Intermediate III Yiddish (Monday Morning)

Class starts Sep 9 11:00am-12:30pm

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: Vera Szabó

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

What topics will this class cover?
This class is for students interested in further improving their reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills. Basic grammatical structures such as verb tenses; modal verbs; declension of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives; and the comparative and superlative of adjectives will be reviewed. New topics such as the conditional, habitual past, and pluperfect will be discussed in detail and various oral and written exercises will strengthen all language skills. The primary text will be Sholem Aleichem’s Motl Peyse dem Khazns, chapters 5-8. Readings will also include poetry, folklore, and newspaper articles. We will be using College Yiddish as a grammar reference book.

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

Course Materials:

Sholem Aleichem, Motl the Cantor's Son (abridged and adapted for students with exercises, glossary and audio recording) (Purchase)
College Yiddish: An Introduction to the Yiddish Language and to Jewish Life and Culture by Uriel Weinreich (Purchase)
Bochner/Beinfeld, Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary (verterbukh.org)
Schaechter-Viswanath/Glasser, Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary (englishyiddishdictionary.com)

Additional print and audio material will be provided by the instructor (students will have free digital access).

Questions? Read our 2024 Fall Classes FAQ.

Vera Szabó was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. She holds an M.A. in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University as well as an M.A. in English and German Studies from ELTE University, Budapest.

She has taught Yiddish language, literature and folklore at various universities in the US (University of Michigan, Stanford, the University of Washington) and in Israel (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) as well as in various intensive summer programs (NYU/YIVO, Vilna, and Tel Aviv University.) She currently teaches various levels of Yiddish at Beth Shalom Aleichem.

Vera also translates literary and non-literary texts from Yiddish and Hungarian into English. Her research interest is Yiddish folklore. A certified yoga teacher, Vera has been teaching yoga in Yiddish for the past five years in Jerusalem, where she resides. More information on her website: www.verele.com

**Become a member today, starting at $54 for one year, and pay the member price for classes! You’ll save on tuition for this course and more on future classes and public programs tickets.