Fall 2014 @ OASIS Albuquerque

Great Courses @ OASIS:  You know about OASIS, right?  Abq Jew has featured OASIS Albuquerque on several occasions, and lists OASIS Abq courses of Jewish interest on his Learn/FiftyPlus page.

OASIS (as stated on the organization's website) is

 ... a unique educational program for adults age 50-plus who want to learn, grow and explore new ideas. We promote successful aging through lifelong learning, health programs and volunteer engagement. OASIS Albuquerque has just announced their Fall 2014 line-up of classes.

Registration will open on Wednesday September 10

Newly-appointed Executive Director Kathleen Raskob (Michael Nutkiewicz has retired) has indeed continued to make sure there are plenty of courses of Jewish interest.  This session's courses and instructors include:

Shakespeare & the Jews
Tue 23 September 2014 @ 1:00 pm - #54
Instructor: Barry Gaines
What It Is: In 1290, King Edward I expelled all Jews from England where they had lived since first arriving with William the Conqueror in 1066. William Shakespeare lived between 1564 and 1616, which means he had little if any opportunity to see or get to know a practicing Jew. Yet Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta was a hit around 1590 and Shakespeare followed with The Merchant of Venice. Where did they get their material? Are these plays anti-Semitic?

How Bad Was Jezebel?
Mon 29 September 2014 @ 10:30 am - #80
Instructor: Janet Gaines
What It Is: Jezebel has a reputation as the bad girl and the wickedest of women in the Bible. The ancient queen is denounced as a murderer, prostitute, and enemy of God, and her name has been adopted for sexy lingerie and World War II missiles alike. But how depraved is Jezebel? This class will reexamine and perhaps reclaim the shadowy femme fatale, evaluate her motives, and view the queen's narrative from her own vantage point.

Whose Holocaust?
Thu 2 & 9 October 2014 @ 10:30 am - #22
Instructor: Noel Pugach
What It Is: This class will discuss the historiography of the Holocaust, raising crucial questions about how we craft our image of the past, and how history and memory are linked to national and religious identity. Two major dimensions will be covered: what drove Nazi Germany to carry out the Final Solution, in other words, the Intentionalist-Functionalist debate; and how did European Jewry respond to the largely successful effort to annihilate them? Did they resist enough?

The Spanish Inquisition & Crypto-Jews in New Mexico
Tue 7 October 2014 @ 1:00 pm - #95
Instructor: Sandra K Toro
What It Is: Author Sandra Toro will talk about the history of the Spanish Inquisition in this hemisphere with emphasis on the southwest. Learn about New Mexico's hidden Jews who maintained Jewish traditions while they publicly practiced other faiths. Professor Roger L Martinez (University of Colorado) wrote, "Through her exquisite prose, Sandra K Toro recreates the lives of New Mexico's crypto-Jews ... and rekindles our memory of that dramatic era."

You Are My Path to God: Buber & Levinas
Thu 23 October @ 10:30 am - #27
Instructor: Paul J Citrin
What It Is: In this talk, two original 20th century philosophers are introduced: Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas. Their philosophies of dialogue make them among the most widely regarded spiritual thinkers in the West, who influenced the fields of religion, psychiatry, and ethics.

The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Primer
Fri 24 October 2014 @ 10:30 am - #81
Instructor: Frank Yates
What It Is: Since their discovery on the northeast shore of the Dead Sea in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have provided scholars a unique insight into the Essene sect that lived there before and during the beginning of the Christian era. These writings tell us much about the group's opposition both to the temple priesthood and the Roman occupiers. All are encouraged to look online or buy a book containing these documents for further study.

Nu Shu: Chinese Women's Writing
Thu 6 November 2014 @ 10:30 am - #25
Instructor: Norma Libman
What It Is: In pre-Communist China, women in the Hunan Province invented their own secret written language, called Nu Shu, which they used to communicate with each other as they weren't allowed to go to school and learn Mandarin. They embroidered it into household linens so the men wouldn't know what they were doing. Norma Libman will tell us how this language was discovered, what is happening to it now, and how she used translations of actual women's stories to write her recently released novel, Lonely River Village.

Women & Sexuality in Hebrew Scripture
Thu 4 December 2014 @ 1:00 pm - #28
Instructor: Hilary Lipka
What It Is: This presentation, melding history, religion, and modern feminist theory, examines biblical legal traditions concerning marriage, sex, and procreation. How is women's sexuality treated in the Old Testament, and what can it tell us about women's sexual lives in ancient Israel? We will explore this question by considering biblical texts that address women's premarital and marital sexual behavior. We will discuss what these texts reveal about ancient Israelite expectations of women.

Religion in New Mexico
Tue 9 December 2014 @ 10:30 am - #32
Instructor: Kathleen Holscher
What It Is: An interdisciplinary humanities and social science-based look at faith communities in our state. NM has a history characterized by the meeting of Christianity and indigenous world views. Today the state is home to diverse Christians, as well as Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, and an eclectic array of "new agers." Holscher will present the historical roots of this diverse landscape and analyze how religion has helped form the region's political and cultural identity.