Yidish-Vokh
Yidish-Vokh (Yiddish Week) is our annual all-Yiddish retreat. What started as a weekend gathering of a few families and friends has grown into a week-long event which attracts more than 150 people from all over the world. Yidish-Vokh provides activities for Yiddish speakers of all ages, and is held every year during mid- to late August.
Information about Yidish-Vokh 2013 can be found here. Yidish-Vokh 2013 took place from August 13th-19th at the Pearlstone Conference and Retreat Center in Reisterstown, Maryland.
Yiddish Classes
Currently our only class is an informal conversation class for advanced beginners meeting about once a week on Sundays. See our calendar for details.
If Yugntruf is not offering classes at your level, you can try the following organizations, which offer classes in New York City throughout the year:
If you’re outside of New York City and can’t find any local Yiddish teachers, eteacheryiddish offers long-distance Yiddish classes over the Internet.
Yankl-Perets also offers private tutoring. You can contact him for more information at learnyiddish@yugntruf.org.
Yiddish Break
Now in its sixth year, Yiddish Break is an annual event at which young Yiddish speakers and enthusiasts meet for a weekend to experience Yiddish language and culture. Yiddish Breaks have previously been held at Harvard University, Brandeis University, the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, the University of Chicago, and the University of Maryland. At Yiddish Break, area college students and young people from a wide variety of backgrounds and denominations come together to eat, chat, play games, participate in workshops, attend seminars, and sing songs in Yiddish and English. Kosher meals are provided; local housing is arranged by visiting attendees.
Read about the first Yiddish Break in Chicago, by organizer Sonia Gollance.
E-mail us at yiddishbreak@yugntruf.org for more information or to ask about organizing a Yiddish Break on your campus.
Svives
We regularly hold svives, potluck-style meetups of young Yiddish speakers in our homes. Svives provide a Yiddish immersion opportunity in a casual setting for both Yiddish students and fluent speakers. We usually meet on the Upper West Side of New York, and have begun to hold svives in Brooklyn as well. For information on the next svive, please check our calendar. Also, please contact us for information on how to start a svive in your own area.
