Noah (Noyekh) Barrera

Noah, known by his students as Reb Noyekh, has taught and coordinated Yiddish language and culture classes in major programs in NYC. He studied and subsequently taught Yiddish at the esteemed Uriel Weinreich Summer Program. He coordinated and taught in the Worker's Circle Yiddish language program. In addition to his teaching, Reb Noyekh is a Yiddish writer and translator. His works have appeared in the Yiddish Daily Forward, Pakn Treger, and elsewhere. His translation, together with Professor Nathaniel Deutsch, of Abraham Rechtman's memoirs of Sh. An-sky's ethnographic expedition in 1912, will soon be published by Indiana University. Listen to a Yiddish interview with him here.   

Benna Kessler

Benna grew up speaking Yiddish at home with her mother. She has studied Yiddish at the YIVO Intensive Yiddish Summer Program and, most recently, at the Maison de la Culture Yiddish in Paris. She has attended the annual Yugntruf Yidish Vokh every year since she was two (this year sadly via Zoom), and has taught beginner Yiddish for Yiddish Chicago twice. 

Annie began formal Yiddish studies 20 years ago at the Uriel Weinreich YIVO Summer Program where she learned under Naomi Kadar z''l and Rivke Margolis. She spent a year in Chisinau, Moldova as Yechiel Shraybman's z''l last private Yiddish student. Through Yugntruf, she studied with Yankl Peretz Blum and then served as the coordinator of Yiddish Vokh for 5 years.