Loading Jewry into the Medieval Canon

Abstract

In the 1960s, when I attended college, semesters were much like those in the public schools, which meant that our semesters were approximately four weeks longer than college semesters are now. If we multiply those four weeks by the eight semesters of a once-traditional college career, we come up with thirty-two weeks, or another year of classes. To make the point more simply, in my four years of college, I attended classes the equivalent of five current academic years. That diminution of class time would be fine had we discovered that there is actually less to learn, but my distinct impression is that such is not the case. Not only has knowledge exploded in traditional fields, but also new fields and studies in neglected fields have proliferated. In a rational world, the college year would have expanded, not contracted.Among the fields that have developed during the past forty years is Jewish studies. More than one hundred programs in Jewish studies now exist in the United States alone. While such programs, like corresponding programs in women's studies, Latino/Latina studies, or African American studies, are certainly welcome, they also entail a particular danger, the threat of ghettoization. After all, if a university offers a women's studies program, people might think that the program takes care of women's issues at the university. Such, however, is not the case -while those distinct programs are essential, equally essential is the integration of their concerns into the general curriculum.