Every year, the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies sponsors a variety of courses related to modern Israel in departments across campus. Search for upcoming, Center-sponsored courses below.

Center-Sponsored Courses

Fall 2025

National Security vs. Human Rights: Israel in Comparative Perspective

International Area Studies 188

Instructor: Dr. Rachela Er’el

Day & Time: Mon/Wed | 11 AM–12:15 PM 

Course Description: A research-oriented examination of constant tension that democracies face between protecting human rights and maintaining national security. Students review and discuss key theoretical approaches to analysis of this tension. Study asks how security decisions are made, what considerations guide them, what social goals are advanced in the name of national security, and what impact using national security considerations has on democracy's strength. Israel used as case study. Ongoing global trends are highlighted using Israel's political and institutional structure, and its continuous dealings with external and internal threats.

Winter 2026

Diaspora Politics

Political Science 139

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Stein

Day & Time: Mon/Wed | 8–9:50 AM 

Course Description: Diasporas are minority ethnic groups of immigrant origin that have sustained psychological, social, political, and material connections to their putative ancestral homeland or country of origin. This course examines how diasporas organize to create activist, advocacy, and lobbying movements and organizations to advance their collective interests among domestic policymakers and political leaders, all while navigating normative, structural, and political opportunities and constraints in the countries where they live. We examine scholarly approaches and problems relevant to diaspora politics in the 21st century with current-events examples from Jewish, Palestinian, Armenian, Iraqi, and Ethiopian communities mostly in the US, and from Hungarian and Turkish communities throughout Europe. 

Sociology 180A

 Instructor: Dr. Rachela Er’el

Day & Time: Tu/Th | 12:30–1:45 PM 

Course Description: This course asks how nations address and manage complexities of cultural and ethnic diversity; to what extent state policies and institutional frameworks impact dynamics between minority and majority groups; and what role social structures and interactions play in shaping collective identity of social groups within national context. Study centers on dynamics of minority-majority relationships, with specific focus on Israel as case study. Key topics for discussion encompass multiculturalism, discrimination, inequality, migration, and social mobility. Also, students make comparisons between how Israel addresses social diversity and how other complex societies—such as U.S., Australia, and European nations—handle similar issues.

History C187L

Instructor: Dr. Omri Shafer Raviv

Day & Time: Mon | 12–2:50 PM 

Course Description: Development of skills to conduct research through close work with primary sources, using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the main case study. Analysis of 20th-century sources, including archival documents, diaries, poems, official statements, and papers that serve different research approaches, such as political and social history. Discussions address real dilemmas that historians of Israel and Palestine face. Focus on the role of archives, including what archives exist, why some are disappearing, what they contain, and how they have changed the understanding of this particular history.

Introduction to Israeli and Palestinian Literature

 Comparative Literature 191

 Instructor: Dr. Ethan Pack

 Day & Time: Mon/Wed | 3:30–4:45 PM

Course Description: A survey of literature from Israel and Palestine, and from wider Israeli and Palestinian diasporas, over past century. Texts grapple with most compelling issues in Israeli and Palestinian life today, including impact of political violence. Students read groundbreaking texts that reflect growth of these two national cultures. Consideration of impact of war, trauma, and postwar trauma; ongoing crisis of Palestinian statelessness; ethnic diversity of Israel's Jewish immigrants; long shadow of Holocaust; place of religion in Israel and Palestine; and changing roles of gender, sexuality, and protest across these two societies. Focus on ways that literature has shaped collective consciousness around these and other formative issues.

Spring 2026 

Introduction to International Human Rights Law

 Global Studies 160

Instructor: Dr. Rachela Erel

Day & Time: M/W | 12:30–1:45 PM

Course Description: This course offers an accessible and comparative introduction to international human rights law. It examines core international legal instruments, institutional enforcement mechanisms, and key debates surrounding universality, cultural relativism, and the interpretation of human rights norms across different legal, cultural, and political contexts. Through comparative case studies—including Israel, the United States, Europe, and selected Arab states—the course explores how international human rights law is implemented, contested, and enforced in practice.

Democracy Under Pressure: Comparative Challenges in the United States and Israel

 International & Area Studies

Instructor: Dr. Rachela Erel

Day & Time: Tu/Th | 12:30–1:45 PM

Course Description: This course examines contemporary challenges to democratic governance through a comparative analysis of Israel and the United States. Topics include constitutional structure, separation of powers, judicial review, minority rights, religion and state, national security, and populism. Drawing on political theory, constitutional law, and human rights scholarship, the course explores processes of democratic erosion and resilience in two distinct democratic systems.

Special Courses in Film, Television, and Digital Media: Israel and Palestine on Screen: Film and Television from the Middle East

FILM TV 188A

Instructor: Dr. Ethan Pack

Day & Time: M/W | 1:00–2:20 PM

Course Description: A survey of Israeli and Palestinian films, television series, and literature, from a land often defined by its depiction on screen. We will view groundbreaking films and shows that grapple with the most compelling issues in Israeli and Palestinian life today, including the impact of political violence and religious extremism. The course will consider the increasing prominence of Middle Eastern content on streaming platforms. We will discuss questions of adaptation between cultures and across genres, while examining how different forms of media respond to one another. Our material will explore the complex positions of Palestinians in both Israel and the Occupied Territories; the internal diversity of Israel’s Jewish immigrant communities; and the domestic dramas of Jerusalem, among many other compelling topics.

For questions whether a course will count toward another major or minor, please consult your departmental Student Affairs Officer.

Search for classes below related to Israel in a wide range of disciplines. Select academic year and quarter to view course offerings.