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BEGINNER CLASSES
Beginners Yiddish Literacy with Kolya Borodulin
Mondays 6:30 – 8:00 pm: July 5, 12, 19, 26, August 2
Course Goals: Learn common Yiddish words and how to read them in print.
Course Tools: Short Yiddish texts and poems written by children in ghettos.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys not required.
Intensive Beginners I with Leyzer Burko
Mondays and Thursdays, 6:30 – 8:00 pm: June 28, July 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29
Course Goals: Learn basic conversation and reading skills, with emphasis on speaking and communicating grammatical concepts intuitively.
Course Tools: In Eynem, by Asya Vaisman Schulman, Jordan Brown, and Mikhl Yashinsky (available for purchase here), along with materials provided by the instructor.
Additional Info: Students should learn the Alef-Beys in advance. They can practice their reading using the comic section at the beginning of In Eynem and watch the first units of YiddishPOP.
Intensive Beginners Conversation (continuation of Spring 2021 semester) with Baruch Blum
Mondays and Thursdays, 7:00 – 8:30 pm: July 8, 12, 15, 19, 22, 26, 29, August 2, 5, 9
Course Goals: Continue developing basic conversational skills in Yiddish.
Course Tools: Colloquial Yiddish.
Textbook can be purchased here:
audio files, here.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys not required.
Beginners Yiddish Literacy with Kolya Borodulin
Tuesdays 1:00 – 2:30 pm: June 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27
Course Goals: Learn common Yiddish words and how to read them in print and script.
Course Tools: Teacher created materials which follow the Alef-Beys lessons in the first 5 units of Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vol. I by Sheva Zucker.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys not required.
Beginners I with Eve Jochnowitz
Tuesdays 11:00 am – 12:30 pm: June 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27
Course Goals: Basic comprehension, reading, writing, speaking, and grammar.
Course Tools: Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vol. I by Sheva Zucker (Units 1–4), supplementary basic reading texts and songs.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys is not required.
Beginners Conversation I with Baruch Blum
Wednesdays 6:30 – 8:00 pm: July 7, 14, 21, 28, August 4
Course Goals: Build basic conversational skills in Yiddish.
Course Tools: Colloquial Yiddish.
Textbook can be purchased here;
audio files, here.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys not required
Beginners I with Yankl-Peretz Blum Thursdays 11:00 am – 12:30 pm: July 8, 15, 22, 29, August 5
Course Goals: Acquire the basics of Yiddish in a friendly and interactive manner. By the end of the course, students will have acquired a vocabulary of close to 200 words and the ability to form simple sentences in the present tense.
Course Tools: YiddishPOP.com (Lessons 1.1 through 2.5).
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys is not required.
This Class is Sold Out
Beginners Conversation I with Baruch Blum
Fridays 11:00 am – 12:30 pm: July 9, 16, 23, 30, August 6
Course Goals: Build basic conversational skills in Yiddish
Course Tools: Colloquial Yiddish.
Textbook can be purchased here;
audio files, here.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys not required.
Beginners II with Yankl-Peretz Blum (continuation of Spring 2021 semester)
Sundays 11:00 am – 12:30 pm: June 20, July 11, 25, August 1, 8
Course Goals: This course builds on the material learned in the spring 2021 semester. By the end of the course, the students will have acquired a vocabulary totaling over 250 words.
Course Tools: YiddishPOP.com (Lessons 3.1 through 3.5) and the teacher’s own visual materials.
Additional Info: Familiarity with the material from the first two units (10 lessons) of YiddishPOP, including knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet, is required.
Beginners II with Eve Jochnowitz (continuation of Spring 2021 semester)
Mondays 4:00 – 5:30 pm: June 28, July 05, 12, 19, 26
Course Goals: Practice using the Yiddish alphabet in basic reading and writing. Continue learning conversational skills and grammar.
Course Tools: Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vol. I by Sheva Zucker (Starting from Unit 6), songs and specialized handouts.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys is required.
Beginners III with Yankl-Peretz Blum (continuation of Spring 2021 semester)
Tuesdays 11:30 am – 1:00 pm: June 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27
Course Goals: This course builds on the material learned in the fall and spring semesters. By the end of the course, the students will have acquired a vocabulary totaling over 450 words, and have gained familiarity with the past tense.
Course Tools: YiddishPOP.com (Lessons 4.5 through 5.4).
Additional Info: Familiarity with the material from the first four units (19 lessons) of YiddishPOP, including knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet, is required.
Advanced Beginners Conversation with Natalia Krynicka
Mondays 3:00 – 4:30 pm: July 5, 12, 19, 26, August 2
Course Goals: Develop speaking and listening skills. Improve fluency in talking about everyday life topics (how to introduce yourself, useful expressions, work, leisure activities, hobbies, etc.).
Course Tools: Readings and vocabulary lists in Hebrew letters and in transliteration provided by the instructor. Short audio and video recordings.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys is required.
Advanced Beginners with Eve Jochnowitz (Continuation of Spring 2021 semester)
Mondays 3:00 – 4:30 pm: 3:00-4:30 June 28, July 5, 12, 19, 26
Course Goals: Practice using the Yiddish alphabet in basic reading and writing. Continue learning conversational skills and grammar.
Course Tools: Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vol. II by Sheva Zucker (Starting from Unit 12A), songs and specialized handouts.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys is required.
Advanced Beginners Conversation with Baruch Blum
Tuesdays 6:30 – 8:00 pm: July 6, 13, 20, 27, August 3
Course Goals: To further develop Yiddish conversation skills, beyond the basic level.
Course Tools: Colloquial Yiddish might be used as a reference. Colloquial Yiddish can be purchased here; audio files, here.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of Yiddish is required.
INTERMEDIATE CLASSES
This Class is Sold Out
Intermediate with Mikhl Yashinsky: Spit It Out
Wednesdays 7:00 – 8:30 pm: June 30, July 7, 14, 21, 28
Course Goals: Study the Yiddish occult! We will let the spirits take us as we examine (and perform practical magic from) Ashkenazic literature of folk remedies, divination, superstition, spellcasting, and fantasy.
Course Tools: Provided readings from Ashkenazic literature.
Additional Info: Suitable for all golems and dybbukim with at least a second-year knowledge of Yiddish. Taught by Mikhl Yashinsky, of the contemporary Yiddish stage's Sorceress. Readings, discussion, and ritual undertaken in Yiddish.
Intermediate I with Leyzer Burko
Tuesdays 6:30 – 8:00 pm: July 6, 13, 20, 27, August 3
Course Goals: Improve conversation and reading skills, brush up on grammar, learn new songs, and enrich vocabulary.
Course Tools: Volume II of Sheva Zucker's Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature, and Culture (starting with lecture 12, along with additional readings of great Yiddish writers provided by the instructor.
Additional Info: Students should already have basic reading knowledge and know how to form the present and past tense.
Intensive Intermediate I with Eve Jochnowitz (Continuation of Spring 2021 semester)
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00 – 2:30 pm: June 29, July 1, 6, 8, 13, 15, 20, 22, 27, 29
Course Goals: Continue developing comprehension, speaking, reading and grammar skills.
Course Tools: Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vol. II by Sheva Zucker (starting with Unit 12), supplementary basic reading texts and songs.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of Yiddish is required.
Intermediate I–II with Sheva Zucker: Motl Peyse dem khazns
Tuesdays 3:00 – 4:30 pm: June 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27
Course Goals: Read Sholem Aleichem’s classic Motl Peyse dem Khazns. Grammar will be drawn from the text itself as will most conversation. The goal is to strengthen existing skills.
Course Tools: Motl Peyse dem Khazns by Sholem Aleichem, Abridged and Adapted for Students with Exercises and Glossary, beginning at Ch. 5. You don’t have to have studied chapters 1–4 to begin at Chapter 5.
Additional Info: The course is designed for people with approximately 1.5–2.5 years of study.
Intermediate I–II Conversation with Natalia Krynicka
Thursdays: 3:00 – 4:30 pm: July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Course Goals: Improve speaking and listening skills, with the focus on developing vocabulary (everyday life, issues of our time, modern technologies, Yiddish culture, etc.).
Course Tools: Readings and vocabulary lists in Hebrew letters and in transliteration provided by the instructor. Audio and video recordings in different dialects.
Additional Info: Previous knowledge of Yiddish is required.
Intermediate III with Eve Jochnowitz Thursdays 4:00 – 5:30 pm: July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Course Goals: Continue developing comprehension, speaking, reading and grammar skills.
Course Tools: Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vol. II by Sheva Zucker (starting with Unit 18A), supplementary basic reading texts and songs.
Additional Info: Course is conducted almost entirely in Yiddish.
Intermediate-Advanced Conversation with Eve Jochnowitz
Wednesdays 4:00 – 5:30 pm: June 30, July 07, 14, 21, 28
Course Goals: Study the life and culture of the Yiddish-speaking world while building skills in speaking and listening comprehension.
Course Tools: Material in Yiddish with transliteration provided by the instructor.
Additional Info: Course is conducted almost entirely in Yiddish.
Intermediate-Advanced Yiddish intonation with Daniel Galay
Thursdays 11:00 am – 12:30 pm: July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Course Goals: Improve and make more confident the use of the unique music of Yiddish speech, learning the theoretical and practical aspects of Yiddish intonation and comparing it with the intonation of other languages such as English, Spanish, and Hebrew
Course Tools: Exercises in day-to-day speech, prose, poetry, and drama. You can take a look at the YouTube videos under the title “Yiddish Zingt Zikh”.
Additional Info: Course is conducted almost entirely in Yiddish.
ADVANCED CLASSES
Advanced with Gennady Estraikh: New Archival Materials about Soviet Yiddish Writers
Sundays 10:00 – 11:30 am: June 20, July 11, 25 August 1, 8
Course Goals: Explore Soviet Jewish cultural and societal life using Soviet secret police files as a source of information about literary life. The opening of many former Soviet archives, most notably in Ukraine, helps to revise or even (re)build our understanding of what was going on in.
Course Tools: Soviet archives about the literary lives of Chaim Gildin (1884-1943), Itsik Kipnis (1896-1974), Hirsh Bloshtein (1895-1978), Moyshe Teyf (1904-1966), and Zelik Akselrod (1904-1941),
Additional Info: This course is taught entirely in Yiddish.
Advanced with Leyzer Burko: The Worlds of Nahum Stutchkoff
Sundays 11:30 am – 1:00 pm: June 20, July 11, 25, August 1, 8
Course Goals: Learn about the life of the great Yiddish radio playwright and lexicographer Nahum Stutchkoff, laugh at his comedies, cry at his melodramas, and enrich vocabulary using his Thesaurus of the Yiddish Language and his program "Mame-loshn."
Course Tools: Original unpublished playscripts, letters, and recordings, all provided in digital format.
Additional Info: This course is taught entirely in Yiddish and Yinglish.
Advanced with Dovid Katz: Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish Journals
Sundays 1:00 – 2:30 pm: June 20, July 11, 25, August 1, 8
Course Goals: Explore the current real-world diversity of Yiddish usage through the language, style, and content of the "published language" variants of a living and massive Yiddish speaking civilization in our midst. The instructor will explain his views (warmly welcoming dissent and lively discussion) that the 'higher linguistic hand' of Language Transition in Progress is underway, along with discernible evidence of the incipient emergence of the mid and late 21st century literary standard.
Course Tools: Readings from Hasidic Yiddish publications from the last five or so years.
Additional Info: This course is taught entirely in Yiddish. Class participants will take turns reading segments as per the classic Yiddish reading circle tradition.
Advanced with Dovid Katz: Vilna in Jewish Lore
Mondays 1:00 – 2:30 pm: July 5, 12, 19, 26, August 2
Course Goals: Read and discuss short excerpts from writings on Vilna. A few of the early readings are in Ashkenazic Hebrew, with full (verbal-only, in-session) translation into Yiddish.
Course Tools: Provided texts of works by sons of the Gaon of Vilna; Shmuel Joseph Fin (Fuenn); Hillel Noah Maggid (Steinschneider); Chaikel (Khaykl) Lunski; Meyshe Kulbak; Kalmen Marmor; Daniel Charny; Max Weinreich; Noyakh Prilutski; Leyzer Ran; and Israel Lempert
Additional Info: This course is taught entirely in Yiddish. Class participants will take turns reading segments as per the classic Yiddish reading circle tradition.
Advanced Conversation with Leyzer Burko
Tuesdays 1:00 – 2:30 pm: July 6, 13, 20, 27, August 3
Course Goals: Improve speaking skills and learn new vocabulary in a class structured around discussion of modern issues and current affairs. Improve fluency and learn how to discuss topics like love, dreams, religion, food, and much more.
Course Tools: Vocabulary lists to help with discussion and short readings from contemporary Yiddish news sources.
Additional Info: Course is conducted entirely in Yiddish.
Advanced with Dovid Katz: Ideas About Yiddish From Its Linguistic Masters
Tuesdays 2:00 – 3:30 pm: July 6, 13, 20, 27, August 3
Course Goals: Read excerpts from a Yiddish scholar’s provocative work about Yiddish, with reference, where relevant, to his/her opponent’s work.
Course Tools: The works of S.A. Birnbaum, Jean Jofen, Yudl Mark, Matisyohu Mieses, Sh. Niger, Chaya R. Nove, Noyakh Prilutski, I.M. Shpilreyn, Max Weinreich, Uriel Weinreich, L.L. Zamenhof.
Additional Info: This course is taught entirely in Yiddish.
Advanced with Eve Jochnowitz: Es iz tsu heys tsu kokhn/It’s Too Hot to Cook
Wednesdays 12:00 – 1:30 pm: June 30, July 07, 14, 21, 28
Course Goals: This course will shed new light on classic refreshing foods like schav, borsht, and tonics to revive and restore our wilting bodies and souls, with special attention to health-supportive preparations suitable for all diets.
Course Tools: Recipes provided by the instructor.
Additional Info: Course is conducted entirely in Yiddish.
Advanced with Yitskhok Niborski: Behind Bars – H. Leivick Held Captive by the Czar
Wednesdays 1:00 – 2:30 pm: June 30, July 7, 14, 21, 28
Course Goals: To read and analyze the works of H. Leyvik (1888-1962), the great poet and playwright who was imprisoned by the Czar and exiled to Siberia from 1906 to 1913 for his revolutionary activity, until he was able to escape to America.
Course Tools: Several poems and excerpts from the works of H. Leyvik, including his poems from the years 1914-1915, the drama “Keytn” (1931), and the memoir “Af Tsarisher Katorge” (1959).
Additional Info: Course is conducted entirely in Yiddish.
Advanced with Dovid Katz: Introduction to Ashkenazic Hebrew
Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:30 pm: July 7, 14, 21, 28, August 4
Course Goals: Gain the skills and confidence to speak Ashkenazic Hebrew as a living language, and better enjoy classic works written in the language, as well as ancient texts as recast in the language over a period of many centuries.
Course Tools: The online manual (and mini-dictionary) developed during the Workers Circle’s first pioneering course in Spring 2021 will be used: https://defendinghistory.com/intro-ashkenazic-hebrew
Additional Info: Conducted in Ashkenazic Hebrew (with occasional explanations as needed in Yiddish, English, or Israeli) is appropriate for participants who have working proficiency in some form of Hebrew (whether ancient, rabbinic, or modern) and who have some passion for East European Jewish culture. Knowledge of Yiddish helpful but not required.
Advanced with Eugene Orenstein: Lamed Shapiro, The Master of the Yiddish Short Story
Thursdays 11:00 am – 12:30 pm: July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Course Goals: Explore the works of Lamed Shapiro (1878-1948), a pioneer of impressionism in modern Yiddish literature. He perfected Yiddish prose style and added deep psychological elements.
Course Tools: The novella "Doc," an autobiographical section from Shapiro's book "The Writer Goes to School/Der shrayber geyt in kheyder”, as well as his famous pogrom story "White Challah/vayse khale”.
Additional Info: This course is taught entirely in Yiddish. This course is not the repetition of the Summer 2020 course.
Advanced with Dovid Katz: Chaim Grade’s Vilna Vignettes
Thursdays 1:00 – 2:30 am: July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Course Goals: Read and discuss Chaim Grade vignettes set in prewar Jewish Vilna.
Course Tools: Der mámes shabósim/Mother’s Sabbaths and Der shtúmer mínyen/The Silent Prayerhouse, with the possible addition of a poem or two. The instructor will provide cultural, linguistic and Vilna-specific background.
Additional Info: This course is taught entirely in Yiddish. Class participants will take turns reading segments as per the classic Yiddish reading circle tradition.
Advanced with Avrom Lichtenbaum: Zusman Segalowitch – The popular writer for the Yiddish reader in newspapers and books.
Thursdays 6:30 – 8:00 pm: July 1, 8, 15, 22, 29
Course Goals: Discover the midpoint between pulp literature and artistic literature, through the lens of Zusman Segalowitch’s amusement-literature for the common people.
Course Tools: The poetry and prose of Zusman Sagalowitch, from before, during, and after the Holocaust.
Additional Info: Course is conducted entirely in Yiddish.
Non-member registration rates for our Yiddish classes are $170 per class that meets once a week and $340 for classes than meet twice a week. Workers Circle members receive a discount on Yiddish registration. If you are not a member of the Workers Circle but would like to become one, click here.