Advanced I Yiddish
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 Google Classroom. Students will be granted access to the class on Google Classroom after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in Yiddish and English.
Instructor: Sonia Dratwa-Pinkusowitz
Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for those who have completed Intermediate IV Yiddish or equivalent coursework.
What topics will this class cover?
In this course, students will review and strengthen the reading, speaking, listening, and writing skills acquired in Intermediate IV Yiddish. Grammar will be reviewed as it appears in selected texts (poetry, songs, and short stories). These texts, selected from the works of Sholem Aleichem, Rokhl Korn, Yankev Glatshteyn, and others, will be centered on the role of generations in the Yiddish imagination: how did Yiddish writers of different times and places understand themselves in relation to those who came before and those who would come after? Students will be expected to prepare brief oral presentations and invited to write "creative" paragraphs on themes related to the material under discussion.
Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
Yes, knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is required.
Course Materials:
All course materials will be provided digitally by the instructor.
Questions? Read our 2026 Fall Classes FAQ.
Sonia Dratwa-Pinkusowitz is an associate professor at the Institute of Jewish Studies, The Free University of Brussels (U.L.B.). She has taught Yiddish at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Columbia University, and YIVO where she was responsible for the creation of the Yiddish Teachers Resource Center. While living in N.Y., Sonia conducted a teacher training program as part of YIVO’s Summer Program. She is the founder of the Yiddish intensive summer course “Yiddish on the Continent,” held in alternate years in Brussels, Paris, and Berlin. Sonia regularly teaches in the Ot Azoy program organized annually by the Jewish Music Institute in London.
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