A menorah, the nine-branched candelabrum used for the Jewish holiday Hanukkah. (Image courtesy of Lone Primate.)
Instructor(s)
Prof. Peter Temin
MIT Course Number
21H.914
As Taught In
Fall 2007
Level
Undergraduate
Course Description
Course Features
Course Highlights
This course features archived syllabi from various semesters.
Course Description
This course explores how our views of Jewish history have been formed and how this history can explain the survival of the Jews as an ethnic/religious group into the present day. Special attention is given to the partial and fragmentary nature of our information about the past, and the difficulties inherent in decoding statements about the past that were written with a religious agenda in mind. It also considers complex events in Jewish history -- from early history as portrayed in the Bible to recent history, including the Holocaust.