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The Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program (JSP) at Indiana University is one of the largest and most vibrant Jewish Studies programs in America. With our large and highly accomplished faculty, our diverse and attractive course offerings, our focus on undergraduate education inside and outside the classroom, Indiana University has come to be a university chosen by top high school students and leaders because of the excellence of its Borns Jewish Studies Program

Among the 77 Jewish Studies majors and 100 students pursuing an area certificate and Hebrew minor in the spring of 2007 were outstanding young people from a wide range of backgrounds, including many with proven leadership experience in international, national, and regional youth organizations.

Our students are the centerpiece of our program and we make special efforts to provide them with the kinds of educational opportunities they need and deserve: a curriculum of 60 courses a year; significant scholarship support; professional career guidance; and more.

Our faculty is committed to providing students with an outstanding education. Our students benefit from close contact with faculty; a caring and highly professional academic advisor; a wide array of scholarships, internships, and fellowships specifically earmarked for Jewish Studies students; a course that introduces students to careers in the Jewish community; an active Jewish studies student association; and study abroad program in Israel at Hebrew University. What may be the greatest benefit of all for our students is the opportunity to be part of a community with other bright and highly motivated students from around the U.S., engaged in the study of a rich, complicated, and variegated civilization. There are few places that offer the range of intellectual, cultural, social, and professional opportunities in Jewish Studies that IU can. To pursue Jewish Studies at Indiana University, in short, is to be part of a comprehensive and unusually caring program of studies, carefully built over more than three decades, which encourages students to focus rigorous attention on Judaism and the Jews.

What the Jewish Studies Program Offers Students

Generous Jewish Studies Scholarships: Jewish Studies undergraduates have been awarded $80,000 in scholarships over the past 2 years. High school students can apply for 4-year scholarships. MORE>

Jewish Studies Internships: Each year the JSP awards a research internship and an administrative internship to a continuing Jewish Studies student. MORE>

Freshmen Residential-Study Option: Live on the same floor with other freshmen interested in Jewish Studies in a residence hall in the Jewish Studies Freshman Interest Group (FIG), MORE>

Career Course for Jewish Studies Students: The Borns Jewish Studies Program has teamed with the national Professional Leaders Project to offer an exciting 3 credit course "Professional Leadership and the Jewish Community," an introduction to the careers and professionals related to Jewish Studies. MORE>

Regular Student-Faculty Gatherings: Fall dessert, spring gala dinner, lunches - all free. MORE>

Jewish Sacred Music Curriculum: Students with an interest in becoming cantors can prepare through a special sequence of courses. MORE>

Conference Funding: Funding available for students attending academic and professional conferences related to Jewish Studies. MORE>

Senior Prize, Yiddish Prize, and Essay Competition Prize MORE>

Honors Program: This program is designed for outstanding majors. MORE>

Personalized Advising: There is a strong emphasis on supportive, close advisor-student communication. The faculty and advisor are committed to taking time with students to help them make the most of their college experience. MORE>

Jewish Studies Student Association: Many events and activities-film showings, Hebrew Hour, special events. MORE>

Study Abroad in Israel: Spend the year or a semester during your junior year at Hebrew University through IU Overseas Study or transfer credit back from Ben-Gurion University, Haifa University, or Tel Aviv University. MORE>

Regular visits by Distinguished Lecturers: In the past, the Borns JSP has brought to the Bloomington campus such notable visitors as Isaac Bashevis Singer, Deborah Lipstadt, Dennis Ross, Elie Wiesel, Emil Fackenheim, Cynthia Ozick, Yigael Yadin, and Primo Levi. MORE>

You can choose to study modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, or Yiddish — 3 Jewish Languages. Biblical Hebrew is an excellent foreign language choice for serious students interested in rabbinical, cantorial school, or seminary. The most widely spoken Jewish language ever, Yiddish was the oral and literary language for most Jews in Europe for nearly 800 years, as well as the language of Jewish immigrants to the U.S. Students placing out of two semesters of modern Hebrew automatically have these two semesters of Hebrew (four credits each) added to their IU transcript. If students test out of courses beyond the first two semesters, they must take the Hebrew language course at the level at which they place to earn further Hebrew language credit. Modern Hebrew language courses are taught in a yearly cycle with the first semester (JSTU-H 100), third semester (JSTU-H 200), and fifth semester (JSTU-H 300) taught each fall. Beginning Yiddish will be offered in Fall, 2008 and beginning Biblical Hebrew in Fall, 2009.

Planning a Visit to Campus

High School students interested in visiting Indiana University and meeting with the Jewish Studies advisor should call the Borns Jewish Studies Program at 812-855-0453 to make an appointment.

Directions to Goodbody Hall.

Ten Reasons To Study Jewish Studies

We welcome all students into the major and area certificate programs. No background or prior knowledge is necessary.

1. Judaism, in addition to being a vibrant religion in its own right, is the parent religion of both Christianity and Islam. One cannot understand the origins of these religions without understanding their roots in Judaism.

Jewish Studies students meet prominent scholars and politicians such as former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

2. Israel is the only country on earth with a Jewish majority. The country has revived the Hebrew language, taken in immigrants from all over the world, and boasts a rich and varied culture. Students who study at our program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in their junior year rave about their time in Israel. Take some of our courses on Israel and find out why.

3. The murder of 6 million Jews is not just of concern to the millions of victims. The Holocaust represents the total collapse of Western civilization and thus is central to the concerns of all people. Study of the Holocaust exposes students to a range of troubling but unavoidable questions. We offer courses in the history of the Holocaust, the literature of the Holocaust, and on philosophic and religious responses to the Holocaust, and more.

4. The story of Creation, the Exodus from Egypt, and the Ten Commandments were all written in Hebrew. The prophets thundered in it and modern day Israelis have brought this ancient language of the Bible to life, using it as their daily tongue. Learn it!

5. Yiddish was the most widely spoken Jewish language ever. Expressive and lyrical, Yiddish was the spoken and literary language for most Jews in Europe for nearly 800 years and was also the language of Jewish immigrants to the United States. Isaac Bashevis Singer and Sholem Aleichem are much better in the original. Study Yiddish!

6. Jewish philosophers and Jewish thinkers have sought to understand Judaism at moments of urgency and danger and within the context of Western intellectual life. Our courses explore that interaction, trying to discern what Judaism has drawn from Western philosophy and culture and what Western culture can learn from its engagement with Judaism.

7. Spinoza, the Baal Shem Tov, Herzl and even Einstein. Just four among many modern Jewish thinkers who have pondered what it means to be Jewish. The array of responses to the question reflects the diversity of the Jewish people.

8. Jews have played a formative role in some of the most important developments in modernity, from physics to psychoanalysis to post-modernism.

9. Jewish culture is multilingual and multicultural, developing in dialogue with cultures from eastern and western Europe, Asia, North Africa, North America, even the Amazon.

10. Get a good liberal arts education. Because of its inherently interdisciplinary nature, Jewish Studies offers an almost perfect microcosm of the humanities and social sciences.