Intermediate III Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners (Afternoon)

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 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.

Instructor: Mikhl Yashinsky

Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for those who completed Intermediate II Conversational Yiddish in spring 2023, as well as any who feel they can converse at an intermediate level. Ability to read Hebrew letters not required as all texts will be given in transliteration.

What topics will this class cover?
Undzere oytsres — our treasures. This course will empower students to use their powers of communication in Yiddish by presenting on poems, songs, film clips, quotations, etc., that hold special meaning for them. Each student's oytser (treasure) will then inspire free shmues relating to that item and using language that can be derived therefrom, in a lively, instructor-guided environment.

Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
No, knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is not required. All written texts provided will be transliterated into Latin characters (and the focus of the course will be conversation as opposed to reading and writing).

Course Materials:
All course materials will be provided by the instructor via Canvas.

Mikhl Yashinsky was born in Detroit and works as a theatre artist, writer, translator, and teacher in Manhattan. He has taught Yiddish at the University of Michigan, Tel Aviv University, the Yiddish Book Center, YIVO, and The Workers Circle, and is a co-author of the award-winning Yiddish textbook In eynem. Yashinsky has directed operas at the Detroit Opera; written original Yiddish-language plays that have premiered at the Lower East Side Play Festival and New Yiddish Rep; and performed with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, including in its Yiddish-language "Fiddler on the Roof" and in the title role of the Goldfaden operetta "The Sorceress." In January, he made his début performing at Carnegie Hall. As a current fellow of LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, Yashinsky is collaborating with the klezmer band Mamaliga in writing an entirely original Yiddish-language musical, set in the criminal underworld of Vilna. www.yashinsky.com

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