Please note:
APPLICATIONS FOR CLASSES BEGINNING IN MICHAELMAS TERM ARE NOW CLOSED.
We will not accept any further applications for classes beginning in said term.
CLICK HERE TO APPLY FOR CLASSES BEGINNING IN HILARY & TRINITY TERMS 2022.
Please do not use old application forms to apply for classes beginning in said terms; such forms will not be accepted. If you applied for a class beginning in said terms earlier in the year and received email confirmation of our successful receipt of your completed application, then your application will be considered following the relevant deadline and we will contact you with the results thereafter.
The application deadline for classes beginning in Hilary Term 2022 is Monday 3 January 2022 at 12pm UK Time. The application deadline for classes beginning in Trinity Term 2022 is Monday 11 April 2022 at 12pm UK Time.
We are pleased to announce 2021-22 as the inaugural year of the new Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages (OSRJL) of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS), in collaboration with other institutions across Europe and beyond including ILARA. Beginning in October 2021, OSRJL offers a range of free online language classes on twelve vernacular languages, spoken and/or written by Jews from the Middle Ages until today, taught by leading academics at universities in Europe and elsewhere.
Languages taught and their teachers through OSRJL include the following. Click on the language name for class descriptions and more information.
Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic (Dr Assaf Bar Moshe)
Classical Judeo-Arabic (Friederike Schmidt)
Judeo-French (Dr Sandra Hajek)
Judeo-Greek (Dr Julia G. Krivoruchko)
Judeo-Italian (Dr Marilena Colasuonno)
Judeo-Neo-Aramaic (Dr Dorota Molin)
Judeo-Persian (Dr Ofir Haim)
Judeo-Tat (Prof Gilles Authier & Dr Murad Suleymanov)
Judeo-Turkish (Prof Laurent Mignon)
Karaim (Prof Henryk Jankowski)
Ladino (Dr Ilil Baum & Dr Carlos Yebra López)
Yiddish (Dr Beruriah Wiegand)
*Special Music Course Offering (Michaelmas Term 2021):*
Between the Besht and Bulletproof Stockings: An Introduction to Hasidic Music (Dr Diana Matut)
(This course is no longer accepting students)
Jewish languages are an essential part of the Jewish history, creativity, culture, and identity. Usually written using the Hebrew alphabet and including Hebrew and Aramaic words to express specifically Jewish concepts, these languages share common features even when their linguistic definitions vary. Although these Jewish languages were originally used as means to communicate with the world outside Jewish communities, such vernaculars became the languages of Jewish families, the means of expressing emotions and daily concerns, and, in many cases, vehicles for literature and science as well as tokens of Jewish identity.
Examples of extremely important, immaterial Jewish heritage, some of these Jewish languages are in danger of extinction while others are already dead, known only from early writing. Therefore, OSRJL responds to a real need: European academia offers very few learning opportunities for most of these rare Jewish languages, whereas new research programmes stress their fragility and immense role in Jewish life and culture.
The OSRJL is the first online school of its kind. By offering free, online teaching of rare Jewish languages and their cultural and historical contexts, along with public lectures and an educational blog on the same topics, OSRJL aims to preserve, spark interest in, enable access to, and reflect on the nature and role of Jewish languages as rich linguistics facets of Jewish life and history.
Student places are available by application only and are offered at no cost to students. Spaces are limited and priority will be given to current university students, but other members of the public are welcome to apply.
If you have any queries or comments, please email OSRJL Administrator, Dr Toni Griffiths, or OCHJS Academic Registrar & OSRJL Coordinator, Ms Madeleine Trivasse, at osrjl@ochjs.ac.uk.