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REGISTRATION FOR TRIP TO YIDDISHLAND ONLINE IS CLOSED.
TRIP TO YIDDISHLAND ONLINE, held entirely on Zoom, will run three full days and will offer a variety of programming.
Note: If you are a Trip to Yiddishland Online registrant and are running into problems accessing Yiddishland programming during Sunday, August 16 - Tuesday, August 18, please email info@circle.org.
Our program includes Yiddish classes for all levels and ages, lectures by Yiddish scholars (in English and Yiddish), klezmer, Yiddish song and Yidishe nigunim workshops, daily concerts featuring Klezmer stars, Yiddish singalongs, children’s program and the opportunity to meet with ardent Yiddishists from around the world. We hope you will join us and become a part of our international Trip to Yiddishland mishpokhe!
The program starts at 10 AM EDT every day and ends at 6:15 PM EDT.
Registration for all of Yiddishland Online (the Yiddishland Full Ticket) is $150, and gives you access to any program throughout the three days. You may also register for individual classes, workshops and lectures for $60 per 3-day session. The daily concerts are $20 per concert, with our final concert on August 18 free to all; it will be live streamed on the Workers Circle Facebook page. Registration for any Yiddishland offering also entitles you to our free events held daily from 5:00 to 6:15PM EDT. If you have any questions, please email Kolya Borodulin at nborodulin@circle.org or Ian Lorand at Ilorand@circle.org.
You can download the Trip to Yiddishland Online schedule here, and learn more about our offerings below.
Welcome to Yiddishland Morning Programs
10:00 – 10:15 AM EDT
Free morning programs for all registrants.
Sunday, August 16:
Introduction and overview
Monday, August 17:
Group Photo (write your name and state/country when on Zoom)
Tuesday, August 18:
Trip to Yiddishland greetings, surprises
Period 1: Taste of Yiddish for All Levels and Ages I
10:30 - 11:45 AM EDT
Beginners I with Mikhl Yashinsky (Max 15 students)
SOLD OUT
This class will provide an introduction to elements of Yiddish grammar and conversation; students will develop a further appreciation of the language’s quiet humor and gratitude for every day of life.
Beginners II with Zisl Slepovitch (Max 15 students)
SOLD OUT
This class will cover Yiddish grammar, reading and speaking, and students will learn new words and useful expressions. Previous knowledge of the Alef-Beys and basic conversation skills are required.
Advanced Beginners with Natalia Krynicka (Max 15 students)
SOLD OUT
This class offers students the opportunity to practice and develop linguistic skills including listening, speaking and reading.
Intermediate with Sheva Zucker (Max 18 students)
SOLD OUT
This class will concentrate on verbs: the conditional, complemented verbs (araynkumen, aroysgeyn) and periphrastic verbs (lib hobn, more hobn), and students will get practice in listening, speaking and reading. Students should have at least one year of Yiddish study, or have heard and spoken Yiddish at home.
Advanced with Eugene Orenstein (Max 25 students)
SOLD OUT
This class will be based on the reading of selected chapters of Yankev Glatshteyn’s prose masterwork, the two volumes “Ven Yash iz geforn,” (1938) and “Ven Yash iz gekumen,” (1940), involving his return to Poland on the eve of WWII to see his dying mother, recalling childhood memories and the multifaceted reality of Polish Jewry on the brink of its destruction.
Advanced – Yiddish Etymology with Leyzer Burko (Max 25 students)
In this class, we will trace the history of a selection of Yiddish words – some old and some young – and see what they tell us about our past and our present. The material for this class will be drawn from the Yiddish Dialect Dictionary, an ongoing online lexicographic project which also aims to include detailed etymologies.
(Klezmer) Topics in Klezmer Music: History, Style and Genre with Deborah Strauss
A hands-on exploration into the world of klezmer music, and will include playing and listening plus discussion of the elements of klezmer music, from historical origins to stylistic signifiers and tune types.
Period 2: Taste of Yiddish for All Levels and Ages II
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM EDT
Beginners Conversation I with Motl Didner (Max 20 students)
SOLD OUT
This class will focus on the basics of Yiddish conversation, the history and development of Yiddish, greetings, introductions, verb conjugation, family history, food and the fine art of the Yiddish kvetch.
Advanced Beginners Conversation with Miriam Koral (Max 15 students)
SOLD OUT
In this class, students will learn new vocabulary on topics like vacation, appearance, and the pandemic; learn juicy Yiddish expressions, and sing a few songs. Students should be somewhat familiar with Yiddish.
Beginners Conversation II with Alexandra Polyan (Max 15 students)
SOLD OUT
This class will be aimed to boost speaking skills, using topics including appearance, clothes, weekdays, and the weather. Basic knowledge of Yiddish is required, but knowledge of the alef-beys is not.
Intermediate Conversation with Yankl-Peretz Blum (Max 10 students)
SOLD OUT
This class is intended for intermediate-level Yiddish speakers who wish to increase their fluency and enrich their vocabulary by conversing on topics of interest to them.
Advanced with Yitskhok Niborski (Max 25 students) SOLD OUT
This class will cover Sholem Aleichem’s Railroad Stories, first looking at the themes and structures of the stories and then reading and analyzing one of them.
Advanced with Avrom Lichtenbaum (Max 25 students)
This class will explore how Yiddish humor, and how tough topics that have been written about with humor has become an area of research interest.
Hasidic and Yiddish Nigunim with Cantor Jeff Warschauer
Learn and sing deep and soulful melodies, from quiet and introspective to joyous and foot-stomping.
Period 3: Lectures and Workshops
1:45 PM - 3:00 PM EDT
American Yiddish Literature of the Interbellum Period with Eugene Orenstein
This class will spotlight the creation of the Introspectivist movement, In Zikh, which stimulated and refreshed Yiddish literary creativity at that time, focusing on the Red Scare of 1919–1921, Henry Ford’s “The International Jew,” American Jewry in the Interwar Years, and Polish Jewry in the Interbellum Period.
Jewish Laws and Traditions in Yiddish with Michael Wex
This class will cover three topics: Pigs, Poultry and Pampers: Jewish Law and Ritual in Yiddish; Tales Out of Kheyder: Traditional Education and Its Place in Yiddish; Heartburn as History: Sabbath Foods and their Role in Yiddish.
Candles of Song: Yiddish Poems about Mothers with Sheva Zucker
This class covers poems about mother-child relationships (from both angles), love and rebellion, the changing relationship to Jewish tradition, survival during the Holocaust, the sadness of watching a parent grow senile and much more. Many of them shatter conventional notions we might have had about Jewish mothers. Poems will be provided in both Yiddish and English. Discussion will be in English.
Laughing in the Dark: The Yiddish Humorist Der Tunkeler with Shane Baker
This class will examine the life, influences, and work of Yosef Tunkel, one of the most prominent and productive humorists of his age, with work in genres including cartoons, literary and cultural parodies, and autobiographical reportage. Texts will be provided in Yiddish and in English.
Zion's Harp by the East River: American Yiddish Penny Songs with Jane Peppler
Learn about the Tin Pan Alley and ragtime songs loved by New York City's Jewish immigrants at the turn of the 20th century. These songs, heard everywhere, had a huge appeal to newcomers yearning to understand their new world and join in, and their lyrics (satirical, bitter, comic, sentimental) reflect Jewish concerns and Jewish life on the Lower East Side of the time and have a lot to teach us today.
Yiddish Song Workshop with Zisl Slepovitch
Learn and sing Yiddish songs to decompress from the stressful year – both traditional songs and those with known authors – about love, food, and travel.
(Klezmer) A Deep Dive Into Wolf Kostakowsky with Aaron Alexander
Participants will learn a couple favorite tunes each day, hopefully leading to a collaborative video assembled from students’ submissions.
Period 4: Daily Concert - A Yiddishland Tradition
3:15 - 4:30 PM EDT
In Trip to Yiddishland tradition, our August 18 concert will be held in memory of Adrienne Cooper and Pesakh Fiszman.
On Sunday, August 16, we will be joined by the following performers:
On Monday, August 17, we will be joined by the following performers:
FREE CONCERT
On Tuesday, August 18, we will be joined by the following performers:
Period 5: Trip to Yiddishland Evening Events
5:00 - 6:15 PM EDT
The following events are free to all who register for a Yiddishland Full Ticket, or individual class, lecture, workshop or concert. You will be able to choose which events to join at registration check-out.
A Guest in Yiddishland: Meet Ardent Yiddishists of Today (In Yiddish)
August 16: Velvl Chernin (Israel) (Yiddish poet, co-editor of Yiddish Journal “Yidishland”)
August 17: Arun Viswanath (USA) and Niki Olnianski (Sweden) (Translator and publisher of Harry Potter in Yiddish).
August 18: Asya Schulman (Director of the Yiddish Langauge Institute at Yiddish Book Center) and Seb Schulman (Executive Director, KlezKanada) (Canada)
August 16 Vortkontsert: Classic Yiddish poetry and prose both favorite and forgotten recited in the style Shane Baker learned from some of the last great stars of the Yiddish stage, his mentors Luba Kadison and Mina Bern. Recitations in Yiddish, English titles.
August 17 & 18: Yiddish Sing-along with Cindy Paley (texts are provided in transliteration and English translation.)
Children's Program: 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM EDT
Limited to 15 children, age 6-11. Only available to those who register; priority will be given to Yiddishland Full Ticket holders.
Thank you to the following funders of our Yiddish programming for their support: Atran Foundation, The Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation, Chaim Schwartz Foundation, Slomo & Cindy Silvian Foundation, Charles and Mildred Schnurmacher Foundation.
Please note: All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). Yiddish classes have limited student enrollment capacity.
Lectures and concerts do not have a capacity limit. Participants should only register for one class or lecture during each period.