Sephardic studies in the university

the long version

Sephardic Studies in the University provides indispensible teaching aids for the introduction of Sephardic Studies, the newest branch of Jewish Studies, into the university curriculum. Internationally recognized experts in several disciplines from the United States, Canada, France, and Israel contribute bibliographical essays, university course syllabi, and teaching suggestions based upon their individual approaches to teaching the civilization of the Jews of Spain and the Muslim world in medieval and modern times. Teachers and students of Jewish civilization, Spanish history, and the Jewish-Muslim encounter will welcome this timely collaborative project of the International Center for the University teaching of Jewish Civilization and the Institute for Sephardic Studies of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Since the 1970s the field of Jewish Studies has witnessed a remarkable growth in universities in Israel, the United States, and Europe. Hundreds of Western universities have incorporated the Jewish experience into the course offerings in established departments of religion, philosophy, history, and literature, or created new programs to reflect the growth of the field. It is paradoxical, however, that Sephardic Studies have always been unevenly represented in institutions of higher learning, for the teaching of Jewish life in the medieval world always included a natural focus on both Spain and Iraq. Spanish Jewry was the jewel of medieval Jewish civilization, and Iraq was the seedbed of rabbinic culture. Nevertheless, the teaching of Sephardic civilization was incomplete and Eurocentric, with the Jews of Islam, an ongoing entity for over a thousand years, scarcely figuring in any course offerings.