In the fall 2024 semester, the is offering numerous courses for Straus Scholars and app University students to study the great texts and traditions of Judaism and the West.
Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, Director of the Straus Center, is co-teaching with Dr. David Johnson a new course, “C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and Theology,” which studies the views of the two authors on a number of philosophical subjects, comparing and contrasting them with texts of Jewish thought. Rabbi Soloveichik is also teaching courses on the medieval Jewish philosopher Judah Halevi (Kuzari), as well as a survey of Jewish and Western classical political theory.
Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern, Deputy Director of the Straus Center, is leading a seminar at the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education & Administration, “Teaching Tanach’s Impact on America,” which unpacks the how the Torah has shaped America’s founding, helped articulate its highest ideals, guided its development of equality for all citizens, and been used (and misused) by those in power to advocate, inspire, unite, and fight.
Clinical Assistant Professor Rabbi Dr. Dov Lerner is teaching courses on Maimonides and Genesis, and Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo is teaching “The Values of Verse: Sacred and Secular Perspectives,” which explores how poetry yields sacred insight and secular wisdom. Senior Scholar Dr. Tevi Troy is co-teaching a course on the American presidency with Dr. Joseph Luders. Dr. Yisroel Ben-Porat, the Straus Center’s Program Officer and Lecturer, is teaching “The Emergence of Europe,” which surveys the the story of Western Civilization from the rise of ancient Greece to the aftermath of the Renaissance and Reformation. Other Straus Center courses by affiliated YU app include “Kant & Halakhah” by Rabbi Dr. Itamar Rosensweig, and “The Thought of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik” by Rabbi Shalom Carmy.
In addition to its course offerings, the Straus Center is also convening weekly extracurricular reading groups that cover great Jewish and Western texts. Rabbi Soloveichik is leading a series focusing on the best theological and political writing on the nature of antisemitism and reflecting on their relevance in our current moment. Rabbi Lerner is convening a public speaking workshop on the art of delivering a dvar Torah, Dr. Trapedo’s group focuses on Dostoyevsky’s classic 19th-century novel Crime and Punishment, and Dr. Troy is covering a series of great modern Jewish essays.
