Employment

The Yiddish Book Center offers meaningful and challenging positions, a warm, friendly atmosphere, competitive salaries, and excellent benefits. We are seeking applicants for the following positions (see details below):

Resident Assistant, Steiner Summer Yiddish Program

The Yiddish Book Center is seeking a Residential Assistant proficient in Yiddish to facilitate a fun and intellectually stimulating Yiddish-speaking environment for eighteen college students and assist with the daily operations of an intensive summer program in Yiddish language and culture.

This is a full-time seven-and-a-half-week position (May 28–July 20), with evenings and weekends required.

Program Summary:

Now in its fourth decade, the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program offers motivated students the opportunity to immerse themselves in Yiddish language and culture. Participants study with renowned scholars and build a community of yidishkayt in a supportive residential setting.

Duties include but are not limited to:

  • Living in dorm with students; helping students with daily living, such as weekly supermarket trips
  • Assisting with student orientation
  • Being the first line of response for students’ questions and concerns
  • Staffing evening activities and events for the program
  • Enforcing program policies in consultation with Program Assistant and Administrative Director
  • Communicating with Program Assistant and Administrative Director if any concerns about students arise
  • Helping to promote a Yiddish learning community among students
  • Organizing Yiddish-infused extracurricular and social activities
  • Assisting with driving and picking up faculty, students, or supplies as needed
  • Helping coordinate and participating in New York City field trip, July 2–5, and shorter field trips to be determined
  • Helping Yiddish Book Center staff with logistics in the days prior to the program launch and following program conclusion
  • Assisting with student check-out of dorms 
  • Other tasks as assigned by supervisor

Required:

  • Proficiency in Yiddish language, and comfortability leading activities in Yiddish and encouraging Yiddish use
  • Good organizational and interpersonal skills 
  • Maturity, flexibility, sense of humor
  • Valid driver’s license and safe driving record
  • Minimum 21 years of age

Highly Preferred:

  • Experience in college residential support

Preferred:

  • Familiarity with Yiddish Book Center and Five-College area
  • Knowledge of modern Jewish culture and Jewish community experience in college residential support

Schedule:

  • Two days set-up
  • Seven weeks on site, primarily afternoons, evenings, and weekends
  • Two days wrap-up

Compensation:

$3,500 plus housing in college apartment-style dorm

Application Instructions:

Send to Gretchen Fiordalice, director of education administration, at [email protected]

To apply:

  1. Send resume or CV, including Yiddish language background, and a cover letter that addresses why you want to work in the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program
  2. Submit a 2–3 paragraph (1-page max) writing sample in Yiddish
  3. Have two professional references (current or former supervisors) send their letters of recommendation directly to Gretchen at [email protected]

If you have questions, email Gretchen at [email protected] or call 413-256-4900, ext. 103.

Teaching Assistant, Steiner Summer Yiddish Program

The Steiner Summer Yiddish Program seeks a 2/3 time Teaching Assistant to facilitates a comfortable, fun, and intellectually stimulating Yiddish-speaking environment for eighteen college students and assist with teaching duties in an intensive summer program in Yiddish language and culture. The Steiner Summer Yiddish Program runs May 31–July 17, 2020.

Duties include:

  • Mark all homework, tutor students one-on-one or in small groups as needed, and substitute teach as needed—if desired, regular guest teaching can be arranged in advance with the instructor
  • Live in the Yiddish-only dorm and help facilitate Yiddish conversation in the residential setting
  • Attend study hall to help students with assignments as needed and to answer any questions
  • Attend kave-sho weekly to facilitate conversation among students and initiate short activities to spur on conversation as needed
  • Prepare and lead games and activities to help stimulate Yiddish-speaking during the program’s weekly Yiddish lunches
  • Plan and lead one workshop for the students on a topic of their choice (such as song, dance, theater, etc)—the workshop will be an interactive Yiddish-oriented workshop in any combination of vocabulary, theme, and/or culture; 1-hour in length; at an appropriate level for both beginner and intermediate students
  • Attend Yiddish potluck dinners
  • Coordinate and participate in the New York City field trip, and shorter field trips to be determined

Qualifications:

  • Advanced Yiddish language skills
  • Good organizational and interpersonal skills
  • Maturity, flexibility, sense of humor
  • Valid driver’s license and safe driving record
  • Minimum 21 years of age

Preferred:

  • Familiarity with Yiddish Book Center and Five-College area
  • Knowledge of modern Jewish culture and Jewish community 
  • Experience in college residential support

Compensation:

$2,300 plus housing in college apartment-style dorm

Application Instructions:

Send to Gretchen Fiordalice, director of education administration, at [email protected]

To apply:

  1. Send resume or CV, including Yiddish language background, and a cover letter that addresses why you want to work in the Steiner Summer Yiddish Program
  2. Submit a 2–3 paragraph (1-page max) writing sample in Yiddish 
  3. Have two professional references (current or former supervisors) send their letters of recommendation directly to Gretchen at [email protected]

If you have questions, email Gretchen at [email protected] or call 413-256-4900, ext. 103.

NEH Oral History Project Indexing Assistant for the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project

Role and Responsibilities:

The NEH Oral History Project Indexing Assistant will assist in a new aspect of the Yiddish Book Center’s Wexler Oral History Project that is funded through a grant by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Indexing Assistant will create carefully and individually curated indices for our English-language interviews. Each index, which acts as a table of contents of sorts, will ultimately increase the accessibility of our collection, allowing viewers to click through each interview thematically, as well as search through our collection by keyword. Specifically the Assistant will:

  • Create a unique index for each English-language interview, including descriptive index titles, relevant keywords for each segment, geo-tagging, and links to relevant artifacts
  • Track indexing progress in Google spreadsheets

Qualifications and Education Requirements:

  • Interest in oral history, archives, and/or public history
  • Jewish studies background (or familiarity with modern American/Eastern European Jewish and Yiddish culture and history) a plus
  • Familiarity with Yiddish a plus
  • Experience with OHMS: Oral History Metadata Synchronizer software a plus

Preferred Skills:

  • Excellent English grammar and spelling skills
  • Outstanding attention to detail
  • Ability to listen carefully and synthesize long, complex interviews
  • Ability to update and maintain an integrated tracking system for a complex workflow
  • Familiarity with GoogleSheets and GoogleDocs
  • Experience with organizing metadata preferred
  • Additional language skills (Yiddish, Spanish, Polish, German or Russian) a plus but not necessary

To apply, send a resume and cover letter to [email protected]

For more information, explore the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project.

Yiddish-language Specialist Intern for the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project

Role and Responsibilities:

Language specialist interns work on processing, translating, and subtitling interviews that are conducted in Yiddish, Polish, or other languages in the collection. All interns work closely with the Project's editor or NEH oral history project coordinator and director. Specifically the Yiddish-language Specialist Intern will be asked to:

  • Create interview logs for oral history interviews conducted in Yiddish or in both Yiddish and English
  • Identify great stories and excerpts from Yiddish-language interviews for use in web, print, and other outlets using Final Cut Pro (professional video editing program)
  • Translate into English and subtitle excerpts for online publication
  • Contribute translations and subtitles to short films
  • Track interviews and post-interview processing in the project’s customized FileMaker Pro database

Qualifications and Education Requirements:

  • Jewish studies background (or familiarity with modern American and Eastern European Jewish and Yiddish culture and history)
  • Interest in oral history/ethnography
  • Comfort with technology, interest in learning new software/applications*

*Note: Cultural and language specialist interns will receive basic training in Final Cut Pro video editing software.

Preferred Skills:

  • Advanced Yiddish
  • Attention to detail
  • Excellent listening skills
  • Ability to update and maintain integrated tracking system for a complex workflow and expansive project
  • Ability to work independently, with low-level supervision
  • Transcription and/or translation experience a plus

To apply, send a resume and cover letter to [email protected]

For more information, explore the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project.

Volunteer Field Trip Docent

The Yiddish Book Center is seeking volunteer docents to provide support to our Field Trip Program staff. Volunteers will assist in leading student groups on visits of the Center and will facilitate interactive activities and tours.

Requirements:

  • Excellent oral communication skills
  • Strong organizational skills
  • Able to work independently
  • Sense of humor and flexibility
  • Ability to engage with students and subject matter
  • Comfortable working with middle and high school students 
  • Energetic and enthusiastic
  • Jewish studies background (familiarity with modern Jewish history and Yiddish language and culture)
  • Ability to work weekdays

Availability: Field trip visits are typically scheduled Monday through Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Occasional availability on Sundays is also desired but not required. Field trips typically run for two to four hours and are scheduled upon request during the school year. 

Training will be provided. 

Interested candidates should email resume and cover letter to Gretchen Fiordalice at [email protected] 

About the Yiddish Book Center’s Field Trip Program:

On a field trip to the Yiddish Book Center—the world’s first Yiddish museum—students explore universal themes such as immigration and cultural preservation through one group’s unique story.

Dynamic, interactive activities engage students in the rich history of Yiddish culture and the ways that culture has been preserved and remains relevant to people’s lives.

Volunteer Docent

The Yiddish Book Center is seeking volunteer docents to greet and orient visitors, answer questions about events and membership, provide support to our staff, and process donations. Volunteers should be comfortable working with groups, speaking with visitors, using a cash register, and should have an interest in Yiddish culture. Training provided. Docents typically work one three-hour day per week. No prior knowledge of Yiddish is necessary. If interested, please email Sarah Bleichfeld at [email protected] or call 413-256-4900, ext. 124.

The Yiddish Book Center is an equal opportunity employer.