NOTE: All information from the folkhögskola will be sent in Swedish.
YIDDISH AT THREE LEVELS (ONLINE)
For the fall semester, Yiddish language courses online are offered at the following levels:
- Yiddish for Beginners, semester 1
- Yiddish for Advanced Beginners, semester 4
- Intermediate Yiddish, semester 7
Please note that you can only be admitted to one level in the same semester. If you want to take both courses, you can apply for one this semester and the other in a future semester. If you are unsure which level is right for you, please contact us at info@paideiafolkhogskola.se.
The Folkhögskola also offers a distance learning course in Yiddish conversation (Yiddish/Swedish). The conversation course can be taken in parallel with Yiddish for Advanced Beginners, semester 4 and Intermediate Yiddish, semester 7.
The courses are given in English, in collaboration with International Yiddish Center Vilnius, Paideia – the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden and Jiddischsällskapet i Stockholm.
ברוכים הבאים
Bruchim H’boim, Welcome!
Course Structure
You are expected to be active during the course sessions and participate in discussions and exercises with other participants. Homework between the course sessions is part of the program.
Prior knowledge
Read about the course level under each course further down the page.
To apply you need basic computer skills and knowledge of how to use the digital platform Zoom. The school offers Zoom manuals and a training opportunity before the start of the course.
Course materials
All course materials are not included in the cost of these courses. Read more under each course.
Yiddish for Beginners, semester 1 (online)
This is a course designed for students with no prior knowledge of Yiddish, although knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet would be highly desirable.
We are going to use the following textbook for our classes: Sheva Zucker, Yiddish, Volume 1 (New York : Workmen’s Circle, 1994). This textbook is suitable both for students who know the Hebrew alphabet already and students who don’t. Each unit will introduce a certain number of letters and give words and short sentences with these letters, until students will have all the letters used in Yiddish. Students who don’t know the alphabet as yet will have to work at home every week to learn to read and write words and sentences with the new letters introduced in each unit. Students who know Hebrew will learn all the differences in writing and reading between Hebrew and Yiddish.
Learning Yiddish is an opportunity to connect with this rich Eastern European Jewish language and culture with its beautiful music and literature. This is a treasure trove that is just waiting to be discovered!
Course structure
We will start each session with some Yiddish conversation, which will build up more and more as we go along. Then we will revise some of the grammar and vocabulary learned in the previous lesson. After that, we will work with our Yiddish textbook, read the reading material, the dialogues and the jokes there, learn new vocabulary and grammar and do some of the exercises in the book. And we will conclude every lesson with a Yiddish song.
Students will be expected to spend some time every week to work on their reading and writing, to learn the vocabulary and to revise the grammar covered in each class.
Prior knowledge
This is a course designed for students with no prior knowledge of Yiddish, although knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet would be highly desirable.
Course literature
All course literature is not included in the course cost. You need to acquire the book “Yiddish, Volume 1” (Sheva Zucker, New York: Workmen’s Circle, 1994) on your own. You will receive more information about the course book that you purchase on your own, if you get accepted to the course.
Times
Yiddish for Beginners, semester 1
Wednesdays 14:30-16:30 (Stockholm time).
Course start: Wednesday 9 October.
The course consists of 9 lessons.
About the teacher
Dr. Beruriah Wiegand is the Woolf Corob Lector in Yiddish at the University of Oxford. She holds a BA and MA in Hebrew and Jewish Studies from Leo Baeck College, London, and a Ph.D. from University College London, with a thesis on Jewish mystical motifs in the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer. She has lectured on Bashevis’s works and on Yiddish poetry at conferences in London, Oxford, Paris, Düsseldorf, Stockholm, Ravenna, Warsaw, Moscow, Czernowitz, Vienna, Tel Aviv, New York, Boston and Ottawa. She is also a Yiddish poet.
Yiddish for Advanced Beginners, semester 4 (online)
Last term (Spring 2024), we continued our journey in a millennium old language, part and parcel of Ashkenazi Jewish civilization and a pathway to a rich cultural treasure. Part IV continues this path and is open to participants in the first three terms or students who already know: Reading and writing in Yiddish, the present tense, future tense and past tense, grammatical cases, sentence structure and different sorts of verbs in Yiddish. This term we will learn more grammar: diminutives, comparatives and superlatives and the use of aspects. With a sufficient level of Yiddish, we would also be able to read and enjoy some Yiddish literature – short stories and poems. As usual we will place the language in its wider cultural and historical contexts.
Prior knowledge
Reading and writing in Yiddish, the present tense, future tense and past tense, grammatical cases, sentence structure and different sorts of verbs in Yiddish.
Course literature
The book “College Yiddish” (Uriel Weinreich, YIVO) is recommended as a textbook for basic Yiddish grammar, but is not a requirement in order to attend the course. Grammar summary of the main subjects is also included in a notebook that accompanies the course.The summary is included in the course cost.
Times
Yiddish for Advanced Beginners, semester 4
Thursdays 17:00-19:00 (Stockholm time).
Course start: Thursday 26 September.
The course consists of 10 lessons.
About the teacher
Dr. Yaad Biran got his Ph.D. in Yiddish literature in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He teaches Yiddish language and culture in Beth Shalom Aleichem in Tel Aviv, in Haifa University and in the Tel Aviv summer course. He is also a writer and a translator, the author of a short stories book “Laughing with Lizards” (Hebrew) and the writer of “Esther’s Cabaret“, a contemporary Yiddish Cabaret in Tel Aviv. He is also guiding Yiddish tours in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Intermediate Yiddish, semester 7 (online)
Learning Yiddish is an opportunity to connect with this rich Eastern European Jewish language and culture with its beautiful music and literature. This is a treasure trove that is just waiting to be discovered!
We are going to use the following textbook for our classes: Sheva Zucker, Yiddish, Volume 2 (New York: Workmen’s Circle, 2002). We will start our course at the beginning of Unit 17 A. We will read texts related to the Holocaust, including some historical documents, texts related to Israel and texts related to the Yiddish press.
Course structure
Students will be expected to spend some time every week to work on their reading and writing, to learn the vocabulary and to revise the grammar covered in each class. We will start each session with some Yiddish conversation. Then we will revise some of the grammar and vocabulary learned in the previous lesson. After that, we will work with our Yiddish textbook, read some of the reading material there, learn new vocabulary and grammar and do some of the exercises in the book. And we will conclude every lesson with a Yiddish song.
Course level
This course is a continuation of the six previous Yiddish courses at Paideia folkhögskola. Students at a similar level of Yiddish would be most welcome to join this class. The course is designed for students at a higher intermediate level of Yiddish, who are able to speak Yiddish relatively fluently and talk about their everyday lives as well as about other Jewish and Yiddish related matters, and who can read texts in Yiddish (in Hebrew characters, obviously). Please specify your previous knowledge in your application.
Course literature
All course literature is not included in the course cost. You need to acquire the book Yiddish, Volume 2 (Sheva Zucker, New York: Workmen’s Circle, 2002) on your own. You will receive more information about the course book that you purchase on your own, if you get accepted to the course.
Times
Intermediate Yiddish, semester 7
Tuesdays 14:30-16:30 (Stockholm time).
Course start: Tuesday 8 October.
The course consists of 10 lessons.
About the teacher
Dr. Beruriah Wiegand is the Woolf Corob Lector in Yiddish at the University of Oxford. She holds a BA and MA in Hebrew and Jewish Studies from Leo Baeck College, London, and a Ph.D. from University College London, with a thesis on Jewish mystical motifs in the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer. She has lectured on Bashevis’s works and on Yiddish poetry at conferences in London, Oxford, Paris, Düsseldorf, Stockholm, Ravenna, Warsaw, Moscow, Czernowitz, Vienna, Tel Aviv, New York, Boston and Ottawa. She is also a Yiddish poet.
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