Jewish Portal of Teacher Education

Source: National Yiddish Book Center

The Yiddish Book Center is now accepting applications for its 2015-2016 Fellowship Program. Yiddish Book Center Fellows spend a year as full-time staff learning valuable professional skills and contributing to the Center’s major projects. Applicants should be recent college graduates with strong backgrounds in Jewish studies or related disciplines, a working knowledge of Yiddish, a commitment to Yiddish language and culture, and a demonstrated ability to work both independently and as part of a team. Each Fellow receives a stipend of $28,000 plus health insurance.

Working in one or two main project areas, each Fellow has the opportunity to acquire valuable skills in a professional setting. We count on the Fellows’ insight, ingenuity, and energy to help us carry out both established projects and new initiatives. These include:

• BOOKS AND COLLECTIONS: Fellows coordinate the scanning of thousands of Yiddish volumes in partnership with the National Library of Israel and support the development of new technology that enables scholars to search millions of pages of Yiddish literature online. Fellows also work with the Center’s bibliographer on additional book projects as they arise.
• TRANSLATION: Fellows are integral to the Center’s expanding efforts to facilitate the translation of the 98% of Yiddish titles currently inaccessible to English readers. Fellows support the project by recruiting translation fellows and matching them with mentors; helping with the annual digital translation issue of Pakn Treger; and working on Taytsh.org, the Center’s website for working translators.
• ORAL HISTORY: Fellows work with at the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, a growing collection of in-depth video interviews with people of all ages, exploring Yiddish cultural topics and issues of modern Jewish identity. The project is particularly interested in how Yiddish language language and culture inform Jewish identity, and how they, along with Jewish values and practices, are transmitted across generations.
• YIDDISH EDUCATION: Fellows assist the director of the Center’s Yiddish Language Institute as TAs for on-site college-level Yiddish courses, and work on the creation of the Center’s multi-media Yiddish textbook.
• EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS FOR ALL AGES: Fellows help organize and coordinate on-site and online courses on topics related to Yiddish and Jewish history and culture for lifelong learners, and create and lead hands-on learning activities and curriculum-based tours for middle and high school classes.

Application Deadline - January 5, 2015

Learn more about the fellowship at the National Yiddish Book Center website.