Intermediate II Yiddish (Sunday)

Class starts Sep 8 4:00pm-5:30pm

Tuition: $480 | YIVO members: $375**
Students: $240 (Must register with valid university email address)

This is a live, online course held weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, assignments, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in Yiddish and English.

Instructor: Karolina Szymaniak

Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for those who have completed Intermediate I Yiddish or equivalent coursework.

What topics will this class cover?
This course will develop skills in reading, speaking, listening, and writing Yiddish for lower intermediate students. Students will learn with the help of both historical and contemporary materials, including songs and film excerpts. The class will broaden the scope of students’ vocabulary and structures. Grammatical topics will mainly include past tense and declension of pronouns. Depending on the group composition, the course may also include a review of declensions. Vocabulary topics will include telling time, talking about past time activities, and family history. The class will work with the textbook In eynem, beginning from selected sections from chapter 14 through 17. The communicative approach of In eynem will be complemented by a more structural approach to learning grammar.

Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
Yes, knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is required.

Course Materials:
This course will use the following textbook:

In eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook, Vol II by Asya Vaisman Schulman, Jordan Brown, and Mikhl Yashinsky (Purchase)

The instructor will provide all other course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.

Questions? Read our 2024 Fall Classes FAQ.

Karolina Szymaniak is assistant professor of Yiddish at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Her research interests range across modern Yiddish literature, Polish-Jewish cultural relations, and translation studies. She is also co-founder of the Jewish Arts Institute/Yidisher Kunst-Institut, and co-editor-in-chief of East European Jewish Affairs. In addition to having taught Yiddish language and culture throughout Europe, she has also served as a consultant for the POLIN Museum in Warsaw and the Museum of Modern Art in Łódz. Her recent publications include Montages. Debora Vogel and the New Legend of the City and My wild goat. Anthology of women Yiddish poets (in Polish) and Hasidic Steam Engine and Other stories. Anthology of Yiddish short stories, 16th-21st centuries (in Polish). She is also the editor of Rachel Auerbach's ghetto writings, which received the 2016 Polityka History Award. Her new edition of Auerbach’s wartime and postwar writing is forthcoming in French.

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