’re in good company," he observes.

Professor of Humanities Berel Lang, whose course on the Holocaust counts toward the Jewish studies major, notes that interest in the academic field of Jewish studies has been gaining momentum in recent years. "It’s one of the few growth subjects and one of the most lively areas of the academy," he says. "It’s a field in which there are more faculty positions than qualified people to fill them."

Kiener says that in a similar program at a research university, students are more likely to "lose themselves in a highly specialized major." Trinity’s challenge, he says, has been to integrate such a program into the overall liberal arts model that seeks to create well-rounded students. The versatility of the faculty, who hail from a range of departments, plays an enormous role in the success of such an interdisciplinary program. Senior faculty members, including Professor of Modern Languages Dori Katz and Professor of History Samuel D. Kassow (who in November delivered Indiana University’s prestigious Helen and Martin Schwartz Lectures in Jewish Studies) are joined by newer faculty members such as Assistant Professor of History Jonathan Elukin, a medievalist with expertise in Jewish-Christian relations in the Middle Ages. The program also features Visiting Professor of Political Science and International Studies Clinton Bailey, who has teaching appointments both at Trinity and at Tel Aviv University. Mark Silk says, "For a college of its size, Trinity has the best Jewish Studies faculty in the country."

Community connections

Faculty members and multidisciplinary course offerings alone, however, do not an outstanding program make, and in characteristic Trinity fashion, the Jewish studies program will capitalize on the resources available in Hartford. Kiener says that for many years Trinity has been partnering with the Hartford Jewish community by, for example, inviting local rabbis to talk to students, co-sponsoring lectures and film festivals with the Greater Hartford Jewish Community Center, and creating internship opportunities for students with such groups as the Connecticut Jewish Historical Society. These established relationships will clearly enhance both academic and cocurricular aspects of the program.

Trinity’s Jewish studies program is also bolstered by the Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. Part of the center’s goal, says Mark Silk, is to take opportunities to foster programs relating to the Jewish community. Moreover, the center can provide material and administrative support to the program’s efforts. Explains Silk, "We see ourselves as full partners and a resource for the Jewish studies program."

Study in Israel

Trinity recently joined forces with Wesleyan and Brown universities to offer a semester abroad program in Israel, which Professor Kiener believes will be an "essential" aspect of Trinity's Jewish studies. Affiliated with Hebrew University, the spring semester "Program in Israeli and Palestinian Studies" features rigorous classroom learning, contextual learning, and direct contact with leading Israeli and Palestinian figures, offering students the opportunity to study comparatively Israeli and Palestinian culture, politics, religion, and society. In addition to this study abroad option, the Jewish studies program also benefits from the well-established summer study-away course in archaeology, coordinated by Associate Professor of Classics Martha K. Risser, who brings students to Caesarea, Israel to participate in an excavation.

While the establishment of the Jewish studies program will have primarily an academic benefit for Jewish studies majors and students in related disciplines, having such a program is also expected to contribute to the quality of Jewish life on campus for current students and combat what Kiener calls the "perennial problem" of attracting Jewish students to a college named Trinity. The College, Kiener notes, has always tried to convey that its name does not imply that non-Christian students are unwelcome, but establishing an eminent Jewish studies program will definitely send a very clear message that exactly the opposite is true.

Terry Rifkin agrees, saying that while Trinity can boast different kinds of diversity and is committed to increasing diversity in all its dimensions, Jewish students still are significantly underrepresented. She believes that the program will attract students who will not only be interested in the program but also will contribute to the cultural experiences of all members of the Trinity community.

In its inaugural year, the program continues to build upon an already solid foundation. Faculty members continue to modify existing courses and plan for new ones that can contribute to the strong Jewish studies curriculum. Jonathan Elukin hopes that his first-year seminar, "Jews and Judaism in the Diaspora," will help generate interest in the program on the part of new students and prompt more of them to take advantage of its resources. Meanwhile, an endowed professorial chair in Jewish Studies (thanks to support from Trinity alumnus Leonard Greenberg ’48, whose philanthropy has also supported the Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life) is expected to be filled in the year 2000. No longer a "secret," Jewish studies at Trinity has everything it needs to be a success. Quoting from a popular baseball movie, Kiener says with a smile, "If you build it, they will come."

-- Leslie Virostek