YIVO's Summer Program Brings Together a Unique Cadre of Students from Diverse Backgrounds

On Friday, July 28, 2023, 82 students graduated from The Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture, the world’s longest-running Yiddish summer program.

For the second year in a row, the program featured two tracks running concurrently, one online and one in-person. This made it possible to meet students wherever they were, whether they could travel to New York for the summer or opted to study from the comfort of home.

Part of what makes the Uriel Weinreich Summer Program unique is the wide range and types of students it attracts from across the United States and around the world. This summer’s program brought together students from 20 states in the US and 12 countries – Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Great Britain, Greece, Israel, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States.

This year’s advanced class, taught by the program's Academic Director, David Braun, exemplifies the diversity of the students. Elizaveta Domnikova, who is earning a PhD in Yiddish Literature, is originally from Moscow. She fled her home country and is now living in Germany. Mark Gaysinskiy, from New Jersey, is the program’s youngest at seventeen years old, and is taking the program for the second time. Rashel Tublin is a scholar from London who recently graduated with a PhD in Applied Mathematics and is studying Yiddish to reconnect with her Jewish ancestry. An astronomer, Tamara Helfer began learning Yiddish in Summer 2020 as a fun pandemic hobby. She has come back to the summer program every year since and is now a Yiddish translator. Two students in the class come from Canada, Jacob Hermant, who is studying Yiddish literature and climate imagery, and Graeme Myers, who is studying Yiddish speakers in Latin America and their relationship with indigenous cultures.

“We’re fortunate to welcome a remarkable cohort of students to the Summer Program each year, and this year is no exception,” said Ben Kaplan, YIVO’s Director of Education. “I’m delighted that our dual-program format has made it possible to draw such a wide diversity of students from around the world, a diversity of backgrounds and experiences that enriches all of us at the program.”

They, and the rest of the program’s students, completed six weeks of intensive study of Yiddish language, literature, and culture, including over 180 course hours, and are eligible to receive college credit through Bard College.

This year’s Summer Program offerings included seminars on Yiddish literature and culture and electives on Yiddish song, cooking, pickling, archival research, and the art of translation. The program also included The Yiddish Civilization Lecture Series, a lecture series covering broad topics from Yiddish opera, poetry, and literature to education, popular culture, and the development of the Yiddish language.

To help students connect outside the classroom and practice their conversational Yiddish, YIVO also hosted online student colloquia, during which students presented their academic and creative work. It is also one of several opportunities for online and in-person students to get to know one another.

On Friday nights during the course, the Summer Program hosts a shabes-farbrengen, a celebratory online gathering where students can meet and chat with a special guest from the world of Yiddish arts and culture. Guests this year included Yiddish singer Sveta Kundish, journalist and playwright Rokhl Kafrissen, and novelist and essayist Dara Horn—all alumni of the Summer Program.

Some other highlights included a visit to CYCO, the last Yiddish bookstore in New York City, and two unique tours. The first tour, led by urban geographer Elissa Sampson and focused on the history of the Lower East Side. The second tour, through Hassidic Williamsburg, was offered twice, once in English and once in Yiddish. It was led by Frieda Vizel, a Williamsburg native whose YouTube channel focuses on Hasidic culture. Her videos also air on Jewish Life Television.

During this year’s graduation ceremony, Ruth Levine, the Chair of YIVO’s Board of Directors, announced a new summer program scholarship being established in honor of Chava Lapin, z”l. A longtime Yiddish teacher in the Summer Program and a member of the YIVO Board of Directors, Chava passed away in June of 2023. Her unparalleled knowledge of Yiddish has influenced generations of scholars, students, and the general public. Her passing is a profound loss to YIVO and the entire community.

Established in 1968, the Summer Program has become a symbol of Yiddish cultural resilience and continuity. The first and longest-running program of its kind, YIVO’s Summer Program has trained generations of scholars, teachers, and students to embrace the richness, complexity, and beauty of the Yiddish language and Yiddish culture. Alumni from the Summer Program have gone on to careers as leading academics and scholars, world-renowned musicians and artists, archivists, librarians, teachers, and individuals from all professions and walks of life who draw inspiration from Yiddish culture.

YIVO has seen unprecedented demand for its Yiddish classes since the beginning of the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, YIVO typically offered three to five Yiddish language and culture classes per season. This past spring season, about 350 students were enrolled in 36 classes.

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YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story