NYC Gazette

In the fall of 2024, Yeshiva University's Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought, in collaboration with the Robert M. Beren Department of History, sponsored an undergraduate course titled "The Emergence of Europe." This course explored Western Civilization from ancient Greece to the aftermath of the Renaissance and Reformation. Dr. Yisroel Benporat, a program officer and lecturer at the Straus Center, taught the course using classic works from the Western canon such as Hesiod’s Theogony, Homer’s Iliad, Herodotus’ Histories, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Machiavelli’s Prince, and Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.

The course was conducted on both undergraduate campuses of YU and included guest lectures by faculty members. On September 25th, Dr. Steven Fine presented a comparison of Titus in rabbinic and Roman sources based on his current book project. On November 27th, Dr. Shaina Trapedo delivered a lecture titled “Beyond the Stage: Aliens and Antisemitism in Europe Through the Lens of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.” On December 9th, Dr. Ronnie Perelis discussed “Relation of Antonio Montezinos” from Menasseh ben Israel's book The Hope of Israel (1650), which claimed that some Native Americans descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.

Dr. Benporat also organized field trips to New York City institutions with medieval and early modern European history artifacts. On November 11th, he led students to the Met Cloisters museum where they viewed stained-glass designs, tapestries depicting biblical characters, and a fifteenth-century manuscript Tanakh among other items. On December 4th, students visited the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division at the New York Public Library to examine early modern maps showing European attitudes toward exploration.

"The Emergence of Europe" aimed to provide students with foundational knowledge about Western Civilization through canonical texts.