Dec 03, 2024
INTRODUCTION
At In geveb we are proud not only to sustain and grow scholarship in our field but also to create editorial positions that are valuable professional development and learning opportunities for emerging scholars. To that end, we’re thrilled to include in our team an undergraduate intern, Dinah Megibow-Taylor. We look forward to all that she will do to strengthen our publication, and to all that we will learn from and with her through this mentoring experience.
Dinah’s position is supported by the Center for Career Advancement at the University of Chicago and the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago.
My name is Dinah, and I am a first-year undergraduate student at The University of Chicago. I am grateful and thrilled to begin my role as Editorial Intern for In geveb! I was born and raised in New Jersey, so I am just getting acquainted with the midwest and still on the hunt for a good bagel.
My exposure to Yiddish was piecemeal growing up—I’d hear words and phrases tossed around the household, particularly those that articulated my parents’ and grandparents’ petty grievances. Yet before arriving at UChicago, I was fortunate to have a more formal introduction to the field of Yiddish Studies. It began with receiving Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish on Christmas morning some years ago. (We are a family that was never quite able to escape the draw of presents on Christmas, despite our Jewishness). But this lexicon allowed for a glimpse into the big, bright world of Yiddish, and as I flipped through, I was inexplicably drawn towards studying the language and its culture.
When given the opportunity through my high school to begin an independent research study of my choosing, I opted to focus on Yiddish. Through qualitative interviews with Yiddish scholars, writers, and admirers, and archival research done at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, this project culminated in a narrative essay titled “Koyekh: Yiddish in Past and Present America.” It was through this project that I was introduced to the wonderful work of In geveb, which makes this opportunity to work with the journal all the more special. I then went on to intern for YIVO’s archival department before graduating last spring.
Though I’m still broadly exploring paths of study, language learning has always been integral to my educational and personal experiences, and I will certainly continue that into adulthood. I am sticking to French (for now) through the College, but I am always on the lookout for ways to engage with both Latin—with which I’m familiar—and Yiddish, as well as opportunities to dip my toe into other linguistic waters (Hebrew and Arabic are also top of list).
English may not do the trick to express my excitement to work with In geveb. So to sign off, I’ll end with a big and heartfelt zayt gezunt!
