Intensive Beginner III&IV Yiddish

Tuition: $850 | YIVO members: $675**
Students: $425 (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 and English.

Instructor: Reb Noyekh (Noah Barrera)

Who should take this course?
This course is for those who have taken two semesters of Yiddish. It is appropriate for those who took Beginner II Yiddish or Intensive Beginner I&II Yiddish in spring 2023.

What topics will this class cover?
In this intensive course, students will continue acquiring beginner speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills at an accelerated pace. This course will cover the latter half of the Colloquial Yiddish textbook (Units 9-15). Among the grammar topics covered in this course are: the past tense (formed with zayn), the future tense, comparative and superlative adjectives, unstressed prefixed verbs, converbs, verbs with zikh, conditions, dative constructions, and the passive. Students will begin reading their first Yiddish book, intended for older children, called “Dos kluge Shnayderl” (The Clever Little Tailor by Solomon Simon). They will write at least four book reports and will be expected to collectively (as a class) retell some chapters in their own words.

Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
Yes, knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is required.

Course Materials:
This course will use the textbook Colloquial Yiddish by Lilly Kahn (Purchase). We will also be using Dos kluge shnayderl (Purchase). Additional materials, homework assignments as well as class video recordings will be on Canvas.

Also recommended is Basic Yiddish by Rebecca Margolis (Purchase).

Reb Noyekh is a Yiddish educator, writer, translator, and content creator. A native of California, he began learning Yiddish more than 10 years ago at UC Santa Cruz where he majored in Jewish Studies. He later studied and taught in the YIVO zumer program for several years and coordinated and taught Yiddish language classes at Der Arbeter Ring in New York. As a writer, his articles and original stories have appeared in the Forverts, Afn Shvel, Yiddish Branzhe, and elsewhere. He is preparing a book of his original short stories titled “Di feygelekh fun honolulu un andere mayses” [The Birds of Honolulu and other Stories]. Reb Noyekh is an accomplished translator. His academic translation, with Nathaniel Deutsch, of The Lost World of Russia’s Jews, was released in 2021 by Indiana University Press. Reb Noyekh is also a prolific content creator on both TikTok and YouTube, and recently launched an all-Yiddish podcast, Mit layb un lebn.

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