The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (CAHS) of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in partnership with the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program and the 2008 Indiana University Summer Workshop in Slavic, East European, and Central Asian Languages are pleased to announce an intensive reading-comprehension course, Reading Yiddish for Holocaust Research, to take place at Indiana University from June 13 through July 25, 2008. This course is one of several ongoing Center programs to support excellence in Holocaust research and teaching (please see www.ushmm.org/research/center).

The six-week course is open to students and scholars with strong German-language reading skills from accredited institutions of higher education. The course is designed to provide participants with a reading knowledge of Yiddish in order to access Jewish source documentation and perspectives on the Holocaust and thus better understand the Yiddish-speaking Jewish communities of Europe and their responses to assault by the Nazis and their allies. The course will focus on reading skills for use in research and offers participants the equivalent of a full year (6 credits) of college language instruction for reading Yiddish.

The program utilizes the resources of Indiana University, home of one of the nation’s premier summer language programs. The course instructor will be Jan Schwarz, Senior Lecturer, Department of Germanic Studies and Committee on Jewish Studies, University of Chicago. Dr. Schwarz has taught Yiddish at the University of Vilnius, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Pennsylvania. He is co-editor of a recent issue of POLIN: Studies in Polish Jewry (vol. 20, 2007), which focuses on Memorializing the Holocaust and includes his own article “A Library of Hope and Destruction: The Yiddish Book Series Dos Poylishe Yidntum, 1946–1966.” Dr. Schwarz’s book, Imagining Lives: Autobiographical Fiction of Yiddish Writers (2005), included an extensive analysis of postwar Yiddish writers. His current book project is The Survivor Generation: Yiddish Writing after the Holocaust.

In addition to intensive daily language classes, the course will include a weekly seminar on the Holocaust and Yiddish history and culture, presented by Indiana University faculty and CAHS staff and visiting scholars.

The cost of the course, books, and accommodation will be covered by the program’s sponsors. A stipend for food will also be provided. Participants will have full access to Indiana University’s library, athletic, and other facilities, as well as internet access through the University’s computer and email system. All travel costs to and from Indiana University-Bloomington, incidentals, and costs that may exceed allowances from the sponsors are the responsibility of the participants and/or their respective institutions. Participants are required to attend all six weeks of the course.

Applications must include: (1) a resume; (2) a statement of the candidate’s specific interest in acquiring a Yiddish reading knowledge for Holocaust-related research and objectives for attending the course; and (3) a supporting letter from an academic advisor, department chair, or dean that addresses the candidate’s qualifications, including German proficiency at or above the intermediate level, and any institutional support being provided. While most applicants will be at the graduate and post-doctoral level, senior undergraduates are eligible.

Applications must be postmarked or submitted electronically no later than February 15, 2008. Applications should be sent to University Programs, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW, Washington, DC 20024 (Fax: 202-479-9726; Email: university_programs@ushmm.org). Candidates will be notified of the results of the application process by March 7. For questions, please contact Dr. Robert M. Ehrenreich at university_programs@ushmm.org.

This course is made possible through the generosity of Judith and Tony Gelbart.