Alan Segal

By far the MOST BORING but EASIEST class I have ever taken. somehow, each week the lectures are boring- which is weird because the subject sounds so interesting. however, if you actually do the reading, it is good material (but there is NO NEED to buy segal's huge book! take it from an A student! promise!).

Alan Segal is a brilliant professor but this class was definitely far from easy. I worked my ass off and got a B. I did learn more things from this course than I have from any course at Columbia/Barnard for a while, but still.

Professor Segal is a great professor and this class is always packed. Judiasm in the Time of Jesus explores many of the traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and the Biblical or historical stories behind them. Some students might be a little surprised by some of the thing Prof. Segal says, or maybe a little unwilling to admit that some of the things they have believed their entire life are very different in reality. He also examines the historical Jesus as opposed to the official institutional version of Jesus. He points out descrepancies in the Bible and uses his very critical approach in some instances to show that a story is unlikely to be true, and in others to show that something from a traditional story very likely did take place. His lectures are very interesting and the reading is not too bad at all. The essay topics also allow the students a lot of room to explore what interests them. I definitely recommend this class to anyone, especially if this is not your area of study and you want to learn about something new-the class is manageable and it might also open up your eyes!

Overall, Segal is not a bad professor -- he does make incredibly odd jokes, mostly political and some slightly sexual. Just ignore them -- this is college, everyone should be able to deal and not take such offensive with what is so obviously absurd. Its a good class, with some interesting ideas taught. I wouldn't really recommend it as an intro for those with no previous knowledge of the bible as he does have a very skewed way of teaching it. Take what you can from the class and stop complaining.

The course should have been called "Life After Death... as it relates to Judaism, the only topic I have any interest in." Seriously, in what should have been an overview of ancient civilizations with DIFFERENT religions, all Segal would do is talk about Judaism. Maybe take a class that is supposed to be about it and you would like him better. But this class was disorganized, sloppy, and overall, not at all informative. His lecture style seems to be "show up and ramble about whatever the hell I want." As for his multi-media content, what the hell does watching excerpts from "The Magic Flute" have to do with anything? Maybe he's nice, maybe he's informative, but that did not come off in this class. The fact that the students were clearly not interested in what he was saying (which was kind of his fault) made him defensive. I really didn't learn anything, but since my TA was nice, I did fine in the class.

Segal is someone you'll either love or hate. His unashamed placement of his owns texts on the syllabus is laughable. His arrogance can sort of be admired abstractly for what it is. He is, however, one of the world's leading experts on Judaism. His class is ill-organized and -attended, but he really doesn't seem to care. He likes to hear himself speak, and I happen to be fascinated with Judaism so I liked to hear him speak also, but I knew plenty of people who had no use for him. It's a coin toss, but if you're very interested in Judaism, you'll like it.

In response to the previous review, he does not hate orthodox Jews. He just disagrees with them. He said that the author of one of the texts, who happens to be an orthodox Jew, is one of his good friends, and one of the guest lecturers, also a friend, was from an orthodox background. i think he's an ordained rabbi, or however you get to be a rabbi, too, so i think he just selects bits and pieces that he disagrees with in the orthodox philosophy, but harbors no general disdain. He is brilliant, but he doens't shove it in your face. He knows German, Hebrew, Greek, French, pieces of Italian, and of course, English. He knows everything there is to know about ancient Jewish civilization, and if you pay attention, you'll realize this. The material is pretty interesting, but i have a hard time caring sometimes because everything is so easy, and there's absolutely no motivation to do the reading except for overzealousness and extra time. He is incredibly sarcastic, so when he told one of the previous reviewers he aims to prove that religion is full of crap, he probably meant that any intellectual human being should ask questions about his or her religion and actively try to find answers, with the knowledge that sometimes there won't be any. Having taken Massad's class on Palestinian and Israeli politics and societies, this class was total cake in terms of offensiveness, except when th…

This class was certainly...interesting (for lack of a better word). Segal is quite pompous and arrogant. He tells awful, often offensive jokes every class and thinks he is very important especially since his last book was published (and yes, we all had to buy it). His most popular joke topics are Jews/Judaism (he's a Reform rabbi who basically rejected the pulpit and has made it clear he's much happier now that he's not observant), women (how can a Barnard professor make such mean Barnard jokes?), and the government (total Bush hater). His lectures were occassionally interesting. The only reason to show up to class is that it makes writing the three 4-5 page papers of the course easier since he goes over each topic. Segal also is a big fan of technology but really doesn't know how to use it. He wastes so much time trying to manipulate the projector and DVD player. He is also often late to class since he's a Jersey commuter. As long as you semi-answer the question asked for the paper topic, you'll get an A. Such easy grading it's ridiculous. This class is also a total jock class...I had practically the entire football and wrestling team in my class. It fufills a Barnard requirement and is an incredibly easy A.

This is by far one of the worst classes I have taken here so far. Segal loves to hear himself talk and goes on tangents freqeutnly. There is no need to buy his book (he will put it on the books for the course because he gets royalties on it) because you dont use it at all. perks of the class include that there really isnt much work and you dont need to do the reading. also, hes a really easy grader, a guaranteed A if your TA likes you. if you want a boring class with an easy A take it.

Overall-I highly recommend this class!!! Prof. Segal is highly knowledgeable in this subject and is very friendly both in and out of class. I took this class to fulfill a requirement and I walked away from the class learning a lot. Lectures engaging as he loves to use the projector with every one of his lectures.