Spring Yiddish Classes

Spring Yiddish classes are here! Brush up on your grammar, tackle the Yiddish writers of the first world war, or read the Forverts.

Register for a course.

Have questions? Contact Jennifer Young or Leah Falk (lfalk@yivo.cjh.org).

Elementary Yiddish II
Instructor: Eve Jochnowitz
Thursday evenings, 6:30-8:30pm, February 20-April 24, 2014

This class will build fundamental communication and comprehension skills, based on speaking, listening, grammar exercises, and some reading and writing.  Classes will be structured around conversation, songs, and interactive use of materials adapted from Yiddish literature and folklore. Taught in English.

Pre-requisites: Working knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet, or alef-beys; some previous knowledge of spoken Yiddish and its basic grammatical components.

To review the alef-beys, visit our online worksheet:

Recommended: Yiddishpop.com

Required textbook: Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Vol. 1 by Sheva Zucker

Intermediate Yiddish II
Instructor: Paula Teitelbaum
Monday evenings, 6:30-8:30pm, January 27-April 7, 2014

In this class, students will develop the four primary language acquisition skills: speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing. They will sharpen conversation skills and learn grammar communicatively through instructor feedback and repetition. To develop reading skills, students will read aloud from texts they prepare in advance. Students will bridge the gap between spoken and written language by listening; they will thus learn to group words in phrases, and to tackle the flexibility of Yiddish word order to comprehend meaning. Through reading, students are exposed to new vocabulary, idioms and grammatical structuresas they develop speed and fluency. Taught in Yiddish.

Texts will be provided by the instructor, range in genre from fables, stories, poems, memoirs, journalistic pieces, and songs, and include thematic curricula such as Purim and Passover materials. The website Yiddish.forward.com is often used for its variety of text and video materials. 

Advanced Yiddish:
Literary Seminar – Yiddish Literature of World War I
Instructor:  Gennady Estraikh
Tuesday evenings: 6:30-8:30pm, February 25; March 4, 11, 25; April 1, 8

This seminar, taught in both Yiddish and English, will focus on close readings and contextual discussions of a series of literary fiction and non-fiction relating to the Jewish experience of World War I, moving from well-known authors to rarely read treasures. It will begin with the literature of Sholem Aleichem and Lamed Shapiro (2 sessions), following with excerpts from S. An-sky's diaries (1 session), Y. Krepliyak's 1927 Fun kazarme un milkhome (1 session), K. H. Heisherik's 1930 In fayer un blut (1 session), and J. Mestel's 1924 Milkhome-notitsn fun a yidishn ofitsir.