Elisheva Carlebach

This class was solidly okay. Professor Carlebach was a good professor, who didn’t lecture too fast and was passionate about the material. I’m not a history major, but still found the class pretty interesting, minus the readings which were frequently dry, esoteric, and not needed to understand the lecture content.

I disagree with what other people have said here. I found Prof Carlebach's lectures to be a solid 'meh'. The earlier lectures were interesting, but only got drier as the semester progressed. The amount of reading was manageable, but varied significantly in relevance and interest. The discussion sections were awkward and quiet. The grading of the exams and papers was pretty harsh, especially for a global core. Not to say global cores should be easy, but this class was less accessible to non-history students than it could have been. For the midterm and final (non-cumulative) we had 25-30 readings and a dozen or so primary sources we were responsible for. Each exam was 8 questions of which we chose 7. For every point made in each short answer question (ie. every fact, person, event mentioned) we had to cite both the reading and the author it came from. Memorizing the names of each reading, their authors, and the relevant facts from each (rather than just learning the actual material) made studying for these exams way more tedious than necessary, while contributing nothing to what you might actually be learning. Also, doing all this will not guarantee a decent grade, only that you don't fail. Overall this is a fine course to take if you really need to fill a 4-credit global core requirement, or you are genuinely interested in the material. Many people clearly enjoyed the class. Ho…

Professor Carlebach teaches concepts incredibly clearly and is very and caring to her students. 1 Columbia University: Arts & Sciences Spring 2025 Course: HISTUN3645_001_2025_1-JewsinEarlyModernEurope,1492-1750 : HISTUN3645_001_2025_1 - Jews in Early Modern Europe, 1492-1750 Instructor: Elisheva Carlebach

I learned a lot of history (from the time of the New Testament through today) about conversion. I also learned about how historians understand and present conversion. I learned how to analyze different models of conversions and how to evaluate primary sources on conversion.

I learnt more about the ways in which knowledge has been transmitted in Jewish culture across time, as well as the different ways to analyse these modes of knowledge transmission.

The research project helped me to discover and to use archival sources; it helped me to analyze the material, to formulate and reformulate a research thesis, to structure the material, and to find a concise and logical narrative.

If you have the opportunity to take this class, absolutely do. Professor Carlebach is an absolute rockstar. Her classes are super fun, even at early 9:00 AM, and she is always there to make time for her students for revising papers and just talking. The workload is not bad, and very manageable as she will have sometimes more than one study session for the final exams to make sure everyone does well. She is literally just the bomb.

Professor Carlebach is the best professor I have had at Columbia, hands down. She is incredibly knowledgeable about her field and extremely clear in her lectures. She is also always available to students who need to speak with her. Her class is very interesting, which made coming to lecture quite a pleasure. The readings supplement the lecture materials. The Midterm and Final exam were both fair and Professor Carlebach is encouraging during them, quite maternal. Medieval Jewish Cultures is an amazing course for anyone interested in history, Judaism, or both. Though Professor Carlebach is an observant Jew, this does not affect the content of her lectures, as she is very neutral. Do yourself the favor and take this class! You won't regret it!

I learned about the history of religious conversion in many different religions and centuries across Europe.

Major themes in book history and historiography; paratextual features of Jewish manuscripts and print.