Intermediate III Yiddish

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 mostly in Yiddish, with some English used when necessary.

Instructor: Alec (Leyzer) Burko

Who should take this course?
This course is appropriate for those who completed Intermediate II Yiddish in spring 2021. It is also appropriate for those enrolled in Giml in the 2021 Summer Program who are looking for some review of material covered in Giml.

What topics will this class cover?
This class will concentrate on the phraseology that makes Yiddish such an expressive language: idioms, proverbs, blessings, curses, interjections, wishes, magical formulas to ward off evil spirits and more. Students will practice the use of such expressions in class to integrate them into their linguistic repertoire.

Readings will come from the rich literature on Yiddish phraseology, especially Mame-loshn by Nahum Stuchkoff, Yidishe shprikhverter un rednsartn by Israel Furman, and the proverb collection of Ignatz Bernstein. This class will also consult Yidish af Yidish by David Goldberg.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide any course materials digitally to students throughout the class.

Leyzer Burko is a Yiddishist from New York with a doctorate in Modern Jewish Studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary. His research interests include the history of the Yiddish language, Yiddish dialectology, Hasidic Yiddish and Yiddish lexicography. In his spare time, he works on a Yiddish Dialect Dictionary.

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