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Are you looking for more materials to study Yiddish? In the list below you will find many suggestions for further reading, listening, and watching, together with dictionaries, textbooks, and information about Yiddish language courses. The list is far from exhaustive: we have chosen materials for learners who have been studying Yiddish with YiddishPOP and are ready for a new challenge. Some of the materials are easier, others are harder – take a look, you’ll find something that’s right for you!

This list was updated in May 2024.

Texts for Elementary and Intermediate Yiddish Readers

Reading is, of course, a great way to strengthen, deepen, and broaden your knowledge of Yiddish. Many interesting texts, written or edited for students, can be found in the textbooks listed below; a student who wishes to read literary texts from the very beginning can find a broad selection in Sheva Zucker’s: Yiddish: An Introduction.

Besides textbooks, here are some reading recommendations for beginning and intermediate students:

These three readers, written for children in secular Yiddish schools in America, can be of interest to learners of any age:

Der yidisher tam-tam is a magazine for beginner and intermediate Yiddish students that was published by the Paris Yiddish Center from 1995–2017. Brief and more lengthy texts include articles about Yiddish culture and excerpts from Yiddish literature – all accompanied by a glossary in both English and French. All 109 issues can be downloaded.

Tshikavesn or “Tidbits” is a regular column in the Yiddish Forward with short news articles in easy Yiddish, in both text and recorded format. Note that in all Yiddish language articles on the website of the Forward the reader can click on a word to see its definition.

Motl Peyse dem khazns, Motl the Cantor’s Son by Sholem Aleichem, abridged and adapted for students by Sheva Zucker and Anne Gawenda with exercises, glossary and audio recording. – This beautifully produced edition allows intermediate students to enter the world of Sholem Aleichem’s fiction and appreciate his portrayal of shtetl poverty through the eyes of an irrepressible, fun-loving boy.

Der yidisher poyps, The Jewish Pope, by Yudl Mark, is a short novel for young readers that tells the page-turning story of a Jewish boy who is kidnapped from his family and eventually becomes the pope.

Yiddish Texts with Translation

Kinder-Loshn Publications specializes in books that include the Yiddish text alongside an English translation. The Clever Little Tailor, a novel for young readers by Solomon Simon, tells the adventures of a tailor who thinks up novel solutions to all kinds of difficult problems.

Minibilangues is a series published by The Paris Yiddish Center of Yiddish short stories with facing French translation.

The web journal In geveb regularly publishes new translations into English of poems, stories, essays, and archival materials, along with the original Yiddish text.

The website of the Yiddish Book Center regularly publishes new translations of Yiddish literature, often with a link to the original text.

The web journal Iberzets publishes new and historical translations from Yiddish to Hebrew, along with the original Yiddish text.

Audio and Video

New audio and video presentations are being produced in Sweden where Yiddish is an official minority language. For example, there are videos for younger and older kids, translated from Swedish into Yiddish (one such program is קנאָספּל), and recordings of cultural programming in Yiddish (for example מײַן דערצײלונג). More Yiddish broadcasts can be found using the search term ‘jiddisch’ on the website of UR, Swedish Educational Broadcasting.

On the video channel of the Yiddish Forward there are a large number of interviews, reports, and presentations, many with English subtitles. Especially accessible for students are the cooking videos, עסט געזונטערהײט, and Yiddish yoga.

Interviewees of the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project tell their personal history with a focus on Jewish/Yiddish aspects of their lives. Some interviews are conducted in Yiddish. Interviews can be searched by language and by topic.

Here, for example, are extracts from four different interviews in Yiddish about childhood experiences:

The video project of a children’s Yiddish class in Israel; the children act out the story of a Hanukkah miracle.

Videos and audio recordings by hasidim are available on YouTube, for example:

Proste Yiddish is a podcast by Melbourne Yiddish teacher Esther Diamond made especially for Yiddish learners. Esther speaks slowly and clearly on a variety of everyday and Yiddish cultural topics, and includes a transcript and glossary with each episode.

Khane Senesh, by Ahron Meged, a biography published by the Peretz School in Montreal, is a good read and/or listen for intermediate students. The printed text is available here; audio here.

Yiddish Songs

This website makes available the rich collection of Yiddish songs published by the Mloteks in several song books. The Yiddish text of the songs is provided in Yiddish letters and transcription together with an English translation and sheet music. Wherever possible, a performance of the song is linked.

This collection includes old and new recordings of Yiddish songs. It can be searched by artist, album name, or song title. Here, for example, is an album of Yiddish holiday songs by Cindy Paley.

A website of Yiddish songs for learners. For each song, the text is presented in Yiddish letters, transcription, and translation into English and French. A glossary is provided as well as links to performances.

This album by Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman includes the song “Vos kukt es dort aroys fun dr’erd” that can be heard in YiddishPOP at the end of lesson 4.2 (see also 4.2 culture).

Dictionaries

Yiddish–⁠Yiddish Dictionaries

This dictionary gives definitions in Yiddish for words that derive from loshn-koydesh and example sentences from literary sources. It can be purchased directly from the publishing house of the Medem Library.

The four volumes of this Yiddish–⁠Yiddish dictionary cover only the letter alef. They can be read or downloaded in the digital library of the Yiddish Book Center.

Bilingual Dictionaries

Dutch

English

The following two dictionaries are available in print and online:

French

Hebrew

Russian

Spanish

Swedish

Ukranian

Textbooks

Uriel Weinreich, College Yiddish

Sheva Zucker, Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture

Lily Kahn, Colloquial Yiddish

Asya Vaisman Shulman, Jordan Brown, Mikhl Yashinsky, In Eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook

This unique Yiddish textbook integrates rich, full-color illustrations into a program of study that draws on insights from current research on language pedagogy. It includes many songs and authentic texts adapted for students, and offers considerable electronic resources that accompany the lessons. The textbook is user-friendly for a student learning on their own, and the program of study as a whole provides pedagogical support for teachers.

With Explanations in German, Hebrew, or Russian

Marion Aptroot and Holger Nath, Einführung in die jiddische Sprache und Kultur

(S. A. Sandler, Yiddish for Russian Speakers)

Textbooks for Intermediate and Advanced Students

Hanan Bordin, Mit vort un maysim

Dovid Goldberg, Yidish af yidish

Mordkhe Schaechter, Yiddish II

This textbook for intermediate and advanced students was written as a continuation of College Yiddish. It includes a range of texts (conversations, poems, short essays on language and culture topics) together with explanations in Yiddish about a rich variety of grammatical and lexical topics. In effect, Yiddish II is a “mini encyclopedia” of the Yiddish language, as demonstrated by this recently published enhanced index to the book.

Writing Yiddish in Electronic Formats

The website Yiddish kompyuteray provides resources for writing with Yiddish letters on computers, tablets, and phones using various systems.

Yiddish Classes

Yiddish classes are available in-person and online at all levels. The following organizations offer a broad range of classes, but they aren’t the only ones – there may be Yiddish classes close to where you live!

Here is a list of universities where Yiddish is taught.

Intensive Summer Programs

There are several summer programs for the intensive study of Yiddish language and culture that typically offer language classes together with lectures and workshops in areas such as Yiddish literature, history, theater, and song. They often include outings to areas of local Yiddish interest.

The web journal In geveb usually publishes a list of upcoming summer programs in late January or early February. Here is the list for 2024. The following programs are offered regularly:

Immerse Yourself in Yiddish!

The Yidish-vokh, a program of Yugntruf–⁠Youth for Yiddish, offers a week-long Yiddish immersion experience in a summer camp in the New York Berkshire mountains. Activities (all in Yiddish) include lectures, workshops, sport, crafts, and more. You don’t have to be able to speak Yiddish fluently to enjoy the Yidish-vokh, but you have to be willing and able to communicate only in Yiddish.

At the following two programs participants spend a weekend in an immersive Yiddish-speaking environment:

Music and Culture Programs

The following programs with a focus on klezmer music and Yiddish culture are conducted partly in Yiddish and partly in other languages. Yiddish language classes are usually offered alongside many other classes and workshops.