Beginner IV Yiddish (Thursday)

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: Reb Noyekh (Noah Barrera)

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

What topics will this class cover?
In this class, students will build their vocabulary and read various texts of increasing difficulty while continuing to practice their writing and speaking skills. We will read a children’s book, Dos kluge shnayderl; students will be expected to write a total of two book reports on the first two chapters of this book; with the class, they will summarize these chapters in their own words. This class will primarily use part II of the contemporary textbook, Fun onheyb by Daniel Birnbaum. It will review and cover new topics with special emphasis on verbs with separable and inseparable prefixes and the idiomatic use of the dative case with certain verbs and in common expressions. The instructor will also make use of the dialogue-based textbook Colloquial Yiddish including units 6 (on the dative case), 7 (on modal verbs and imperatives), 4 (on diminutives), 15 (on the word פֿלעג and dative constructions), among others.

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

Course Materials:
This course will use a variety of learning materials and methods, including a contemporary textbook, Fun onheyb, and select chapters of Colloquial Yiddish, with accompanying recordings, and literary texts including a children’s book. All other course materials will be provided digitally on Canvas.

• Colloquial Yiddish by Lily Kahn (Purchase). The audio files for the textbook are available on the publisher's website.

• The Clever Little Tailor by Solomon Simon (Purchase)

Recommended:

• Bochner/Beinfeld, Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary (verterbukh.org)

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.

**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.