“A Tale of a Bear with no Tail”: An Introduction to Children's Literature in Yiddish

Class starts Jan 7 12:30pm-2:00pm

Tuition: $240 | YIVO members: $180**

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 accessible in Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website.

Instructor: Vicky Ash-Shifriss

Bears and bear cubs are a common motif in Yiddish children’s literature. With the help of bears, we will examine the world of children’s literature in Yiddish. We will discuss texts of various genres, read bear stories and stories written in rhyme, kids’ poems and songs about bears, fables, as well as a longish short story. We will become familiar with little known authors as well as with texts of better known writers such as Peretz Hirschbein, Eliezer Shteynbarg, Y.-M. Fuks and others.

Yiddish Level:
This course, conducted in Yiddish, is designed for intermediate Yiddish students, such as those who have taken Intermediate I Yiddish (Sunday or Friday), Intermediate II Yiddish, or Intensive Intermediate I&II Yiddish in the Fall 2023 semester.

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

"אַ בער אָן אַן עק — די מעשׂה איז אַוועק": אַן אַרײַנפֿיר אין קינדער-ליטעראַטור אויף ייִדיש

בערן און בערעלעך זײַנען אַ פֿאַרשפּרייטער מאָטיװ אין דער ייִדישער קינדער-ליטעראַטור. מיט דער הילף פֿון בערן וועלן מיר אַרײַנקוקן אין דער וועלט פֿון קינדער-ליטעראַטור אויף ייִדיש. מיר וועלן אַרומרעדן טעקסטן פֿון פֿאַרשיידענע זשאַנערס, לייענען בערישע מעשׂיות און מעשׂהלעך אין גראַמען, לידעלעך מיט בערעלעך, משלים און אַ לענגערע דערציילונג. מיר וועלן זיך באַקענען מיט ווייניק באַקאַנטע מחברים און מיט טעקסטן פֿון באַקאַנטערע שרײַבער ווי פּרץ הירשביין, אליעזר שטיינבאַרג, י.־מ. פֿוקס און אַנדערע.

דער קורס איז פֿאַר העכערע מיטנדיקע ביז אַװאַנסירטע לערנערס און װעט דורכגעפֿירט װערן אױף ייִדיש.

Questions? Read our 2024 Winter Yiddish Seminars FAQ.

Vicky Ash-Shifriss was born and Kaunas, Lithuania (then the USSR). She holds an M.A. in Yiddish Literature from the Hebrew University as well as a Yiddish teaching certificate from the Oxford Institute for Yiddish Studies (1996). She has taught Yiddish language and literature at various universities in Israel (Hebrew University, Tel-Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), and in the university of Trier in Germany, as well as in several intensive summer programs (Oxford, Vilna, Tel-Aviv). For the last two decades, she has taught various courses on Yiddish literature at Beth Shalom Aleichem in Tel-Aviv.

Vicky also translates literary and non-literary texts from Yiddish into Hebrew, among which is Sutzkever's Fun Vilner Geto, Elboym-Dorembus's Af der arisher zayt, and many more. In the last seven years, she has led a workshop for Yiddish translators with Benny Mer. She is also a member of a team that is writing a Yiddish-Hebrew comprehensive dictionary.

She lives with her family in Jerusalem.

**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.