Yiddish Literature in Translation: Read the Greats: Peretz and I.B. Singer

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Dear Friends,
Just wanted to let you know that I am very excited to be teaching a class in Yiddish Literature (in translation) this fall at the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter-Ring, 247 W. 38th St. NYC starting October 16. I look forward to discussing these wonderful authors with you.
Yiddish Literature in Translation with Sheva Zucker Part I: 
Worlds in Collision: Tradition and Modernity in the Writing of I. L. Peretz
Mondays 1:00 – 2:30 pm: Oct. 16, 23, 30 Nov. 6, 13, 20
Course Goals: To familiarize students with the works of I. L. Peretz
Course Tools: The I.L. Peretz Reader edited by Ruth Wisse: selections from Peretz’s memoirs, Monish, Bontche the Silent, Kabbalists, Between Two Mountains; Education, In the Mail Coach, Three Gifts.
Students enrolling in the course should buy the book: The I.L. Peretz Reader, edited and with an introduction by Ruth R. Wisse, Yale University Press. The book is available, both new and used, from a number of online booksellers.

Additional Info: This is a two-part course. You may register for one or both parts.The course is taught in English. Yiddish texts will be available for those who can and want to read in Yiddish. Knowledge of Yiddish not necessary. Course runs for 6 weeks.

Members $100/non-members $140
WORLDS IN COLLISION: TRADITION AND MODERNITY
 IN THE WRITING OF I. L. PERETZ
According to literary critic Ruth Wisse, “With the exception of Theodor Herzl, founder of political Zionism, no Jewish writer had a more direct effect on modern Jewry than Isaac Leib Peretz. Peretz (1852-1915)  may not have promoted any fixed political program, but he tried to chart for his fellow Jews a “road” that would lead them away from religion toward a secular Jewish existence without falling into the swamp of assimilation.” Yet today Peretz, who was known as one of the fathers of  Modern Yiddish Literature, is little known outside scholarly circles. Now, a little more than  100 years after his death in 1915, it is appropriate that we acquaint ourselves with this shaper of modern Yiddish literature and Jewish culture to see how and if he  still speaks to today’s readers.
Yiddish Literature in Translation with Sheva Zucker Part II: 
The World of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Mondays: 1:00 – 2:30 pm: Nov. 27 Dec. 4, 11, 18 Jan. 8, 15
Course Goals: To familiarize students with the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Course Tools: Selections from In My Father’s Court, Yentl, The Cafeteria, The Spinoza of Market Street, The Lecture (The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer)

Additional Info: This is a two-part course. You may register for one or both parts. The course is taught in English. Yiddish texts wil be available for those who can and want to read in Yiddish. Knowledge of Yiddish not necessary.Course runs for 6 weeks.

Members $100/non-members $140

Students may register for one or both sections of the literature course.

THE WORLD OF ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER
I.B. Singer (not Sheva Zucker
Women dressing as men to study Torah, geese that shriek inexplicably, people possessed by dybbuks and demons, Hitler seen in a cafeteria on Broadway… This is the world of I. B. Singer, one of the greatest Jewish writers of all time and the only Yiddish writer to win a Nobel Prize (1978). Many of his stories depict a world that is no longer here yet he does so in a profoundly modern way. We shall look at a mix of memoir and short stories.
I will also be teaching these in-person language classes.
Intermediate Yiddish I
Thursdays 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm: Oct. 19, 26 Nov. 2, 9, 16, 30 Dec. 7, 14, 21, 28, Jan 4, 11
Continuation of Intermediate level study of Yiddish reading, writing, speaking, and grammar.
Course Tools: Literary texts and songs, Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vol. I by Sheva Zucker (starting from Unit 8A).
Additional Info: The course is designed for those with approximately 1-1.5 years of Yiddish language study
Advanced Yiddish
Mondays 3:00 – 4:30 pm: Oct. 18, 25 Nov. 1, 8, 15, 29 Dec. 6, 13, 20, 27 Jan. 3, 10
Course Goals:
Focus on interpreting and understanding the traditional life of Eastern European Jewry as well as vocabulary and grammar for improving conversation skills throught the study of I.B. Singer’s Mayn tatns besdn-shtub (In My Father’s Court)
Course Tools: Mayn tatns besdn-shtub (In My Father’s Court), book and CD, plus grammatical exercises
Additional Info: This course will be taught entirely in Yiddish.
There are other levels and other great teachers as well:
Yankl-Peretz Blum,  Kolya Borodulin, Eve Jochnowitz and Paula Teitelbaum
TO SEE THE FULL SCHEDULE OF IN-PERSON CLASSES:
https://circle.org/what-we-do/yiddish-language/yiddish-in-person-class-descriptions
If you can’t find a class to suit you you can always try the Workmen’s Circle online classes
TO REGISTER click here
QUESTIONS:
Contact Nikolai (Kolya) Borodulin at the Workmen’s Circle nborodulin@circle.org
 

Sheva Zucker is the author of the textbooks Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Vols. I & II and the editor and producer of the CD The Golden Peacock: Voice of the Yiddish Writer. She has taught and lectured on Yiddish language, literature and culture on five continents and has taught Yiddish for almost two decades in the Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture, currently under the auspices of Bard College and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. She is the academic director of that program as well as the executive director of the League for Yiddish and the editor of its all-Yiddish magazine Afn Shvel.