FROM OUR FRIENDS: 2025 Paris Yiddish Summer University

 

Our friends at the Maison de la Culture in Paris have announced the details for this year's YIDDISH SUMMER UNIVERSITY

 

This intensive summer course will take place in Paris, France

July 7 to July 25, 2025.

 

The YIDDISH SUMMER UNIVERSITY offers a rich and exciting program for all those who want to study Yiddish intensively, whatever their level. Participants will be welcomed in a pleasant setting in the center of Paris, accompanied by a competent and caring team, among other students from all over the world.

הײַנטיקס יאָר וועט דער זומערקורס פון פּאַיזער ייִדיש־צענטער פאָרקומען טאַקע אין פּאַריז, פון 7טן ביזן 25סטן יולי 2025, מיט אַ רײַכער פּראָגראַם. ווער עס וויל זיך אינטענסיוו לערנען ייִדישע שפּראַך און ליטעראַטור, אויף וואָסער ניוואָ דאָס זאָל נישט זײַן, וועט עס קענען טאָן אין אַ געמיטלעכער אַטמאָספערע, אין האַרץ פון פּאַריז, מיט דער הילף פון אַ פרײַנדלעכן און דערפאַרענעם פּערסאָנאַל, אין דער געזעלשאַפט פון אַנדערע סטודענטן פון דער גאַנצער וועלט.

Please CLICK HERE for further information and to register.

 

The mornings will be devoted to classes, divided into five levels, and supervised by experienced and dynamic teachers. Depending on the level, the emphasis will be on learning the language or studying literary and historical texts from different periods.

In the afternoons and evenings, the program will include festive and cultural activities (Yiddish theater, singing, cooking, tours of Paris), conversation circles, lectures and tutoring sessions.

The program will also feature a special event: the first weekend of our summer university will be dedicated to the 100th anniversary of YIVO, the central institute for Yiddish research (founded in Vilnius, and since 1945 in New York).

Visiting professors will include:

  • Hershl Glasser, Dean of the Max Weinreich Center at the YIVO in New York: “The YIVO Philology Department in Vilnius”.
  • Dovid Fishman, Professor of Contemporary Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York: “The YIVO during the Second World War”.
  • Elissa Bemporad, Professor of History (CUNY, Center for Jewish Studies, New York), specialist in the history of Eastern European Jews: “The Soviet vision of the YIVO in the 1920s”.

The teaching team will consist of:

  • Clarisse Brossard and Malena Chinski (Beginners Level 1)
  • Clarisse Brossard and Sonia Dratwa-Pinkusowitz (Beginners Level 2)
  • Sonia Dratwa-Pinkusowitz and Malena Chinski (Intermediates Level 3)
  • Arnaud Bikard: The stories of Chelm and their rich literary destiny. (Advanced Level 4)
  • Helen Beer: Study of the writings of Rokhl Oyerbakh, 20th-century Yiddish author, historian and essayist. (Advanced Level 4)
  • Arnaud Bikard (three weeks): Don Quixote in Yiddish literature. (Advanced Level 5)
  • Helen Beer (one week): The Memoirs of Glikl Hamel, a wealthy Hamburg merchant and businesswoman of the 17th century. (Advanced Level 5)
  • Gilles Rozier (one week): Avrom Sutzkever in poetry and prose. Comparative study of his ghetto poems and extracts from his prose book The Wilno Ghetto. (Advanced Level 5)
  • Yitskhok Niborski (one week): Great poets for little children. Study of texts by renowned poets for young people. (Advanced Level 5)