Yiddish for Beginners
Experience the delight of the Yiddish word — on the page, on the screen and, especially, on your own lips. This introductory conversational Yiddish course, drawing on lively class discussion, art, film and song, is designed to help you speak freely as you discover and rediscover elements of both Yiddish language and culture without fear, but rather with much freyd (joy). No prior knowledge of Yiddish or the Hebrew alphabet is needed, as we will start fun breyshes (from Genesis) — at the very beginning — and all written texts will be transliterated into Latin characters. Students will finish with a good grounding in some fundaments of Yiddish grammar and conversation and gain confidence in producing idiomatic speech, as well as an understanding of some of the unique treasures of Yiddish civilization.