For over one thousand years, the Yiddish language was spoken by Ashkenazic Jews living in Central and Eastern Europe. Yiddish was the language of Jewish social and economic life, and increasingly, as Ashkenazic Jews encountered modernity, of a vibrant literary and cultural life as well. Millions of Jews emigrated from Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, spreading Yiddish all over the globe; as a major center of Jewish immigration, New York City became the home of a flourishing Yiddish cultural scene in the first half of the twentieth century.
The tragedies of the twentieth century, the decimation of European Jewry in the Holocaust and the repression of Jewish cultural life in the Soviet Union, drastically reduced the number of Yiddish speakers in the world; linguistic assimilation in the United States, Israel and other countries has meant that few people today are acquainted with the treasures of Jewish history and literature written in Yiddish.
At Columbia, we hope that the curriculum in Yiddish Studies, through instruction in Yiddish language and literature at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, will educate both university students and the general public about the "golden tradition" of Yiddish literature and culture.
The following brief outline traces the history of Yiddish Studies at Columbia, outlines the current program, and lists academic resources for Yiddish both on campus and off.
Columbia University in Manhattan offers degree programs in Yiddish Studies. Available classes include Elementary Yiddish I and II, Intermediate Yiddish I and II, Yiddish for Academic Purposes, and Reading-Yiddish Literature. Note that all classes may not be available during all semesters. Non-matriculated students may take one class per semester.