Monday, January 16, 2012

Learn Yiddish Already

Remember the first time Harry gets to fly?

[U]p he soared, air rushed through his hair and his robes whipped out behind him -- and in a rush of fierce joy he realised he'd found something he could do without being taught -- this was easy, this was wonderful. He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.
(Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone by J. K. Rowling London: Bloomsbury, 1997)

You know what I am going to say, right? Everyone together now:

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LEARN YIDDISH!

We are celebrating the new moon of shvat (and a New Year of the Dragon), which means that while it seems winter will never end, it is in fact already time to start worrying about peysekh, which I hardly need mention is hurtling toward us, well, sort of like this guy,

and it is time to make plans for spring and summer Yiddish classes.

Register right now for spring classes at the Workmen's Circle! Best and most reasonably priced classes in town. Classes at all levels begin on February 13.

Summertime is Yiddish time. Don't spend another summer staring at addled prairie-chickens! enroll in a Yiddish summer program.

Obviously I am most enthusiastic about The Uriel Weinreich Summer Program in Yiddish Language Literature and Culture, the first, best, and most comprehensive academic Yiddish Summer program. The Weinreich program offers six intensive, life-changing weeks of Yiddish boot camp for your brain.

If you are a college student, you might be eligible for the outstanding National Yiddish Book Center Steiner Summer Program.

"To what can I compare thee, Vilna?" Learn Yiddish in the capital of Jewish learning at the Vilnius Yiddish Summer Program.

Or come to Israel for the The Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Summer Program at Tel Aviv University.

If staying cooped up in a university classroom for all those beautiful summer days is not your cup of tea, consider the Yiddish Farm Summer Program. Learn Yiddish, agricultural skills and Jewish agrarian ecology while working on a beautiful organic farm in Goshen, New York.

Can't wait until summer? Classes at the Workmen's Circle are starting soon.