Intensive Beginner I&II Yiddish

Tuition: $850 | YIVO members: $675**
Students: $425 (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.

This course is being offered in partnership with Vilnius University.

Instructor: Alexandra Polyan

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?
This intensive course will give students an introduction into Yiddish phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar, to help them read short texts and acquire basic conversation skills in Yiddish. Among the grammatical topics covered in this course are: (present, past, and future tenses of verbs, singular and plural of nouns, declension of nouns and adjectives, word order). Lexical topics include family, appearance, daily routines, house, health, food, etc. Students will engage in reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities; Yiddish songs will be read and sung.

Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
No, knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is not required. However, students who have no prior experience with the Yiddish or Hebrew alphabets are highly encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Yiddish alphabet 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 alef-beys, and are designed for independent use.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas. Course materials will include excerpts from Yiddish fun onheyb by Daniel Birnbaum, Colloquial Yiddish by Lily Kahn and College Yiddish by Uriel Weinreich, as well as songs, poetry, dialogues, and stories prepared by the instructor. The audio files for Lily Kahn's textbook are available free of charge on the publisher's website.

Alexandra Polyan holds a PhD in Linguistics from the Institute of Linguistics (Russian Academy of Sciences), is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Jewish Studies (Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University), and a PostDoc Researcher at Regensburg University. She is a member of the "Short life of Soviet Yiddish Literature" project team. Her current research is devoted to Peretz Markish's poetry. Together with Prof. Sabine Koller, she published an annotated edition of Dovid Bergelson's prose in German translations. She has taught Yiddish at MSU, Project Judaica (Russian State University for the Humanities in cooperation with Jewish Theological Seminary, NY), Naomi Prawer Kadar Summer Yiddish Program (Tel Aviv University), and The Workers Circle. In 2012-2017, she was a journalist of Forward Yiddish Radio. She lives in Frankfurt (Germany).

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