Yiddish Hoyz at Yiddish Summer Weimar
Speaking a language together is like musical improvisation – spontaneous, collaborative communication – and good improvisation requires practice and experience. Sadly, there’s no easy flight to Yiddishland, and few chances for new speakers to be surrounded by the language they have learned in class.
Yiddish Hoyz, a project of Yiddish Summer Weimar (YSW) that I initiated and led in 2025, is an immersive Yiddish-speaking space where conversational speakers (intermediate or above) lived in the language for one or two weeks during the festival, cooking and eating together, playing games, watching Yiddish films, and simply hanging out in Yiddish. This complements and deepens the learning of the festival’s classroom language programs. Hoyz-mates discover and fill gaps in their vocabulary and grammar (vi zogt men “hot tub”?), create new Weimar Yiddish slang, and quickly become more confident speakers by chatting with new friends.
Basics
- Format: A residential Yiddish immersion during the festival, including a variety of activities. In the first year, the first week took place in a village outside Weimar, and the second was at the center of the festival.
- Duration: 1-2 weeks
- Language: Yiddish
- Target audience: Intermediate and advanced Yiddish speakers
- Location: Weimar and the region
Dates
Follow me on Instagram for information about future editions.
Past
The first edition took place from 3 to 18 August 2025, with participants coming for the first or second week, or a shorter stay.
Booking
All bookings are coordinated through the website of Yiddish Summer Weimar. If you are interested in participating in the future and have questions, feel free to send me a message.
2025 Highlights from Instagram
I kept a photo journal of the first year’s program in August 2025 on my Instagram page, where you can view highlights from every day.