The Memoirs of Puah Rakovsky
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.
Instructor: Vera Szabó
Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for Yiddish students at the high intermediate/low advanced level.
What topics will this class cover?
Puah Rakovsky (1865-1955), an educator, feminist, and Zionist, was a pioneer of her time in both her work and her private life. In her memoir, written in the early 1950s in Israel, she reflects on historical events and her part in them during a period spanning seventy years. In this course, students will read selected excerpts from her memoir titled Zikhroynes fun a yidisher revolutsionern and learn about its historical and cultural context, also appreciating Rakovsky’s original voice and use of stylistic variation.
Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
Yes, knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is required.
Course Materials:
- Puah Rakovsky, Zikhroynes fun a yidisher revolutsionern (available here).
- Yitskhok Niborski, Verterbukh fun loshn-koydesh-shtamike verter in yidish, Paris, 2012 (Purchase).
- Bochner/Beinfeld, Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary (verterbukh.org)
- Schaechter-Viswanath/Glasser, Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary (englishyiddishdictionary.com)
It is highly recommended to purchase the print versions of both Comprehensive Dictionaries (Beinfeld/Bochner and Schaechter-Viswanath/Glasser).
Additional materials will be provided by the instructor.
Questions? Read our 2026 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 few 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.