Hayim Lapin

This professor has taught: HIST219T, HIST281, HIST282, HIST287, HIST289T, HIST291, HIST320, HIST370, HIST371, HIST419F, HIST419V, HIST429B, HIST619L, HIST639B, HIST639F, JWST230, JWST231, JWST233, JWST325, JWST331, JWST386, JWST469P, JWST619, RELS219C, RELS230, RELS273, RELS289M, RELS419L

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Hayim Lapin HIST289T Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2023	Professor Hayim, or HayHIM as my friends and I call him, is super knowledgeable about the course topics to the point that he struggles with which information is the most important. He tends to stumble through his lectures but he is genuine in wanting everyone to understand the information. The reading can be long but are manageable if you don't take notes. Our TA was super helpful and pushed us to think outside of the box. If you're not already interest in religion and religious movements DO NOT take this class, but if you are, this will be a wonderful class to take.
Hayim Lapin HIST289T Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2023	Professor Lapin does stumble on his words frequently, but he is extremely knowledgeable and genuinely committed to making sure his students learn. The midterms are take home quizzes that are extremely easy. The essays are few and far between and also graded very generously. His lectures for this class were very interesting. Attendance is graded. The class is pretty easy, but there is a TON of reading, though he usually goes over what you actually need to know from the reading in lecture and discussion, so you can just skim. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and recommend Lapin.
Hayim Lapin JWST233 Anonymous 05/21/2023	Disregard all the other reviews because they are from 2010... Professor Lapin is super friendly, understanding, and nice. He is a good instructor it is just that the lectures are boring. It really depends on how interested you are in the topics on the syllabus. For some reason, I thought the class was going to be super easy like decorating menorahs and reading preschool versions of the topics, clearly, I was wrong. You have to write an outline 1x a week on the chapters, and it it's easy but the more detail the better the grade. Quizzes are kind of hard if you don't know the material but you can easily Google. He likes all of your assignments to be really detailed, especially the essays. Overall, I would recommend the class IF you are interested in early Judaism before the Holocaust. The class just wasn't in my interest but a super nice professor.
Hayim Lapin JWST230 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2022	Professor Lapin is not a bad instructor. He knows what he's talking about and genuinely wants to make ancient material relevant to students. His course material (I took his class on inventing tradition/rabbinic Judaism) is interesting, if you're into that kind of thing, but it can get caught up in minutiae, as rabbinic Judaism tends to do. He does want you to succeed, so if you're struggling to understand, go to him sooner rather than later to see what can be done. My biggest critique is that he is a bit scatterbrained. He does say "um" a lot, but not for lack of trying. He is so intelligent that it can be difficult for him to convey information in the most clear way, but he conveys it nonetheless. He doesn't mind if you ask questions, and actually encourages it, so don't be afraid to say "hey wait, I didn't get that, please go back." Overall, not a bad experience, just show up to class, don't be afraid to ask for help, and the assignments will be easy enough.
Hayim Lapin Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/27/2010	I just have to say that Prof. Lapin knew his stuff. He was very knowledgeable about most of the stuff we covered in class and almost always had a good and sufficient answer for any question. Unfortunately, knowing the material and being able to teach it are two distinct issues. I had two main issues with the class,all the "um"s and the lack of direction the class had overall. (Note: this is an academic study of the Jewish people's history; therefore, if you take this class expect to be faced with opinions that challenge most every aspect of the Jewish faith. You will read articles that claim that there is no G-D, that the Israelites never went to Egypt from Cna'an and that the Patriarchs are a made-up tale. While it's legitimate to question these issues, the way it was presented in class seemed to dictate that these were TRUTHS, not just another side of the coin. I don't blame this on Lapin, rather the book (Effron) was the main source of these "heresies".) Let's talk about the first major issues I had with the class. The exuberant amount of "um"s that Prof. Lapin said in class. I sounds like it would not be such a major issues but after sitting in that class for a whole semester I honestly think I would lose my mind if I had to sit through one more lecture! It starts to grate on your nerves, hearing "um" after every single sentence (sometimes even multiple time within the same sentence), until eventually you just can't pay attention to anything but the word "um". It seriously detracts from the level of the class and makes it almost impossible to learn anything. The second issue I had was the seemingly random direction the class took in regard to the source material. You would think that a history course would be pretty straight forth. You go from one time period to the next, chronologically. Unfortunately, there were whole lectures that would deal with the culture of a society or era and would compare/contrast that culture with another, even if one took place much earlier or after the society we were "up" to. For example, when discussing Jewish rights and culture under the Islamic Empire we would contrast those rights with the same ones that Jews possessed under European Christianity, even though they took place at different time periods. This doesn't seem too complicated but when you have a midterm and final in which you have to discuss Jewish culture/society/history from material throughput the whole semester this can get very confusing about what belongs where. Also, we put way too much emphasis and time into minor details that didn't seem to really matter in the overall structure of things. The class seemed to lose track of what was going on and we started a series of lectures on one specific thing, like birthing rights and women's roles in medieval Ashkenaz, and totally lost track on what the overall Jewish history was. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this class. If you want to learn about Jewish history, read a book. Just make sure it's not Elisheva Baumgarten's one. (Note: As part of the course we had to read a book [Elishev Baumgarten's Mother's and Children] and write a 6-8 "paper" on it. (it's in parenthesis b/c the paper was a load of bs), the book was TERRIBLE, it was dense, boring and just repeated the same material over and over. Prof. Lapin and the TA even admitted in class that the book was a mistake to assign for class. You have been warned)
Hayim Lapin Anonymous 12/12/2010	This course was way too much work and extremely boring. We had to write one-page outlines on 2 chapters from the book, one chapter from an outside source and on 3 lectures, before and after the midterm. All together, that is 6 outlines, which take a lot of time to write and shorten to a page. There is a midterm, which was online but closed notes and book, and a final, which is in class. In addition to all of this, there was a 6-8 page "book review" on a boring 200 page book and we had to review three book reviews of the book. This was a waste of time and not helpful to any skills.His lectures are mind-numbingly boring and do not make sense. He posts his lecture slides online but they are impossible to comprehend. As a core requirement, I highly recommend to NOT take this course, especially with Lapin. It is not worth any of your time. There is way too much tedious, unnecessary work, and it takes up way too much of your time
Hayim Lapin Anonymous 11/25/2010	I can honestly say this class was the worst mistake of my life. Granted I'm neither a history buff nor Jewish, but this class has been way more miserable than need be. Professor Lapin's teaching style consists of a lot of incoherent muttering that makes one question "why do I bother". There is an insane amount of reading in the textbook, around 20-30 pages every few days, which for a core, I find RIDICULOUS. And you actually have to do the reading, because you have to submit 6 chapter outlines over the semester which constitute a large part of your grade. Along with that, you have to submit 6 lecture outlines, and given Lapin literally never puts one coherent thought out there, this is quite difficult. Workload: 12 outlines, 6-8 page term paper on a 200-page book, midterm, and final. Only pro: The TA, Josh, is hilarious and actually knows what he's doing. If he taught the class it would be a LOT less miserable, but still not worth it. Just DON'T DO IT.
Hayim Lapin Expecting a B Anonymous 12/12/2008	This class was a disaster. His lectures are extremely boring, and his notes make no sense. He says absolutely nothing helpful in lecture and I haven't learned a thing from this class all semester. There were four books for this class and you have a lot of reading to do every couple of days, so the work load is pretty hefty. I would very strongly recommend avoiding him, especially if you are only taking this class for CORE credit.
Hayim Lapin Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2008	Nice guy, but the lectures could get EXTREMELY boring. Stumbles on his words a lot and made it hard to pay attention. Grades depend on the TA you get (unless you are in his discussion). Made studying for exams or papers very easy, and posted all lecture slides online.