10 minutes with Jewish Studies Director Stan Dubinsky

By Jennifer Silverman
Edited By Cheryl Matheson
Date Published: April 8, 2009

Stan Dubinsky, 57, studied Latin American studies, Spanish literature and Chinese and East Asian studies in college; but when the dean of USC's College of Arts and Sciences asked him to help begin a Jewish studies program, he was happy to help.  Dubinsky earned his bachelor's degree at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has been teaching at USC since 1991.

Dubinsky spoke with the Carolina Reporter about the new program and its importance.  His answers have been edited for space and clarity.

Q: The Jewish studies program has long been a priority of Arts and Sciences Dean Mary Anne Fitzpatrick.  Can you tell us how that came about?

A: She came here in January of 2005 and started to look around and see what the College of Arts and Sciences did and didn't have.  Coming from the University of Wisconsin in  in Madison, they have a very high profile Jewish studies program and a Center for Jewish Studies.  She looked around and thought we should have that and approached me and said "I would like to have a program in Jewish studies." 

So in January 2006 it all got started. We put a proposal in to the office of the provost.  The proposal was successful, and the provost's office gave the college three positions to hire.  We were told we could search in English, history and religious studies and that's what we did,, we hired in the three departments.  This past fall we had our first four faculty join us. Once you start a program like this, the right thing to do is reach out to faculty who might be interested in participating, and we did that.  We've got about a dozen faculty who are already on this campus who have stepped up.

The next step is to actually get approval for the program.  We're not officially a program, but once we get that we can do things like have official minors in Jewish studies at the undergraduate level and have a graduate certificate in Jewish studies, which is something I am very anxious to put on the books.

Q:  While you are for waiting final approval from the Higher Education Commission, what courses are you offering?

A: This fall, Federica Clementi, who is the English literature professor, is going to be teaching "A Survey of Jewish Authors Across Time and Space."  The two historians are each teaching a course.  Saskia Coenen Snyder is teaching a Holocaust course and Emil Kerenji is teaching "History of Zionism and the State of Israel."  Finally, Katja Vehlow, in religious studies, is teaching the first part of a two-semester sequence, which is going to be "History of Judaism."  It's best if you are going to cover the history of Judaism to cover it in two bits.  She is going to teach from Biblical to Rabbinic, and the next semester I think Saskia is going to teach modern Jewish history.  We don't have everything we want yet, and we are still trying to get Hebrew on the books.

Q: The College of Charleston was the first Jewish studies program in S.C. Where are the other nearby schools with a program?

A: Emory has a very well established Jewish Studies Program, also at the graduate level. The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) is another place and Duke University is another place.  Vanderbilt also has a good Jewish Studies Program.  In some sense the reason that our dean, I think, decided she wanted to have this is because if the best universities have it, and we want to be one of the best, we should have it too.

Q: Why do you think a Jewish Studies Program is important to the University of South Carolina and Columbia?

A: To have an understanding of Western religious traditions, of Western history and of political history, you need to know about Judaism.  Anyone - Christian, Jewish or otherwise - who is majoring in religious studies needs a fairly full knowledge of Judaism.  Anyone who is studying history of Europe needs to understand Jewish history is part of that.

What Jewish studies can contribute is knowledge across the curriculum.  It's not necessarily for the Jewish students on this campus that need to learn about the Holocaust, although they can benefit quite a bit from it too.  It's students who don't know about the Holocaust who need to know.  It's not Jewish students who need to take a course in Judaism or in religious studies, because many of them were bar mitzvahed and many of them have had religious training.  It's the non-Jewish students who are interested in religion and modern Christianity who are best served.