All shook up

I can think of no better way to sum up the meteorological events of the past week than by invoking the Elvis Presley song, All Shook Up. “My hands are shaking and my knees are weak,” he croons. “I can’t seem to stand on my own two feet.” Presley, of course, had love on his mind, not the weather. Even so, the song seems apposite.

The start of a new term is always a busy one. But Mother Nature complicated matters by sending us an earthquake and a hurricane in quick succession.

Hopefully from here on out, the only thing that gets shaken, tossed, tumbled and upset is the imagination, as our students encounter new ideas and engage in novel ways of thinking.

Toward that end, the Program in Judaic Studies kicks off the academic year with a roster of lively courses. In his “Jewish Civilization,” Professor Daniel Schwartz provides students with an opportunity to learn more about one of the oldest and most continuous civilizations in the western world, while Professor Masha Belenky’s course “Promises and Betrayals” casts a searching eye on the fraught relationship between modern France and its Jewish citizens.

Professor Lauren Strauss examines the fate of the Yiddish language in her “Writers, Radicals and Rugelach,” Professor Faye Moskowitz takes the measure of American Jewish literature, Professor Max Ticktin explores the ways in which the Bible enriches the modern novel, and Professor Robert Eisen focuses comparatively on the role of violence and peace within Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

I, in turn, make my way through the length and breadth of the American landscape in search of Jewish communities large and small, and, together with Professor Leslie Jacobson, also train my sights on Venice, Italy, and the celebrated Shakespeare play that is set within its precincts, The Merchant of Venice.

With such a wonderful array of courses from which to choose, there’s no reason not to rock and roll this semester.