B.A. in Hebrew

We offer a wide range of courses, from Israeli literature and culture to modern Hebrew language, for students of every level. Students who choose one of the program’s courses will learn about the various aspects of the cultural, artistic, religious, ideological, and political identities that are reflected in the Hebrew letters. Our faculty teaches various registers and layers of the Hebrew text: Rabbinic, Medieval, and Early Modern Hebrew. In addition to courses, the program hosts literary and cultural events related to Hebrew and Israeli studies. We offer three years of modern Hebrew language classes—covering beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels—in which graduate and undergraduate students of every background enroll. Students with no background in the language start in first-year Hebrew; students who have great experience with the language, including graduates of 12 years of Jewish American day schools or those who spent a year in Israel, often join third-year Hebrew, where they overcome the last remaining hurdles to reading and discussing modern literature and high-brow intellectual commentary in Hebrew; anyone between those extremes is placed into the appropriate level based on a quick, informal assessment.