Jewish Studies Program
The Jewish Studies Program at San Diego State University is an interdisciplinary program serving the students of SDSU as well as the greater San Diego Community. We offer a major in Modern Jewish Studies and a minor in Jewish Studies and are dedicated to teaching a broad range of topics related to Jewish history, religion and culture from the biblical through the modern period. Courses offered through our program are open to all SDSU students. In addition, our faculty are actively engaged in teaching to the broader San Diego community.
Give a Gift to Jewish Studies
By supporting Jewish Studies, you are helping to ensure that we remain able to develop new courses, pursue original research, and provide thought-provoking public lectures, programs and outreach to the community.
Meet our Visiting Israelis for 2019/20
Shuki Ben Naim is an Israeli television creator and screenwriter. He is a graduate of the Utniel
Yeshiva and the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, where he majored in screenwriting.
He is known for his hit Israeli television series “Nuyork,” “Urim VeTumim,” “Giora’s
Wife,” and “A Touch Away”. He is regarded for his innovative social media productions
including ones streamed on Soda Stream. Shuki’s latest film series “Our Boys” will
air on HBO this coming year.
Dr. Eran Feitelson is a Professor in the Department of Geography of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and a leading expert on Israeli Water Policy. He is the founder and previous director
of the Advanced School for Environmental Studies. He is currently chairing for the second time the National Parks and Nature Reserves
Commission, having chaired it for ten years in the past.
Dr. Luba Levin-Banchik is a political scientist and historian, studying the evolution of conflict and peace
in contemporary international relations of the Middle East. Her expertise is in the
field of global and regional security, international crisis escalation and recurrence,
domestic and transnational terrorism, cooperation and violence between rivalries,
and nonstate actors.
Dr. Gilad Shtienberg (University of Haifa) studies long-term climate change in Israel and neighboring
lands as a model for more general issues of global environmental change. He specializes
in the understanding theoretical and practical aspects of the landscape changes that
occur in the dynamic environments of the coast zone. His recent projects focus on
human settlement during the Biblical periods along Israel’s northern Mediterranean
coast.
Moshe Zonder was the head writer for Fauda, the enormously successful television series broadcast in Israel. In 2016, Fauda became the first Israeli series to be released as a Netflix Original. He has written
many other screenplays for film and television, most recently for a documentary on
the 1972 hijacking of a Sabena Airways flight bound for Israel. He began his career
as a journalist working at Maariv, one of Israel’s leading Hebrew-language daily newspapers.
Hillel College Guide
San Diego State University is listed among the top 60 public universities in North
America where Jewish students choose to attend according to the latest Hillel College Guide.
Resources for Faculty
The Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative seeks to strategically promote, support and catalyze knowledge discourse and interaction
on the modern state of Israel through scholarship, engagement and collaboration.