is a Yiddish scholar, teacher, and singer.  He has taught Yiddish language and culture at Harvard, Columbia, Moscow State University, and the Yiddish Book Center.
He has been performing songs in Yiddish and Russian since his childhood. In his own words: “I am fascinated by the sound of Yiddish – its vowels, consonants, and intonations – and by Jewish music with its warmth, soulfulness, melodiousness, and peculiar history.  The two combined, as is the case in Yiddish songs, are an inexhaustible source of comfort and inspiration.”