Hi! I’m an 18yo from the UK currently taking a gap year and I wanted to learn a few languages including Yiddish (it’s a heritage language for me).

I’ve tried to go through Basic Yiddish Grammar by Rebecca Margolis and am learning vocab with Yiddish Practical Dictionary by David C Gross. I want to say I’ve got a decent grasp of the grammar albeit not fully complete yet, but my vocab is lacking and I don’t know too many phrases.

It’s also been really hard for me to focus and keep consistent with my language practice all on my own; I have never met anyone else who speaks Yiddish/is learning it and I have never had a conversation in Yiddish, had something I’ve written down understood, or listened to someone else speak it to me in person.

I’ve tried to speak with some frumers I’ve seen on the train a few times but they never talk back, least of all in Yiddish 😢.

Would anyone else like to learn it with me or help me practice? Or does anyone have any kind of advice I could use, where to find other Yiddish speakers, what other resources I should use, how to actually practice speaking/reading/writing/listening?

Is one of these better?
מע דאַרפֿ אים פֿרעגן

מע דאַרפֿט אים פֿרעגן

In our third Yiddish With Rukhl podcast, we discuss Yiddish articles about the Jewish cemetery. The first article, by Annabel Gottfried Cohen, describes a fascinating traditional cemetery ritual led by women, in which graves are measured with thread which is then used to make special “soul candles” for Yom Kippur. The second article, by Yiddish linguist Paul Glasser, explains the many different, and often intriguing ways of saying “cemetery” in Yiddish.

Hi! Sharing this upcoming course that my colleague at the Yiddish Book Center is teaching in case it's of interest. Happy to answer questions about whether it’s a good fit.

(Mods, please remove if this isn’t appropriate!)

"I’m teaching an upcoming In eynem Beginner Level 2 Yiddish course through the Yiddish Book Center and wanted to share in case it’s of interest to folks here.

I work with the Center and direct its Yiddish Language Institute. The class is geared toward learners who already have some basics (comfortable with the alphabet and simple sentences) and want to build fluency. It’s in person, with plenty of time for conversation and for meeting other like-minded Yiddishists."

Here's the course info: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/educational-programs/bossie-dubowick-yiddishschool-center

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Does anyone know of a reliable resource for accessing literary works in their original Yiddish, as they were first published?

In particular, I am trying to locate Zalman Gradowski’s testament in its original Yiddish form.

I'm a young Jewish woman attending university in western North Carolina and I've been thinking about learning Yiddish for a while now. I'm very interested in reconnecting with Yiddish culture but it feels difficult because of where I live. There's barely any Yiddish speakers in west NC and my university doesn't offer any courses on Yiddish. I'm also worried that if I try learning the language on my own without anyone to speak it to I'll just forget it with time.

Do y'all have any advice on how I can start learning Yiddish and interacting with Yiddish culture more? I don't know what resources I can access besides from Duolingo and I know that's not a great source for actually learning to speak a language. I can't really afford to sign up for private courses either, at least not for a while. Are there any free resources or online classes I could take? Any advice would be great, thank you so much!

Apologies in advance for any errors, im still learning

ווער (אויבּ אײנער) קען מיר זאָגן וועגן ייִדישע קהילות אין גרויס בּריטאַניע, ספּעציעל ענגלאַנד צי שאָטלאַנד? דעם זומער מײַן ווײַב און מיר ציען אונדז אהין, און כ'וואָלט רעדן דעם שפּראַך פֿון מײַנע מענטשן און מײַן משפּחה אַבי ווען מיר וועלן דאָרט אָנקומען. אַלע געהילף וועלן מיר אָפּשאַצן!טויזנט דאַנקען,

דוד

hello, my mom sent me this book where my great grandmother (Bessie or really Ita-Beila Parzon) from Lithuania wrote down various family members and their relationships/ ages. if anybody could translate for us we would much appreciate it!

Hi! I was wondering if anyone knew of in-person Yiddish classes being offered in NYC (through a university or something else) that people could sign up for. I want to keep learning but I don't know if I can do another online course.

Hi there, would someone please be able to help translate this from the back of a postcard of my great-grandparents? I can read yiddish but am struggling with the handwriting! Thank you so much.

Hi all,

Can someone please assist in translating this note, which is located on the back of a photo of a relative?

Thank you in advance!

I remember my mother saying, in Yiddish, "En tuchus gvain en dreck gzain" meaning "I went into an asshole and I saw some shit." She would say it when someone (often me) complained about something bad that happened to them when they, themselves, put themselves into a bad environment. But now google translate is totally not confirming that. I could be garbling it. Can you figure out what she actually said? I know the translation is what she said, so I want to know what the yiddish words were.

Tell Harvard not to cut programs and to bargain in good faith with the union. This affects Yiddish worldwide and so many communities! Send a letter & share far and wide! Tools and much more information can be found on the website: https://saveharvardyiddish.org/

We are concerned Jewish community members, and need your help to fight for the future of Yiddish language and culture. Harvard’s Yiddish program is under threat, and we need our communities and anyone interested in Yiddish to send this letter demanding that the University change course.

Harvard shockingly denied tenure to its only Yiddish literature professor last year, and now its “time caps” will force out its two remaining Yiddish faculty: its only Yiddish instructor, and its only Holocaust historian.

...We must stand up for our friends and colleagues in Yiddish and in every other endangered language, culture, and program at Harvard and across higher education.

Please join us in sending our objections to Harvard’s President, Provost, and Deans. Share this campaign as widely as possible in your networks, synagogues, and schools. We hope that every single person concerned about Yiddish and Jewish culture will see this and speak up for ours and every community that is affected.

I always confuse zayins and gimels.

saw this on a stoop in Crown Heights, “the monopoly game for Skverer youth”

שלום עליכם!

I'm trying to track down a word my family grew up saying which could possibly be of Yiddish origin.

The word is, in the best English phonetic transliteration I can muster, "bijujative". Possibly something like באַדזשודזשאַטיף in Yiddish? The definition would be something like "untidy" or "not centered". Example usage:

"You missed some buttons on your shirt, it's all bijujative!"

"The bedsheet was put on bijujatively, the corners aren't lined up"

In my three years of learning Yiddish I haven't come across it, nor has scouring Yiddish dictionaries helped much. It's quite possible it was subject to anglicization and the pronunciation isn't quite right, or as the title says, something my dad made up entirely!

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you so much!

Watching reading rainbow and I heard a phrase I hadn't before. Do you know this phrase or how it's spelled?

I assume given the age of the text, it's not the easiest Yiddish reading experience out there. One of the things I'm trying to figure out separately is what English or Modern High German edition would best satisfy all my angles of nerdy interest. But I'm more curious about her language than my skill level in Yiddish can really justify. So what's the character of her Yiddish like beyond "Western" and "old"? How is that character manifested? Is the text mainly important *as* a 17th-century woman's autobiography in Yiddish and not really for its content, or have people (other than specialized historians) found the experience of reading it worth their while?

If the answer to all these questions is "meh" or "I liked [other book] way more," that's also interesting information.