Beginning this fall, all Barnard College students will be permitted to take courses at the Jewish Theological Seminary as part of an expanded initiative announced on Monday that builds on the school’s existing dual-degree program, eJewishPhilanthropy has learned.   

Jewish studies courses at JTS — located near Barnard’s Morningside Heights campus — will now count toward Barnard degree requirements, with students able to participate with no additional tuition costs.

Course offerings will include “Women and Biblical Law,” which explores gender and legal traditions in ancient Jewish sources, and “Jews of Renaissance Italy,” which investigates the cultural and intellectual history of Jewish communities during the Italian Renaissance.

The partnership comes as Barnard — which is closely affiliated with Columbia University but has independent administration and affiliation — is under investigation by the Trump administration for violating Title VI by not addressing harassment of Jewish students. 

Barnard faced several major incidents of antisemitism on its campus during the last academic year. A staff member was assaulted and sent to the hospital in February by anti-Israel demonstrators who stormed the college’s main administrative building and remained there for several hours, chanting “resistance is justified when people are occupied” and “intifada revolution.” 

The demonstration was a response to the school’s decision just days earlier — in its most forceful response to anti-Israel activity on campus to date — to expel two second-semester seniors who disrupted a “History of Modern Israel” class on Columbia’s campus by storming in, banging on drums and distributing posters to students that read “CRUSH ZIONISM.” 

Shuly Rubin Schwartz, chancellor of JTS, said in a statement that the new partnership will build on the longtime Barnard-JTS program, which “has a distinguished history, with outstanding alumni who have made tremendous contributions to American Jewish life, as rabbis, institutional leaders, physicians, attorneys, and more.” 

“We are excited to welcome Barnard students and to provide them with access to a deeper Jewish studies experience and the expertise and scholarship of our renowned faculty. I look forward to further strengthening the powerful, enduring partnership between our schools,” Rubin Schwartz said. 

“This growing relationship will provide Barnard students with unprecedented access to one of the preeminent Jewish studies institutions in the world,” Rebecca Walkowitz, provost of Barnard, said in a statement.