YDSH 10a Beginning Yiddish

Meets for four class hours per week.

The first of a four-semester sequence, this course introduces basic Yiddish grammar. Students also develop reading, writing, and conversational skills. Yiddish songs, poetry, and folklore are incorporated throughout. Usually offered every year.

YDSH 20b Continuing Yiddish

Prerequisite: YDSH 10a or permission of the instructor. Meets for four class hours per week.

Continues the study of grammar begun in YDSH 10a. Writing and speaking skills receive more emphasis than in the previous course, and students begin to build vocabulary and reading skills that will enable them to comprehend more complex texts. The history and culture of Eastern European Jewry are studied through Yiddish songs, films, and literature. Usually offered every year.

YDSH 30a Intermediate Yiddish
[ fl wi ]

Prerequisite: YDSH 20b or permission of the instructor. Meets for four class hours per week.

Third in a four-semester sequence. Students continue to develop reading skills as they sample texts from Yiddish prose fiction, folklore, and memoir literature. Grammatical instruction is more contextualized than in the previous courses. Speaking and writing skills are strongly emphasized. Usually offered every year.

YDSH 40b Advanced Intermediate Yiddish
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: YDSH 30a or permission of the instructor. Meets for four class hours per week.

The fourth in a four-semester sequence, this course is a continuation of YDSH 30a. Students discuss assigned texts in Yiddish. Written assignments emphasize the development of fluency and grammatical accuracy. Skills for using Yiddish in academic research are taught. Usually offered every year.

YDSH 98b Independent Study

Yields half course credit. Usually offered every year.

NEJS 171a Teaching and Learning Modern Jewish History, the Holocaust, and Israel
[ hum ]

Examines why we teach history, how students learn history, the uses of public history, and what history means within a Jewish context. Special emphasis is placed on teaching with primary sources, digital resources, and oral history. Includes an oral history project in cooperation with the Jewish Women's Archive and Keshet (a Jewish LGBTQ organization), and an introduction to Holocaust education with Facing History and Ourselves. Usually offered every third year.

NEJS 153a Between Ecstasy and Community: Hasidism in Jewish Thought and History
[ hum oc ]

Explores Hasidism, from the 18th century until today, as one of the dynamic forces in Jewish life, mixing radicalism and reaction, theology, storytelling and music, thick community and wild individualism, deep conformity and spiritual abandon. Usually offered every third year.

NEJS 158b Yiddish Literature and the Modern Jewish Revolution
[ hum wi ]

Students with reading knowledge of Yiddish may elect to read the original texts.

Surveys and analyzes Yiddish fiction, poetry, and drama of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readings include several works of the classic Yiddish writers, but the primary focus is on works by succeeding generations of modernist writers. Taught in English using texts in translation. Weekly additional section for students with advanced reading knowledge of Yiddish who elect to read some texts in the original. Usually offered every second year.

NEJS 164a Judaism Confronts America
[ hum wi ]

Examines, through a close reading of selected primary sources, central issues and tensions in American Jewish life, paying attention to their historical background and to issues of Jewish law. Usually offered every second year.

NEJS 171a Teaching and Learning Modern Jewish History, the Holocaust, and Israel
[ hum ]

Examines why we teach history, how students learn history, the uses of public history, and what history means within a Jewish context. Special emphasis is placed on teaching with primary sources, digital resources, and oral history. Includes an oral history project in cooperation with the Jewish Women's Archive and Keshet (a Jewish LGBTQ organization), and an introduction to Holocaust education with Facing History and Ourselves. Usually offered every third year.

NEJS 181a Jews on Screen: From "Cohen's Fire Sale" to the Coen Brothers
[ hum ]

Open to all students.

Survey course focusing on moving images of Jews and Jewish life in fiction and factual films. Includes early Russian and American silents, home movies of European Jews, Yiddish feature films, Israeli cinema, independent films, and Hollywood classics. Usually offered every second year.

NEJS 221a Reading Yiddish Literary and Historical Texts

Prerequisite: YDSH 30a or 40b.

Examines modern Yiddish literary and historical texts. Introduces genres and texts of Yiddish literature and scholarship in modern Jewish history. Journalistic texts are studied to prepare students to conduct research using the Yiddish press. Grammatical concepts are reviewed as needed. Usually offered every year.