Intermediate IV Yiddish

Tuition: $480 | YIVO members: $375**
Students: $240 (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: Karolina Szymaniak

Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for those who have completed Intermediate III Yiddish or equivalent coursework.

What topics will this class cover?
This class will further develop speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills for students already comfortable reading and conversing in Yiddish. Grammar topics will include the comparative of adjectives and adverbs, conditional sentences, and complemented verbs. The class will focus on developing more complex syntactic structures, both in spoken and written form. Vocabulary topics will include travel, organizational life, and Jewish traditions. Selected course topics may also include students’ specific interests and passions, which will be incorporated into the general course syllabus. The class will work with Sheva Zucker’s Yiddish: Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, vol. II. The course is designed for students who are interested in deepening their knowledge of Yiddish culture, both past and present, through a variety of historical and contemporary documents, press, literary texts, and songs.

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

Course Materials:
This course will use the following textbook:

• Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Volume II by Sheva Zucker (Purchase)

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

Karolina Szymaniak is assistant professor of Yiddish at the Sorbonne University in Paris. Her research interests range across modern Yiddish literature, Polish-Jewish cultural relations, and translation studies. She is also co-founder of the Jewish Arts Institute/Yidisher Kunst-Institut, and co-editor-in-chief of East European Jewish Affairs. In addition to having taught Yiddish language and culture throughout Europe, she has also served as a consultant for the POLIN Museum in Warsaw and the Museum of Modern Art in Łódz. Her recent publications include Montages. Debora Vogel and the New Legend of the City and My wild goat. Anthology of women Yiddish poets (in Polish) and Hasidic Steam Engine and Other stories. Anthology of Yiddish short stories, 16th-21st centuries (in Polish). She is also the editor of Rachel Auerbach's ghetto writings, which received the 2016 Polityka History Award. Her new edition of Auerbach’s wartime and postwar writing is forthcoming in French.

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