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The content and intention of this class was phenomenal. Like I said at the beginning, I knew nothing about Jerusalem besides the tiny excerpts that I found in my history books when I was attending high school. I was mainly an East Asian history student so it was nice to finally change up the pace. I have however been fascinated by old civilizations, which for the most part is intertwined with some kind of religion or belief system.
With that said, the knowledge and different perspectives I gained from this class was fascinating. I was completely in the dark about the long history of Jerusalem and how many rulers it had at different periods in history. Yet, before this class I always believed that big business and population support derives directly from religious exploitation, so I was not so surprised to see how the different rulers came to be in power. The main part that was enjoyable was to see how all the three faiths of Abraham got their start and ties to Jerusalem. I had a great time reading the background of the Jewish Faith and how that population of people started their system within the city. I also knew nothing, and when I say nothing I mean I only knew about the five pillars and that the Islamic Profit could not be shown in human form. Learning about that religion and the creation was extremely rewarding, it helped me see a larger picture and the legitimate claim that this faith had to Jerusalem.
In short, from a personal level this class helped me understand a fuller picture of the conflict surrounding this territory and how it is so difficult to solve. It also helped me see why people of all three faiths are so passionate of this territory, which I must admit, before taking the class I never really saw the big deal of who occupies the land and saw it an immature power struggle between the religions. I now see a bigger picture and why it is so important.
Now, moving away from my personal gain from the class I would like to discuss the likes and dislikes I had of the class, also which items I found the most and least useful. Within the content of the reading I believe Karen Armstrong’s book is a must. Like I stated earlier, this was the most useful part of the class; to understand the long upbringing and struggles that occurred within this one city. Without this book I would still be completely lost on why many people are still upset with the situation. The next part I really enjoyed was the article about the musicians that lived in Jerusalem by Tamari, Salim. “Wasif Jawhariyyeh, Popular Music, and Early Modernity in Jerusalem”. This helped shed, at least partly some of the stereotypical thoughts of Jerusalem that no one had fun in the city and everyone just prayed and fought every day of their lives. Seeing a man going to party scenes, staying out all night and just generally having a great time was fantastic. It helped me see the normality of the city as well as the spiritual side.
The next story I enjoyed was the more recent story of the lady talking about getting the gas masks and the trip to the vet with her dog by Amiry, Suad. Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries. Chapter 7: “The Promised Gas Masks” (82-93) and Chapter 9: “A Dog’s Life”. These were absolutely hysterical; I loved her insight and her comedic presentations of the situations at hand. Again, helped kill the “history book” vibe and brought me back down to actual lives inside the city.
I also enjoyed the speakers and video conferences that we had in the classroom. I believe his name was Professor Richard Herrman, his presentation was brilliant and my favorite idea from his lecture was that people will always find a reason to fight, if it was not in Jerusalem over this it would be something else in another place. I never really thought of it that perspective and really enjoyed the new thought. The video conferences were also fun because of the physical gap between us, yet it was that simple to communicate (for the most part). It was also great to read the articles that these scholars produced, then being able to have an hour of their time to speak with them.
My favorite part of the class would have to be my final project though. Instead of hiding in a classroom behind our thoughts and beliefs with people who were sharing in some sense the same ideology, you challenged us to go into the real world and get a much larger perspective on the situation. Again, throughout my life I have done a lot of crazy things, but this was the first time I have ever spoken to a Rabbi as well as gone to a mosque to see a person of Islamic faith. This was by far the most rewarding part of the class. Being able to sit down and have conversations with people about their faith and see their personal beliefs and why they are this way was more educational than an entire quarter in the class.
The next part I really enjoyed, yet sometimes frustrating, was the challenge of getting people to talk to me by the extent of my questions and sincere quest I had for learning, even though I was just an undergraduate student. I must admit though, it felt like you gave me some criticism when you learned of the troubles I had by doing this on my own and I feel like this is the time to explain my theory behind it. I know you are a scholar in this subject, but I did not want to use the sources that everyone else used, mainly because another group in the class did close to the same project as me. I could have used the same people, arrived at the same answers and have the responses be very similar to the thoughts of the entire class. Now my entire point was to get the answers that people have not already heard and not have it sound like it was read off of a politically correct “how to” religious response sheet. I wanted the orthodox aspect, I wanted people to feel uncomfortable while watching my presentation and see some of the problems and thought processes of “non-liberal” people to help understand why the problem still exists so strongly today. Like you said to me, you were surprised I was able to talk to Rabbi Epstein and I got extremely lucky finding Shaykh Amin Abdur-Rashid to speak to and without these two people I would have felt my project was completely worthless and just another agreement to my personal thoughts, which would not have helped me understand and make educated arguments and understandings for other thought processes and ideas.
As for the criticisms for the class, first off as you already know, you need to make Hagarty Hall realize how important it is to need a larger multimedia room for the video conference days. The next is about all the blogging we did. It was a great idea to have us write down our thoughts to the readings, but I felt like it was used as a barrier and let people hide behind their beliefs, rather than confront the class and have a large discussion about it. I will admit, I did it as well, and I think the class would have been much more beneficial. I felt like we wasted too much time getting off subject, and not really using the class time to the greatest extent. In the future, I would ask the students to bring in their responses and read them aloud, or at least paraphrase it. In turn, I believe that if someone did not say something directly in class to the student’s response it would directly lead to more inter-blogging conversations between people because the student would know which one interested him instead of having to wade through thoughts you either agree with, or if I may, not really care or want to give much thought to. I think it was also be beneficial if the class discussed some of the theories or resolutions people in the past had come up with so the students could actually see how the situation has been handled so find a resolution and I believe this would spark a great discussion within the class. Besides these complaints, all the activities and readings that were planned were very great and seemed extremely thought out for the class.
In conclusion, like I have stated I really enjoyed this class and felt it helped me gain a larger perspective on not only the conflict, but a better understanding of the three religions. I really believe that every person, at least in an international field should take a class like this because it gives a large perspective of many conflicts in the world. I would also like to thank you for spending so much time compiling so much research, readings and effort into a class that is considered taboo and an untouchable topic to many people. Your studies made the class very informative, smooth and entertaining and I thank you for that. I really hope the Ohio State University always allows this class to be taught and I wish you good luck on future years.