“Let’s Talk About Something More Cheerful”: An Introduction to Sholem Aleichem
Tuition: $240 | YIVO members: $180**
This is a live, online course held twice weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, assignments, etc.) will be posted to Google Classroom. Students will be granted access to the class on Google Classroom after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English.
Instructor: Josh Price
In this course, we will consider the life and work of Sholem Aleichem (1859–1916), the self-appointed torchbearer of modern Yiddish literature. Through the indelible trio of characters he created — Tevye, Menachem-Mendl, and Motl — we will explore the promises and perils of (Jewish) modernity in which the author himself was caught up. In Sholem Aleichem’s unique style and irrepressible voice, we will find not only echoes of his Yiddish and European predecessors and contemporaries, but also the makings of a Jewish (tragic)comic tradition that remains alive today.
Discussion and readings in English; Yiddish originals provided upon request.
Yiddish Level:
Students of all Yiddish levels and students without any Yiddish language background are welcome to register for this course.
Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all required course materials digitally throughout the class on Google Classroom.
Questions? Read our 2027 Winter Yiddish Seminars FAQ.
Joshua Price is a Senior Lector in Yiddish at Yale. He received his Ph.D. in Yiddish Studies at Columbia University (2020), with a dissertation on the translation of world literature into Yiddish in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work has appeared in In geveb, Jews and Slavs, and Afn shvel. He is currently at work on a study of Yiddish and/as world literature for the forthcoming edited volume Cambridge History of Yiddish Literature.
**Become a member today, starting at $54 for one year, and pay the member price for classes! You’ll save on tuition for this course and more on future classes and public programs tickets.