Maia

Learn Yiddish.

ייִדיש

Learn Yiddish -- a language that blends Germanic structure with Hebrew and Slavic vocabulary, written in Hebrew script, and carrying a thousand years of Jewish culture.

Start your Yiddish course

Why Yiddish

Yiddish was the daily language of millions of Ashkenazi Jews across Eastern Europe. The Holocaust devastated its speaker population, but Yiddish is experiencing a revival -- spoken by Hasidic communities, taught at universities, and embraced by a new generation reconnecting with their heritage.

Yiddish is a Germanic language at its core, meaning English speakers will recognize much of the grammar. But its vocabulary draws from Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic languages, and it's written in the Hebrew alphabet. It's a linguistic crossroads.

What makes Yiddish challenging — and how Maia helps

Hebrew script for a Germanic language

Yiddish uses the Hebrew alphabet but maps it to Germanic phonology. The letter values are different from Hebrew. Maia teaches the Yiddish-specific script rules so you don't confuse the two.

Three vocabulary layers

Yiddish words come from Germanic, Hebrew/Aramaic, or Slavic roots, each with different pluralization and morphology rules. Maia identifies which layer each word comes from.

Case system

Like German, Yiddish has a case system (nominative, accusative, dative). Maia teaches case through sentence patterns rather than memorizing tables.

What your course includes

  • •Lessons covering the Yiddish alphabet through conversation
  • •AI podcast episodes mixing Yiddish and English
  • •Script, vocabulary, and grammar exercises
  • •Spaced repetition for vocabulary across all three layers
  • •Adaptive curriculum based on your progress

Sample lesson topics

  1. 1.The Yiddish alphabet: reading and writing your first words
  2. 2.Greetings: sholem aleykhem, vos makhstu, and daily phrases
  3. 3.Basic sentences: Germanic word order in Yiddish
  4. 4.Numbers, days, and everyday vocabulary
  5. 5.The three vocabulary layers: recognizing Germanic, Hebrew, and Slavic words
  6. 6.Verb conjugation: present tense patterns
Start learning Yiddish

Free to start. No credit card required.