Uriel Weinreich Summer Program Testimonial: Caleb Sher, ‘22

Living in Yiddishland

by CALEB SHER, Summer Program ‘22

I came into the summer program having not spoken or read Yiddish for the better part of a year, and yet I left feeling as if I had been speaking non-stop Yiddish for the last three years. The staff, faculty, and fellow students were all united in building a true yidishe svive, a Yiddishland.

Perhaps the greatest strength of the YIVO summer program is the program’s community of truly dedicated, engaged, and top-quality faculty. Besides the numerous opportunities to get to chat with and learn from the stars of the Yiddish world via the lecture series, informal shmues krayzlekh, and the like, the core faculty seemed constantly engaged and invested in their students’ journey with Yiddish. Just as when one begins learning a language, it is valuable to be willing to consider oneself a child, and to have faculty willing to guide one through the language as if one were a child, as an advanced student, it was both invigorating and confidence-building to work with faculty who treated us as capable, engaged scholars. While their teaching styles varied widely, all faculty shared in the ability to engage with us at the right level, and to push us to go beyond that level.

Moreover, the quality of resources available to me as a YIVO student was unlike any other Yiddish intensive in which I have taken part. While I do not necessarily consider myself an advocate for klal shprakh, I cannot deny that as a heritage learner of the language, being at the heart of standard Yiddish helped build in me a solid basis for going out into the wider world and finding my Yiddish.

The academic rigor, the camaraderie of the students and faculty, combined with the program’s location in NYC—if I may be so bold, the true center of Yiddish life in the 21st century—really did make me feel like I was living in Yiddishland for six weeks. On the whole, I spent more time during my six weeks at YIVO speaking Yiddish than I did speaking English: to me, there are few joys as great as that.

Learn more about the Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture.