(Originally posted 7/13)
Almost ending our second week of classes here at the Yiddish program it feels like time is flying faster than I can even account for. I’m certainly feeling more comfortable with my Yiddish speaking. Beyond that – it’s clear as day that when you begin reading literature intensively and see many of the same words over and over again they stick pretty quickly. We just transitioned from our first unit on Ukrainian poet שיקע דריז to reading an excerpt from דוד בערבגעלסאָנ׳ס “Between Immigrants.”

I’ve been going to the translation workshop and now will start an independent study with Prof. Barbara Mann at JTS looking at Female Writers in Yiddish and translation. Hopefully, I’ll have a short story ready to publish by the end if the summer.

There are so many languages represented in just my class level it makes me want to learn all of them. Our professors give examples and translate into many of them. Next week I’ll perform a recitation of a poem about the Arch-Demon Ashmodai. I also signed up to present a bit of my pre-research for my thesis which will hopefully have my peers direct me to further reading and resources. Learning all of these new things is really very fun and it hardly feels like “school” in a traditional sense. Certainly without any of the flogging that they used to do to shtetl kids in cheder.



I’m excited to continue my adventures and enjoy what this fantastic group of people and place has to offer.

Cheers,

Boaz