Sholem Aleichem's classic, Motl Peyse dem khazns (Motl the Cantor’s Son, abridged and adapted for students with exercises, glossary and audio recording), edited by Sheva Zucker and Anne Gawenda, is designed to meet the needs of today's Yiddish students and is Yiddish pedagogy at its best.
The text consists of eight chapters, divided into smaller subchapters, many in slightly abridged and simplified form while still retaining the flavor of the original. Each subchapter has a glossary, and a cumulative glossary follows the text at the end of the reader. In addition, each subchapter is accompanied by exercises and many by illustrations drawn from the works of various artists. The audio recording of the entire text, available either in CD-format or in a flash drive, is read by Sheva Zucker.
Here are links to a sample PDF and an audio recording of a subchapter.
This new edition of Motl Peyse dem khazns is in and of itself a masterly work which presents Sholem Aleichem’s creation in a linguistically simplified and methodologically appropriate form for a younger generation of Yiddish students and learners. It’s a splendid and substantial contribution to the study of Yiddish, which will also, hopefully, stimulate the serious student’s curiosity to turn afterward to the complete original text of Sholem Aleichem’s masterpiece.
-- Dov-Ber Kerler, Alice Field Cohn Chair in Yiddish Studies at the
-- University of Indiana at Bloomington
Publication Information
מאָטל פּייסע דעם חזנס (פֿאַרקירצט און באַאַרבעט פֿאַר סטודענטן
מיט געניטונגען, גלאָסאַרן און קלאַנג־רעקאָרדירונג).
Sholem Aleichem, Motl Peyse dem khazns (Motl the Cantor’s Son, abridged and adapted for students with exercises, glossary and audio recording), edited by Sheva Zucker and Anne Gawenda, in Yiddish (New York: League for Yiddish/Elsternwick, Australia: Sholem Aleichem College, 2017), 256 pp., plus 2 CDs or 1 flash drive, softcover, [ISBN 978-1-878775-20-7].