Jessica Kirzane

Jessica Kirzane is the Lecturer in Yiddish at the University of Chicago. She earned her PhD in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University in 2017, where her dissertation focused on interethnic romance in Jewish American fiction in Yiddish and English in the early twentieth century. Jessica is currently translating Miriam Karpilov's 1917 novel Diary of a Lonely Girl, or The Battle Against Free Love and researching popular representations of free love in the American Yiddish press. She was a 2017 Translation Fellow and an 2018 Pedagogy Fellow at the Yiddish Book Center and is a former editor and contributor for the Teach Great Jewish Books website of the Yiddish Book Center. Jessica's work has previously appeared in the Journal of Jewish Identities, Zutot, and The Sacred Encounter: Jewish Perspectives in Sexuality (CCAR Press, 2014) and her translations have been published in jewishfiction.net, Pakn Treger, Your Impossible Voice, and Queen Mob's Teahouse. Jessica is the Editor-in-Chief for In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies.

Pedagogy

Teaching Yiddish Through Song

Feb 13, 2019

Songs

worksheet

Blog

The Latest Yiddish Translations, 2018

Maia Evrona, Jessica Kirzane and Daniel Kennedy

A roundup of translations published in 2018.

Jan 14, 2019

Latest in Yiddish

Bibliography

translation

Blog

Weaving in Yiddish: An Interview with Michael Bass and Berit Engen on Yiddish Community and Creativity in Oak Park, IL

Jessica Kirzane

Oct 29, 2018

Text & Translation

ברוך דיין אמת

Blessed is the True Judge

Leon Kobrin

Translation by Jessica Kirzane

A short story from Leon Kobrin’s 1903 collection Geto dramen.

May 30, 2018

Blog

The Latest in Yiddish Studies in English: 2017

Rachelle Grossman, Erin Faigin, Saul Noam Zaritt and Jessica Kirzane

A bibliography of the output of Yiddish scholarship published in English last year.

Apr 23, 2018

Pedagogy

לויט די לערערס | Teachers Weigh In: Teaching with Sholem Aleichem

Jessica Kirzane

Instructors share their thoughts on teaching with Sholem Aleichem.

Apr 03, 2018

Pedagogy

Teaching Guide for “Invitation to Participate: Teaching with Sholem Aleichem,” by The Editors

Jessica Kirzane

Feb 27, 2018

Interview

Yiddish Linguistics and Digital Humanities: A Conversation with Michelle Chesner about the Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazi Jewry

Jessica Kirzane

Feb 12, 2018

academia

Pedagogy

לויט די לערערס | Teachers Weigh In: The Person Teaching With Yiddish

Jessica Kirzane

Instructors share their thoughts on sharing about their personal lives and commitments while teaching Yiddish language or culture.

Jan 15, 2018

Loyt di lerers

Yiddish Courses

identity

Pedagogy

Yiddish in ale lender! Yiddish Summer Programs Roundup 2018

Jessica Kirzane

A short description of the many Yiddish language and culture summer programs on offer for 2018.

Jan 08, 2018

Summer

Summer Programs

Learn Yiddish

Pedagogy

From Kansas to Kentucky in a Jewish Literature Classroom: A “Creative Option” for Reflection Papers

Jessica Kirzane

Jessica Kirzane discusses a creative writing prompt for students in a course on American Jewish Literature and shares samples of students’ work.

Nov 19, 2017

Pedagogy

לויט די לערערס | Teachers Weigh In: Intermediate Yiddish

Jessica Kirzane

Yiddish language instructors share their thoughts about teaching Intermediate Yiddish.

Sep 14, 2017

Loyt di lerers

Intermediate Yiddish

Pedagogy

לויט די לערערס | Teachers Weigh In: Yiddish Clubs and Reading Groups

Jessica Kirzane

Participants and facilitators share their thoughts on Yiddish clubs and reading groups.

May 22, 2017

Pedagogy

Teaching Guide for Yoysef Kerler’s “Old Fashioned” and “The Sea” (trans. Evrona)

Jessica Kirzane

The second in a series of teaching guides, this one for Maia Evrona’s translation of Yoysef Kerler’s poems “Old Fashioned” and “The Sea” (1979).

Jan 17, 2017

teaching guide

Poetry

translation

Israeli Yiddish literature

Pedagogy

Yiddish in ale lender! Yiddish Summer Programs Roundup 2017

Jessica Kirzane

A short description of the many Yiddish language and culture summer programs on offer for 2017.

Jan 08, 2017

Pedagogy

לויט די לערערס | Teachers Weigh In: Teaching Texts in Translation

Jessica Kirzane

Instructors share their thoughts on teaching Yiddish texts in translation.

Nov 28, 2016

Loyt di lerers

translation studies

translation

Pedagogy

Integrating Yiddish Materials in a Jewish Day School Environment

Jessica Kirzane

A discussion of how Feygi Zylberman, a middle school History and Jewish Studies teacher at a Progressive Jewish community day school in Melbourne, Australia, employs Yiddish in her classroom, with a worksheet to use alongside the divorce scene in the film Hester Street (1975).

Nov 14, 2016

Pedagogy

Teaching Guide for Dik’s “Slavery or Serfdom” (trans. Rosenblatt)

Jessica Kirzane

The first in a series of teaching guides, this one for Eli Rosenblatt’s translation of Isaac Meir Dik’s introduction to his 1868 adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852).

Oct 25, 2016

Who am I and Why am I Here? A Note from the Pedagogy Editor

Jessica Kirzane

A note from the new Pedagogy Editor about our plans for the Pedagogy section of In geveb for the coming year.

Sep 11, 2016

Text & Translation

לינטשערײַ

A Lynching

Joseph Opatoshu

Translation by Jessica Kirzane

The gritty, and controversial 1920s account of a lynching by Joseph Opatoshu.

Jun 21, 2016

Article

“This is How a Generation Grows”: Lynching as a Site of Ethical Loss in Opatoshu’s “Lintsheray”

Jessica Kirzane

What can Opatoshu’s controversial story about a lynching tell us about the complex Jewish encounter with American culture and the potential loss of an ethical tradition.

Jun 21, 2016

Pedagogy

In geveb in the Classroom: Getting to Know the Best Dressed Better

Jessica Kirzane

Yiddish teachers are always looking for good materials. Here, Jessica Kirzane demonstrates one way to use content from In geveb to structure and enhance her lessons.

Feb 17, 2016