Beginner IV Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners (Morning)

Tuition: $400 | YIVO members: $325**
Students: $215 (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, 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.

Instructor: Mikhl Yashinsky

Who should take this course?
This course is for those who took Beginner III Conversational Yiddish for Heritage Learners in fall 2021. Those who have taken conversational courses at other institutions, or otherwise feel comfortable conversing in Yiddish with a group on a basic level, are also encouraged to register.

What topics will this class cover?
The geshmak vocabulary of the Yiddish kitchen will be a recurring theme in this class focused on conversation skills, though other subjects may also make appearances. New vocabulary will often feature words related to food and cooking, while potential grammatical topics may include refinement of the imperative mood and introduction of the future and conditional tenses. Activities will include reading and translating historic recipes as well as sharing our own, learning appetizing songs, and watching delectable scenes from Yiddish films. All with a focus on enhancing our capacities for natural speech, as we strive to redn vi a yid vegn tsimes—to talk as a Jew does about carrot-and-prune stew—that is, a lot, and in lively, piquant fashion!

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

Born in Detroit and educated at Harvard, Mikhl Yashinsky is an actor-director, writer, and Yiddish teacher and translator. He recently appeared with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene in the Drama Desk-winning Yiddish Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Joel Grey, and in The Sorceress (a New York Times Critic’s Pick), for which performance he was hailed by the Times for giving a “keen, if malevolent, psychology” to the title role. Forthcoming publications include his translation of the memoirs of theatrical pioneer Ester-Rokhl Kaminska (Syracuse University Press), and In eynem (Yiddish Book Center), a new Yiddish textbook he co-authored. He has taught Yiddish at the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and taught the language this summer through YIVO’s Summer Program. In 2019, he was named to the Forward 50, the historic newspaper’s annual list of “influential, intriguing, and inspiring” American Jews. www.yashinsky.com

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