Harris Winitz

From his office at UMKC, just south of the Country Club Plaza, Harris Winitz, for decades, worked with the world's top linguists and scholars, from Latin America, to China, and Germany. His goal was to get to the root of how we learn language in order to better understand how the human mind works, and how we can best learn a foreign language with the skill and ease that a child can command.
World-renowned psycholinguist and developer of the Comprehension Method of second language acquisition, Harris Winitz, 92, of Kansas City, Missouri passed away peacefully on May 14, 2025, 16 Iyar, 5785.
Born in White Plains, NY to Israel Winitz and Ann Louis Weinshank, he received his B.A. from the University of Vermont, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, specializing in the psychology of language and speech-language pathology. His professional academic career started at the University of Kansas as an assistant professor in 1959. That's where he met his wife of 64 years, Shevie (formerly Schuman).
They were different - he, studious, she fond of athletics - but their loving partnership worked. Their family soon included three children: Flora, a domestic relations attorney, Sim, a pharmacologist, and Jennifer, former ballerina and currently a pilates instructor and business owner.
After teaching at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, Harris and Shevie returned to Kansas City where Harris held the position of Professor of Psychology at UMKC for 35 years, specializing in psycholinguistics, language development, language pathology, and abnormal language.
Professor Winitz authored numerous books and was published more than fifty times in professional journals. He was selected as a member of the Sigma Xi Honor Society. In 1968, he received a five-year career development award from the U.S. government providing his full salary to enable him to focus on his research. He was associate editor of the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research and a reader for the Modern Language Journal. He is best known as the chief developer of the Comprehension Approach to language acquisition and published the book, The Comprehension Approach to Foreign Language Instruction in 1981. In a nutshell, the Comprehension Approach advocates for learning a second language exactly the same way you learned your first language, without the interference of reading, writing, grammar studies, or talking, just active listening.
He served as a member of the Behavior and Neurosciences study section for the National Institute of Health from 1986-1990. He was an invited lecturer to many universities throughout the United States and Europe, and at the CIA foreign language program.
In 1996, he served for several years as a consultant for the German Language Institute in Naumburg, Germany, sometimes spending full semesters there advising the Institute on English language learning.
Before retiring from UMKC, he put his research to more practical use, founding his company International Linguistics which produced The Learnables, a foreign language learning program in eight languages and also in English for English language learners. At the age of 85, he published his final book, Comprehension Strategies in the Acquiring of a Second Language, and was working on another book about expressions at the age of 90. He had fun with his grandson, Adam, learning what LOL and OMG meant, repeatedly using texting abbreviations as normal speech to make everyone laugh.
But his greatest love (other than his family and friends) was putting his language expertise to work to serve the Kansas City Jewish community.
Through his friendship with Rabbi Margolies, he implemented a Hebrew immersion program at Beth Shalom's Hebrew school which lasted for many years. He, like Rabbi Margolies, saw Hebrew as the foundation to the future of Judaism.
He was greatly disappointed that HBHA ignored his offers to help with its Hebrew curriculum, and bemoaned the ignorance of traditional foreign language teachers and their outdated curriculums.
He continued to promote Hebrew language learning in the Jewish community and in later years partnered with Rabbi Friedman at Torah Learning Center, as well as Rabbi Wineberg at Chabad, to create Hebrew immersion classes taught by native speakers using the Comprehension Method.
Professor Winitz never stopped learning and teaching. He urged his family to "learn something new every day." And he never stopped teaching his family, constantly coming up with clever insights into language -- has anyone ever thought about why you park on a driveway, and you drive on a parkway? Professor Winitz had a new insight on the intricacies of language nearly every day, not only in English but also in Hebrew. The next time you light Shabbos candles or a Hanukiah think about why you say "l'hadlik ner shel...." when there is more than one candle.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Israel and Ann Winitz, his sister, Pauline Siegel (Noel), and his brother, Marvin Winitz (Jan) and nephew Jonathan Winitz. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shevie, daughters Flora Winitz and Jennifer Winitz-Grensback (Tim), son Sim Winitz, grandchildren Adam, Dylan, and Autumn Shemitz, as well as many nieces and nephews.
Professor Winitz wanted to thank Rabbi Glickman, under whose fastidious direction Beth Shalom continues to prosper. He wanted to thank Rabbi Friedman for his excellent classes on the parasha of the week and the Talmud. He expressed how wonderful it is to have lived during the rejoicing of the rebirth of Israel after so, so many years. He said, May Israel and her people continue to flourish during the centuries preceding the arrival of Moshiach.
The family wishes to thank all his caregivers from Abode, especially Benjamin, Salifu, and Betty. Donations may be made to Meals on Wheels at Torah Learning Center or to any organization supporting Israel during the war.
Anticipating his own passing, Harris instructed his family to keep its accolades brief.
"Rabbi Margolies, olav ha-shalom, remarked to him that Rabbi Hadas, of blessed memory, shortly before his death, asked that at his funeral comments encompassing his life story should be only ten minutes in length," Harris said. "Ten minutes for Rabbi Hadas means that three minutes should be enough for me."
His family, however, lovingly counters with this: its acknowledgement of his life inevitably falls way short of his professional accomplishments and what he has given and will continue to give each one of them.