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 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, Columbia Journal, Pakn Treger, Your Impossible Voice, and Queen Mob's Teahouse. She is the translator of Miriam Karpilove's Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love (Syracuse UP, 2019). Jessica is the Editor-in-Chief for In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies.
CONTRIBUTOR
Jessica Kirzane
University of Chicago
RELATED ARTICLES
Pedagogy
Teaching Guide to Erotic Yiddish Poetry
Jessica Kirzane
This teaching guide offers suggestions and reflections from several scholars about teaching erotic Yiddish poetry.
Apr 09, 2019
Blog
The Latest Yiddish Translations, 2018
Maia Evrona, Jessica Kirzane and Daniel Kennedy
A roundup of translations published in 2018.
Jan 14, 2019
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Pedagogy
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
Text & Translation
טאַגעבוך פֿון אַן עלנטער מיידל אָדער: דער קאַמף קעגן פֿרײַער ליבע
Diary of a Lonely Girl or the Battle Against Free Love, Part 2
Miriam Karpilove
Translation by Jessica Kirzane
The continued adventures of Miriam Karpilove’s “Lonely Girl” in a new translation by Jessica Kirzane
Jan 20, 2016
Text & Translation
טאַגעבוך פֿון אַן עלנטער מיידל אָדער: דער קאַמף קעגן פֿרײַער ליבע
Diary of a Lonely Girl or the Battle Against Free Love, Part 1
Miriam Karpilove
Translation by Jessica Kirzane
A young woman in New York struggles with the ideals of romantic love.
Jan 11, 2016
Pedagogy
Games for Small Groups
Jessica Kirzane
In geveb is sharing a series of games for use in Yiddish language classes.
Nov 01, 2015