Beginner I Yiddish (Wednesday)

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

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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: Ethel Niborski

Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for those who are new to Yiddish or would like a review.

What topics will this class cover?
Through a variety of historical and contemporary resources, including texts, songs, oral histories, videos, and games, students will learn the alefbeys (alphabet) and develop foundational reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills. Participants will learn to introduce themselves, describe their feelings, interests, surroundings, family, and friends, to ask questions and to request answers. Alongside grammar instruction, students will become acquainted with key institutions and figures in Yiddish culture, both past and present, and will even celebrate a few autumn holidays together.

Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
Though the Yiddish alphabet will be reviewed during the initial sessions of this course, we strongly encourage students to acquaint themselves with the alefbeys in its printed and cursive forms before class, as the course will move at a fast pace. The tools and videos provided here will be helpful in getting a handle on reading and writing the alefbeys, and are designed for independent use.

Course Materials:
This course will use the textbook In eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook, Vol I & II by Asya Vaisman Schulman, Jordan Brown, and Mikhl Yashinsky (Purchase).

Ethel Niborski was raised in Jerusalem in a Yiddish-speaking family. She recently completed her studies at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, where she directed two short films in and about Yiddish — her creative work intertwines poetry and politics, using her mother-tongue to explore complex realities of the Jewish present.

Ethel works as a Yiddish journalist, translator, and teacher. She participated in the Advanced Seminar for Yiddish Teachers in Berlin, and she has taught at the Warsaw Summer Seminar for Yiddish Language and Culture, at Maison de la Culture Yiddish in Paris, and at Yiddish in Berlin, co-organized by the Free University. She has led film and writing workshops in Yiddish and organized various cultural events around the role of Yiddish creativity in turbulent times.

**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.