Lively course on Hasidic Yiddish at Yiddish Summer Weimar

Instructors, including performer Mendy Cahan and Yiddish experts, will teach the language and culture of Hasidic Jews today

A Hasidic family in Borough Park, Brooklyn Photo by Wikimedia Commons

By Forverts Staff July 22, 2024

A highly anticipated intensive two-week course on contemporary Hasidic Yiddish begins on July 23 at the annual festival, Yiddish Summer Weimar, in Weimar, Germany.

Yiddish is a living language that has always had many dialects and varieties. But its rich diversity and contemporary relevance is rarely presented in summer Yiddish language programs, which typically teach only Standard Yiddish. This course will focus on Hasidic Yiddish, the variety that is the daily spoken language of around one million people in the USA, Europe, Israel and around the world. A knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is required.

The unique teaching team includes both native speakers of Hasidic Yiddish and expert researchers who are members of the innovative Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish group at UCL (University College London). They are Dr. Zoë Belk, Eli Benedict, Mendy Cahan, Kriszta Eszter Szendro und Janina Wurbs.

The class will work with historical Hasidic texts, modern Hasidic literature, nigunim, Hasidic pop music and traditional and contemporary film. Formal language classes will take place in the mornings, with separate sections for beginning, intermediate, and advanced classes. Afternoons will be dedicated to more informal learning in an immersive Yiddish environment.

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Rukhl Schaechter and Zach Golden are the staff of the Forverts, the Yiddish Forward.

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