Language/Literature  

Introduction to Yiddish /AM1 Paula Teitelbaum

This class includes basic conversation and listening activities; simple songs selected to make grammar painless; along with a gentle introduction to the alef-beys and beginning reading activities. No previous knowledge of the language is required.

Intermediate Yiddish /AM1 Miriam Isaacs

University of Maryland Assistant Professor Miriam Isaacs will once again teach this intermediate Yiddish course for students with basic conversation and comprehension skills.

Wexology/PM1 Michael Wex

Join Yiddishland’s “Minister of Atypical Insights” and Shlepping the Exile author Michael Wex for another installment of his roller coaster examination of Yiddish phrases and expressions in an effort to pin down the whole of the Yiddish worldview. Is that all? Previous knowledge of the language is irrelevant and probably intrusive. Step right up. Open to all.

Daytsh af tselakhis ("German Be Damned!"): Psychological and Social Origins of Yiddish/AM2 Michael Wex

Klezmer instrumental style is inextricably bound up with Yiddish, the language of the oral tradition from which it stems. From its rhythms to its worldview, Yiddish is essential to an understanding of klezmer idiom and phrasing, yet knowledge of the language is often not seen as a prerequisite to playing the music. Join Michael Wex for this discussion of krekhtsn as the archetypal Yiddish sound and other aspects of the interrelationships between speech and music. While the class was designed with musicians in mind, it is open to anyone interested in this topic.

Talking About Peretz Talking About Yiddish Music/PM2 Miriam Isaacs, with the help of Jeff Warschauer and Deborah Strauss

Learn how one of the greats of Yiddish literature talked about spirituality through Yiddish music. Miriam Isaacs will lead the class through the stories of I.L. Peretz (in the original and in translation) in search of the evocative language he created to describe music and musicians. Beginning with his famous “Transformation of a Melody” (Gilgul fun a nign), it also includes Neilah in Gehenna, part of a theme of cantors who lose their voices. The class will cover a story – untranslated hitherto – about a lovesick fiddler possessed by the devil and finally, the tale of Avrom, the Bassist, about musical dumbness and spiritual ascent.

Translating Yiddish/AM1 Anita Norich

How many times has it been said: “Oh, that just can’t be translated” when talking about a Yiddish expression? Yet so much has been translated and, often, so well. And why are some translations such colossal failures? In this course, students will compare variant translations of some Yiddish works and discuss the problems, opportunities, and choices translators face in poetry (especially Yankev Glatshteyn) and prose (Sholem Aleichem, Mendele Moykher Sforim, I.B. Singer).

Workshop In Yiddish Translation/AM2 Anita Norich

Students should bring a short Yiddish text (some will be provided as well) to translate during the week. Participants will work individually, in small groups, and all together to compare methods and preferences in this hands-on approach to translation. (Knowledge of both Yiddish and English is required, though non-speakers of Yiddish are also welcome to observe the process.)

Yiddish for Singers/AM2 Paula Teitelbaum

In this workshop, students will learn to make sure that their audience focuses on the beauty of their voice and the depth of their interpretation, not on the mispronunciations of their Yiddish. The class will examine the key pitfalls of Yiddish pronunciation (e.g. “shpiln” NOT “shpilen”) and discuss how to avoid making them in the future. Participants will also listen to recordings illustrating the “do’s and don’ts.” Students should bring the songs they are learning to review and practice in the class.

Yiddish Puppet Theater/PM2 Itzik Gottesman

This series of classes for intermediate/advanced Yiddish students will look at the Yiddish puppet and marionette tradition in the Yiddish theater by examining 3 texts: Moyshe Broderzon’s parody of the Neibelungen epic Tsungelungen (Lodz, 1921), Yosl Kotler’s and Zuni Maud’s Purim-Shpil, (NY, 1920s), and Beyle Gottesman’s Khanike play “Alts tsulib a latke” (“All Because of a Latke”) (NY 1960s). The class will learn the songs to accompany the text of “Alts tsulib a latke” and perform it at a special Saturday afternoon KlezKamp event. Those who speak Yiddish on an intermediate/advanced level but cannot read as fluently are still encouraged to participate.