Yiddish Folklore: From Life to Literature

Tuition: $200 | YIVO members: $150**

This is a live, online course held on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, recordings of class sessions, 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 any readings will be in Yiddish.

Instructor: Vera Szabó

At the beginning of the 20th century many Yiddish cultural figures turned their interest toward Yiddish textual folklore. The folklore and ethnographic research of these intellectuals formed a bridge between them and the Yiddish speaking masses. The collected material informed their literary work and became a crucial pillar of a newly emerging Yiddish cultural identity. In this mini-course we will examine this process by studying some original folklore texts as well as their literary metamorphoses in the works of Y. L. Perets and Sh. Ansky.

Yiddish Level:
This course is for intermediate students. It is appropriate for those who have taken the equivalent of level Giml or above in the YIVO Summer Program. It is also appropriate for those who completed Intermediate II Yiddish, Intensive Intermediate I&II Yiddish, or above in fall 2021.

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

Vera Szabó was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary. She holds an M.A. in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University as well as an M.A. in English and German Studies from ELTE University, Budapest.

She has taught Yiddish language, literature and folklore at various universities in the US (University of Michigan, Stanford, the University of Washington) and in Israel (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Tel Aviv University) as well as in various intensive summer programs (NYU/YIVO, Vilna, and TAU.) She currently teaches Yiddish language and literature at Beth Shalom Aleichem and YIVO.

Vera also translates literary and non-literary texts from Yiddish and Hungarian into English. Her research interest is Yiddish folklore. A certified yoga teacher, Vera has been teaching yoga in Yiddish for the past five years in Jerusalem, where she resides. More information on her website: www.verele.com

**Become a member today, starting at $54 for one year, and pay the member price for classes! You’ll save on tuition for this course and more on future classes and public programs tickets.