In an airy classroom at San Francisco State University, students are bent over the Mishnah, while in another class a lively discussion is taking place about what talmudic texts say about modern-day issues such as welfare, abortion and poverty.
Two decades ago, this scene was unheard of outside of synagogues, Jewish community centers and a select number of schools. But today, Jewish studies programs and departments are more and more popular on campuses around the country, as both Jewish and non-Jewish students flock to them in hopes of learning about politics, cinema, literature and art from a unique perspective.
At SFSU, enrollment in classes affiliated with the Jewish studies program has grown to an average of 300 since the program started in 1993. Approximately a dozen faculty members teach classes from a slew of disciplines.
But it wasn’t always like this.
When Fred Astren, the current director of the program, arrived on campus in 1996, there was only one other faculty member in the Jewish studies program. Astren quickly set about creating a curriculum and looking for new sources of funding. Several years later, the program struck gold with a $200,000 endowment from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.
“Without Jewish studies on campus, we would be looking at a much more simplistic scholastic environment,” said Kitty Millet, a literature professor and one of the three core faculty members in the Jewish studies program. “Notions of identity, gender and race … all of these get changed when you bring Jews into the equation.”
Professors Millet, Astren and Marc Dollinger, who joined the program in 2002, view themselves as facilitators in a continual discussion about modern Jewry.
“One of the things we have an obligation to do is make matters complicated,” said Astren, an expert on Jewish and Islamic history. “And not do it artificially, but because these matters are complicated … We have to bring in context and nuance and all the things that people say when they are emotional and yelling, we take it off the plaza (main quad) and bring it into the classroom.”
Four years ago, the program saw an opportunity to discuss critical issues after a peace rally organized by Jewish students grew violent when Palestinian students jeered at the crowd, yelling epithets like “Go back to Russia” and “Hitler didn’t finish his job.”
Astren saw the incident as a chance to create dialogue between the two groups. He worked with students to organize a task force and has since sponsored lectures with speakers on all sides of ideological debates.
“We are here for when things get a little heated on the outside, to bring it in and talk about it,” Astren said. “Instead of sitting in the ivory tower and being aloof from the community, it’s about finding out the resources of both (sides) and working together.”
Always in step with the demands of the community, the program has made an effort to reach those outside the classroom as well. It regularly hosts open lectures by faculty and guest speakers, and is about to launch a new graduate certificate program in Jewish community service learning.
“We need to identify these people in the community and get them into the classroom,” said Dollinger, a Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Jewish Studies and Social Responsibility, who is heading the project.
Jewish community service learning already exists for students in both the Jewish studies program and other departments, with students volunteering at San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El, absorption centers for Russian immigrants and Jewish community centers.
When Astren, Dollinger and Millet are not teaching, they are conducting their own research. Dollinger is in the midst of writing a treatise on Jewish politics in the 1960s, while Millet is working on two books about the Holocaust. Astren, who has a master’s degree in Arabic, is researching what happened to the Jews after the Muslims conquered the Middle East.
As the program enters its 12th year, teachers are optimistic about the future. New courses are being added and more and more students are signing up. And it’s not just the college set, either — older adults are participating through S.F. State’s College of Extended Learning and Eldercollege, a school for people over 50 years old.
For Astren, the program has been “about building bridges” between different communities and religions while adding another layer of context across all disciplines.
“We’re here to bring the Jewish experience, the thought coming out of the Jewish community and the implications of what it means to be a Jew to the larger discussions of the university,” he said.
For more information about classes, including extended learning, and lectures sponsored by the San Francisco State Jewish Studies Program, visit www.sfsu.edu/~jewish.