is a Yiddish scholar, teacher, and singer. He is Preceptor in Yiddish at Harvard University and has also taught Yiddish language and culture at Cambridge University, Columbia University, Moscow State University, the Naomi Prawer Kadar Yiddish Summer Program at Tel Aviv University, the Yiddish Book Center, the Yiddish Summer Program in Warsaw, and elsewhere.

Interested in Yiddish dialects and oral history, he has conducted numerous interviews with Yiddish writers, actors, and members of Hasidic communities. He studied acting at the Shchepkin Theater School in Moscow and regularly performs songs in Yiddish and Russian. He has also written the lyrics for new Yiddish songs—some of these specifically for the New York-based band The Klezmatics.

In his own words: “I'm fascinated by the sound of Yiddish—its vowels, consonants, and modulations—and by East European Jewish music with its emotional and historical richness. If there is a line between Yiddish speech and Yiddish song, I choose not to draw it.”