YIVO/Columbia Yiddish Summer Program

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1995 COLUMBIA/YIVO YIDDISH SUMMER PROGRAM ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

NEW YORK CITY--February 21, 1995--Applications are now being accepted for the
Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture, which
will take place on the Columbia University campus from June 26 to August 4,
1995.  The program, jointly sponsored by the Max Weinreich Center of the YIVO
Institute for Jewish Research and Columbia University, is a six-week,
non-matriculating, three-credit college course offered on three levels:
 elementary, intermediate and advanced.  The program proper will be preceded
by an optional two-week review session for intermediate and advanced students
beginning on June 12.  Elementary students with no reading or writing
knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet are required to attend a one-day reading
and writing workshop on Sunday, June 25.
     People worldwide have discovered the importance of Yiddish as a key to
understanding a significant component of the Jewish heritage.  Every summer
for the last twenty-seven years, several dozen people from diverse
backgrounds, professional pursuits and places as far-ranging as Russia,
Poland, Lithuania, Argentina and Australia make their way to New York City to
study Yiddish in the world's first and most acclaimed, college-level Yiddish
language program.
     Many summer program students have gone on to become fellows of the Max
Weinreich Center, an accredited institute for advanced study of East European
and American Jewish history and culture.  Others have entered graduate
programs in Jewish studies offered by major universities throughout North
America, Europe and Israel.  The program has thus served as an essential
stepping stone in the careers of such prominent scholars in the field of
Yiddish as Janet Hadda, Michael Stanislawski, Jack Kugelmass and Irena
Klepfisz.
     Participants in the program not only learn the fundamentals of Yiddish
grammar and read Yiddish literary classics, but also explore the riches of
East European and American Jewish culture through lectures in Yiddish and
English, Yiddish films, Yiddish conversation groups and a variety of
workshops in translation, theater, folksong and traditional dance.
 Teacher-training workshops provide veteran and prospective Yiddish
instructors with language-teaching methodology and practice.
     As a means of expanding the opportunities for verbal practice and
creating a feeling of camaraderie, out-of-towners are given the option of
staying in single rooms in Yiddish Summer Program Yidish hoyz, a Yiddish
dormitory suite on campus.  Excursions to Jewish points of interest in and
outside of New York City add depth and immediacy to subjects covered in the
classroom.  Dr. Allan Nadler, Director of Research at YIVO, has called the
program "an intensive, intellectually stimulating experience, whose rewards
remain throughout one's lifetime." 
      For an application including information on housing and partial
scholarships, call, fax or write to Jeffrey Salant, Director of Yiddish
Language Programs, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 555 West 57th Street
Suite 1100, New York, NY 10019, (212) 246-6080, fax (212) 734-1062.  The
deadline for scholarship applications is March 22.