A Master of the Genre: Kadya Molodowsky and Poetry for Children

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

This is a live, online seminar held weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, 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: Anna Fishman Gonshor

Course Description:
Twice the recipient of the prestigious literary award by the Union of Yiddish Writers and Journalists in Poland for her poetry for children, Kadya Molodowsky became beloved by Jewish children all over the world. In Warsaw, where most of her poems were written, the children of the TSYSHO Yiddish schools delighted in them and learned many by heart. In Israel, her poems for children were translated by none other than Natan Alterman into Hebrew for the new generation of sabras. In North America, the various Yiddish school movements—the Workmen’s Circle, the Ordn (IWO) and the Farband—all published books of her poems. Some of the poetry was set to music, some was staged and performed. Regardless of the ideology, regardless of the school, Molodowsky’s poems reached deep into the hearts and souls of Jewish children wherever they encountered them.

In this class we will read and discuss Molodowsky's work in this genre and look at a few other poets’ creations for children. Grammar and language questions will be answered as they arise. The text we will use is available for downloading from the Yiddish Book Center’s Digital Yiddish Library.

Who should take this course?
This course will be conducted exclusively in Yiddish, so enrollees must have done Advanced or higher Intermediate coursework in the language or have equivalent Yiddish background.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.

Anna Fishman Gonshor is Faculty Lecturer of Yiddish Studies in the Department of Jewish Studies at McGill University (retired). She has been guest lecturer for several university Yiddish programs and various institutions across North America. As a translator her work includes film, articles for academic publications and archival materials. In addition, she is a longstanding faculty member of the YIVO Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture.

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