The World of Isaac Bashevis Singer

6 sessions, Thursdays: September 12, 19; October 3, 10, 17, 24 Taught in English. Tuition: $325 YIVO members: $250** Students: $150 (Must register with valid university email address) Registration for this class is closed.

Instructor: Sheva Zucker

Women dressing as men to study Torah, geese that shriek inexplicably, people possessed by dybbuks and demons, Hitler seen in a cafeteria on Broadway... This is the world of Isaac Bashevis Singer, one of the greatest Jewish writers of all time and the only Yiddish writer to win a Nobel Prize (1978). Many of his stories depict a world that is no longer here yet he does so in a profoundly modern way. We shall look at a mix of memoir and short stories.

Course materials:
This course will use two texts by Isaac Bashevis Singer: In My Father’s Court and The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer. Some copies of In My Father’s Court will be available for purchase on the first day of class. Please plan to purchase your own copy of The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Dr. Sheva Zucker has taught and lectured on Yiddish language and literature on five continents. She is the author of the textbooks Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vols. I and II. For over two decades she has taught in the Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture, currently under the auspices of Bard College and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. She is the executive director of the League for Yiddish and the editor of its magazine Afn Shvel. 

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