Getting From Oy To Vey: Yiddish as an Expression of Traditional Jewish Life and Learning

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.

Instructor: Michael Wex

Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for Yiddish students at the high intermediate/advanced level.

Course Description:
Proceeding from such foundational modern texts as Max Weinreich’s “Di shprakh fun derekh-haShas” and Yudl Mark’s “Lomir oyfhitn di ashires fun dem talmid-khokhems shprakh!,” the course will lay particular stress on the traditional underpinnings of many apparently neutral or colorless expressions. We will focus on those in which concepts derived from Loshn-koydesh texts or the practices mandated or inspired by such texts have entered the language in Germanic or Slavic garb, as well as on the way(s) in which non-Jewish concepts sometimes come into Yiddish through a deliberately ironic use of well-established Loshn-koydesh-origin terminology. We will be relying on such diverse sources as the Hebrew Bible and its standard commentaries, the Talmud, liturgical texts, Khumesh-taytsh and the Taytsh-Khumesh, Bernstein’s proverb collection and the folkloric work of such writers as Y.-L. Zlotnick, as we witness how “Jewish” Yiddish is. No knowledge of Hebrew is required.

װי קומט אוי צו װײ? ייִדיש און דער טראַדיציאָנעלער ייִדישער שטײגער לעבן און לערנען

אין דעם קורס װעלן מיר זיך אַרײַנלאָזן אין פּרטים פֿון די טעמעס װאָס װערן באַהאַנדלט פֿון מאַקס װײַנרײַכן אין זײַן קאַפּיטל „די שפּראַך פֿון דרך־השס“ און אין יודל מאַרקס אַרטיקל „לאָמיר אויפֿהיטן די עשירות פֿון דעם תּלמיד־חכמס שפּראַך!” מיר װעלן שטעלן דעם טראָפּ אויף דעם טראַדיציאָנעלן אונטערגעבײַ פֿון אַ סך ייִדישע אויסדרוקן װאָס זעען אויס אָן פֿאַרב און נײטראַל, ספּעציעל אויף אַזעלכע װאָס שטעלן פֿאָר באַגריפֿן װאָס נעמען זיך פֿון קאַנאָנישע לשון־קודשדיקע טעקסטן אָדער פֿאַררופֿן זיך אויף מנהגים פֿאַראָרדנט פֿון אַזױנע טעקסטן, נאָר װאָס װערן דװקא אויסגעדריקט מיט װערטער פֿון גערמאַנישן אָדער סלאַװישן אָפּשטאַם. מיר װעלן אויך באַקוקן נישט־ייִדישע באַגריפֿן װאָס קומען אַרײַן אין ייִדיש אין לשון־קודשדיקער פֿאָרעם. מיר װעלן זיך פֿאַררופֿן אויף אַ רײ טראַדיציאָנעלע קװאַלן׃ תּנך מיט מפֿרשים, די גמרא, דער סידור, חומש־טײַטש און דער טײַטש־חומש, בערנשטײנס יודישע שפּריכװערטער און די ביכער און אַרטיקלען פֿון י.־ל. זלאָטניק (עלזעט) כּדי צו באַגרינדן די ייִדישקײט פֿון ייִדיש.

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

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

Author of three books on Yiddish, including the bestselling Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex has taught the language at the University of Toronto and the University of Michigan and is a mainstay of the contemporary Yiddish scene. A native-speaker whose Yiddish songs have been recorded by such bands as the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, Wex has translated material ranging from classical Yiddish literature to testimony for war crimes trials. He has also translated The Threepenny Opera from German into Yiddish and appeared as Estragon in a production of Shane Baker’s Yiddish translation of Waiting for Godot at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. His most recent major project Baym Kabaret Yitesh, an all-Yiddish cabaret show, which he wrote and directed, premiered at the 2019 edition of Yiddish Summer Weimar.

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