2025 In-Person Course Listings
Language & Literature Classes
Language & Literature classes meet Monday through Friday, 9:50am-11:10am (ET) / 11:40am-1:00pm (ET).
BEGINNER I YIDDISH LANGUAGE (In-person)
Andryusha Kuznetsov
This course is for beginners with some knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet (see course requirements). We will use the textbook In Eynem, volume 1, covering at least chapters 1-10, with a focus on beginner vocabulary that includes numbers, colors, family, work, geography, time, and basic actions, as well as beginner grammar that includes present tense verbs and adjective agreement in the nominative case. Students will learn to use Yiddish greetings, introduce themselves, do basic math, orient themselves in a classroom, discuss routines and schedules, and express simple opinions. Students will be exposed to a variety of authentic media in Yiddish from music to newspaper excerpts to video. Students will complete daily homework and prepare short weekly presentations.
MATERIALS FOR THE COURSE:
— In Eynem, Volumes I & II
— Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary and Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary (students will have free digital access during the program)
— Additional materials provided by instructor
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
— Basic knowledge of Yiddish alphabet in its printed and handwritten forms. Please attend the upcoming alefbeys workshop offered by the summer program. If you are unable to attend the workshop, please email the instructor for study instructions at andryusha.yiddish@gmail.com.
— Students shall be prepared to collaborate with classmates, to speak Yiddish in class, and to complete regular homework assignments.
BEGINNER I YIDDISH LITERATURE (In-person)
Perl Teitelbaum
Students in this course will be introduced to authentic Yiddish texts. The genres include children’s literature, traditional stories, modern poetry, and song texts. These texts will be used as content in developing the four language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing. Grammatical structures taught in the Language section of the Beginners course will be reinforced as encountered in the texts and as needed in communicating about them. Grammatical structures encountered in the readings that are not yet familiar to students will be introduced on a recognition level. Students will also become familiar with Yiddish literary terms.
MATERIALS FOR THE COURSE:
Sheva Zucker, Leyenbikhl far an onheyber-kurs / Textbook for a Beginners Course (course pack, abridged version, provided by the instructor).
Materials developed by the instructor to accompany this course pack (vocabulary PowerPoint presentations, sound recordings) will appear in the Canvas modules regularly. Students may download the materials from Canvas. Also required is an 8x11 paper notebook and pen/pencil for note taking and homework.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Students must attend class regularly and be active participants in classroom activities. Students must complete all assignments on time, make up missed work when absent, and be prepared for class.
BEGINNER II YIDDISH LANGUAGE (In-person)
Perl Teitelbaum
This course is designed for beginners who are already proficient in the alefbeys; it will integrate listening, reading, speaking, and writing. All language and grammar will be taught in context. Attention will also be paid to phonetic rules, along with word and sentence stress, to aid comprehension and pronunciation.
MATERIALS FOR THE COURSE:
— Sheva Zucker, Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature and Culture, volume 1
— Audio recordings which accompany volume 1 of the textbook
— Answer key to volume 1 of the textbook
— Additional materials, which will be made available to students for download on Canvas.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
In class, students will listen, speak, and read as a class as well as work in pairs and small groups. We will work with the textbook, song texts, and teacher-designed materials. Homework will include a combination of studying, doing grammar exercises, reading texts, and writing in preparation to communicate in Yiddish. Assignments will be collected in class.
BEGINNER II YIDDISH LITERATURE (In-person)
Nokhem Lerner
In this course, students will build vocabulary and develop their reading, writing, and comprehension skills. They will be introduced to modern Yiddish culture and literature by reading and discussing texts from various genres: passages from school textbooks, songs, poetry, and short stories. Videos and recordings will supplement the class discussions.
MATERIALS FOR THE COURSE:
Course packet compiled by the instructor and additional class handouts. Students will have digital access to the course materials.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Class attendance, preparation, and participation. Students must be prepared for class, complete all homework assignments on time, and make up missed work when absent.
INTERMEDIATE YIDDISH LANGUAGE (In-person)
Dovid Braun
The goal of this course is to solidify students’ skill in understanding written and spoken Yiddish, to review and deepen their understanding of the language’s grammatical structure, and to expand their vocabulary and proficiency in active usage as readers, speakers, hearers, and writers.
MATERIALS FOR THE COURSE:
— Uriel Weinreich, College Yiddish
— Hanan Bordin, Vort ba vort
— Mordkhe Schaechter, Yiddish II
INTERMEDIATE YIDDISH LITERATURE (In-person)
Adi Mahalel
ליטעראַטור פֿאַר מיטעלע
עדי מהלאל
אין דעם קורס וועלן מיר לייענען אַלערליי טעקסטן פֿון פֿאַרשידענע תּקופֿות און ערטער, אַרײַנגערעכנט פּראָזע, פּאָעזיע און ליטעראַרישע עסייען. יעדע וואָך וועט געווידמעט ווערן אַ געוויסער טעמע. מיר וועלן די טעמעס באַטראַכטן און דיסקוטירן, שרייַבן װעגן זיי קאָמפּאָזיציעס און האַלטן װעגן זיי קורצע רעפֿעראַטן. דער פּראָװיזאָרישער װאָכנפּלאַן איז אַזוי:
— הײַנטצײַטיקע קינדער־ליטעראַטור פֿון דער חסידישער וועלט
— פֿון די ייִדישע קלאַסיקער: מענדעלע, שלום־עליכם און פּרץ
— ייִדישע פּאָעזיע אין פֿינף אַקטן: צונזער, ראָזענפֿעלד, משה־לייב, דראַפּקין און רבֿקה באַסמאַן
— אַמעריקאַנער ייִדישע דערציילונגען: רייזען, סערדאַצקי, ראַסקין
— פֿון די קיבוצים: יאָסל בירשטיין, צבֿי אײַזנמאַן, לילי מיילאַט
— פֿון פֿראַמפּאָל קיין ניו-יאָרק אין באַשעוויסעס גימפּל תּם און די קליינע שוסטערלעך
אַלע מאַטעריאַלן פֿון קורס װעלן צוגעשטעלט װערן פֿון לערער.
ADVANCED YIDDISH LANGUAGE (In-person)
Dovid Braun
This course is for students with considerable previous exposure to Yiddish. Emphasis will be placed on expansion of vocabulary; idiomatic usage; understanding and practicing how the words, phrases, and sentences of Yiddish are composed; and methods to expand one's facility with Yiddish text and speech after having left the classroom.
MATERIALS FOR THE COURSE:
Mordkhe Schaechter, Yidish Tsvey.
Additional materials will be made available by the instructor.
DICTIONARIES:
Required: Bochner/Beinfeld, Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary (verterbukh.org) and Schaechter-Viswanath/Glasser, Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary (englishyiddishdictionary.com). (Students will have free digital access to both for the duration of the program.)
ADVANCED YIDDISH LITERATURE (In-person)
Adi Mahalel
ליטעראַטור פֿאַר אַוואַנסירטע
עדי מהלאל
אין דעם קורס וועלן מיר לייענען אַלערליי טעקסטן פֿון פֿאַרשידענע תּקופֿות און ערטער, אַרײַנגערעכנט פּראָזע, פּאָעזיע און ליטעראַרישע עסייען. יעדע וואָך וועט געווידמעט ווערן אַ געוויסער טעמע. מיר וועלן די טעמעס באַטראַכטן און דיסקוטירן, שרייַבן װעגן זיי קאָמפּאָזיציעס און האַלטן װעגן זיי קורצע רעפֿעראַטן. דער פּראָװיזאָרישער װאָכנפּלאַן איז אַזוי:
— ליטעראַטור פֿון דער חסידישער וועלט: ר' נחמן, מנשה אונגער, שבֿחי־הבעשט
— דער וווּנדער פֿון שונד: אײַזיק־מאיר דיק, שמר און שלום־עליכמס שמרס מישפּט
פֿון די ייִדישע קלאַסיקער:
— מענדעלע מוכר־ספֿרים און י.־ל. פּרץ
— שלום־עליכם: מאָנאָלאָגן, אײַזנבאַן-געשיכטעס, פֿעליעטאָנען
— פֿראַגמענטן פֿון חנן אַיאַלטיס פּאַלעסטינער ראָמאַן, לידער פֿון רבֿקה באַסמאַן און רחל פֿישמאַן
— יצחק באַשעוויסעס אַמעריקאַנער דערציילונגען
אַלע מאַטעריאַלן פֿון קורס װעלן צוגעשטעלט װערן פֿון לערער.
History & Culture Seminars
HISTORY OF YIDDISH CULTURE (Hybrid)*
Cecile Kuznitz
Mondays & Wednesdays | 3:15pm-4:15pm (ET)
Class will be conducted in English, with some readings available in Yiddish.
This class will provide a historical overview of the role of Yiddish in Jewish life and the rich culture produced in the language. Topics will include the sociolinguistic basis of Jewish languages; medieval popular literature for a primarily female audience; the importance of Yiddish in the spread of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment); the language’s role in secular Jewish identity and modern Jewish political movements; and the flourishing of modern Yiddish literature and theater and their intersection with European modernism. We will end the semester by considering the contemporary state of Yiddish culture.
*This class will be offered in person and will also be made available to students in the online program.
THEATER WORKSHOP: THE THIRD SEDER (In-person)
Shane Baker
Mondays & Wednesdays | 3:15pm-4:45pm (ET)
Open to all Yiddish levels. Class discussion will be conducted in Yiddish with English as needed. The instructor will provide all course materials digitally.
Throughout this workshop, we will examine the text of A Naye Hagode shel Peysekh (A New Passover Haggadah) of the Arbeter-ring / Workers Circle, a document reflecting one approach to the over hundred-year-old tradition of the Yiddish cultural seder, an important form of folk theater and a central event of Yiddish organizational life until the beginning of this century. We will read and sing through the texts with emphases on both meaning and declamatory style (Yiddish elocution); we will examine the political and cultural theory behind the text and its iterations over the decades; we will discuss production elements for different levels of seder, from organization to sales to catering to levels of spectacle; and we will discuss ways to take the tradition home with you for drite sedorim (third seders) in your own home, for your community, or for the community you wish to create. The class will be capped by an informal kmoy (mock) celebration of a third seder.
Electives
A YIDDISH PICKLING WORKSHOP FOR SUMMER ABUNDANCE (In-person)
Jeffrey Yoskowitz
Tuesday, July 1 | 6:30pm-7:30pm (ET)
Class will be conducted in English.
You’re invited to join YIVO for a pickling workshop with shtetl pickle master Jeffrey Yoskowitz, Gefilte Manifesto co-author and Gefilteria co-founder. Jeffrey apprenticed as a pickler at Adamah Farm over 15 years ago and has been pickling and fermenting his way around the world ever since. Together we’ll learn how to make sauerkraut and pickle a variety of vegetables using Old World techniques and discuss why lacto-fermentation is the only way to make a sour pickle worthy of the Jewish delicatessen. Moreover, Jeffrey will discuss the importance of pickling in Yiddish cuisine and culture. You'll leave with your own jar to bring home.
A WORLD OF YIDDISH SONG (Online and In-person)
Lorin Sklamberg, Eléonore Biezunski, and special guests
Fridays | 3:15pm-4:15pm (ET) | June 27; July 11, 18, 25
Class will be conducted in English.
Join Lorin Sklamberg and Eléonore Biezunski of YIVO’s renowned Sound Archive, as well as special guest presenters, to be immersed in the world of Yiddish song. In addition to traditional material from the collections of folklorist Ruth Rubin and from YIVO’s newly digitized Yiddish Folksong Project of the 1970s, the class will explore the rhymes of Jewish folk bards, the ecstasy of Hasidic chant, intimate love poetry, European cabaret, and contemporary hymns of protest. Various songs of love and loss, work and struggle, the innocence of childhood, and spiritual joy will be illustrated by rare source recordings drawn from YIVO’s Max and Frieda Weinstein Archive of YIVO Sound Recordings. Song texts will be provided in Yiddish, transliteration, English translation, as well as musical notation when available.