Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies | College of Liberal Arts
skip to content The University of Texas at Austin

Major in Jewish Studies

Degree Requirements

The Major for all active catalogs consists of 27 semester hours (18 hours upper division) of the following coursework:

  • 3 hours chosen from one of these two introductory courses:
    • JS 304M “Jewish Civilization: Beginning to 1492” (usually offered in the fall term)
    • JS 304N “Jewish Civilization:1492 to Present” (usually offered in the spring term)
  • 3 additional hours of lower division Jewish Studies. For example:
    • JS 301 “Intro to Jewish Studies” (usually offered in the fall term)
    • JS 307 “Introduction to Holocaust and Genocide Studies" (usually offered in the fall term)
    • JS 311 “Intro to the Old Testament”
    • JS 311 "History of Israel"
  • 6 hours of Jewish Studies Courses in Humanities (or a comparable course, please see your academic advisor). For example:
    • JS 363 “Imagining Genocide”
    • JS 363 “Debating Genesis”
    • JS 363 “Jewish Folklore”
    • JS 363 “Law and Justice in the Bible"
  • 6 hours of Jewish Studies Courses in History and Social Science (or a comparable course, please see your academic advisor). For example:
    • JS 364 “Intro to the Holocaust”
    • JS 364 “Paul and His Social World”
    • JS 364 “UT Jews in the Civil Rights Era”
    • JS 364 “The Dead Sea Scrolls”
    • JS 364 “Germany since Hitler”
    • JS 365 “Holocaust Aftereffects”
  • Nine additional hours of Jewish studies coursework are required, six of them upper-division. These hours can include: 
    1. Liberal Arts 320J, Jewish Studies Internship, or the nine hours required for the Option in Israel Studies (OIS), see below. Students are encouraged but not required to use Hebrew or Yiddish to fulfill the foreign language requirement.  
    2. Jewish studies majors can earn an Option in Israel Studies. To earn the OIS, students must complete six semester credit hours of upper-division coursework focused on Israel (these courses may also count toward the Jewish Studies major) and three semester credit hours content course in Middle Eastern studies not in Israel, chosen from approved lists.  

Degree Requirements by Catalog

Degree requirements vary by catalog year. Consult with the Jewish Studies academic advisor to be certain about degree requirements.

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/undergraduate-students/majors-minors/degree-plans.html

Languages

There is no additional language requirement for the Jewish Studies major. We encourage you to visit our Languages page to see how your choice of foreign language can intersect with courses in Jewish Studies.

Students are encouraged to use Hebrew or Yiddish to fulfill the foreign language requirement. 

Useful Information

Menu