Yiddish course returns to University of Amsterdam

From today, students can take the Yiddish course at the University of Amsterdam again. The vernacular spoken by many Jews in European cities for centuries has not been taught in the Netherlands since the death of professor Shlomo Berger, AT5 reports.

The return of the subject is proving to be a success. “I would have been happy with ten students, but that turned out to be 53,” lecturer Daniella Zaidman-Mauer said to the broadcaster. “We are thrilled to be able to teach it here again today because Yiddish is strongly connected to the city.”

“Amsterdam was always an open city for many religions. That is why many Jews came here and brought their Yiddish with them. If you go to the City Archives, there is an awful lot of Yiddish material there. And to study it, you first have to get to know the language,” Zidman-Mauer said.

Many Yiddish words have filtered into Dutch in English. The Dutch words stiekem, bolleboos, tof, and lef are all of Yiddish origin. As are words commonly used in English like bagel, glitch, klutz, schlep, schmooze, and putz.