Zoë Belk
expert on Yiddish language and linguistics

I am currently teaching Yiddish at McGill University, as well as for a number of private students. I have a PhD in Linguistics and for the last 7 years, my research has focused on Hasidic Yiddish and I am a leading expert in the structure and use of Hasidic Yiddish. I studied Yiddish with renowned teachers including Helen Beer and Lily Kahn. I have been living in a Yiddish-speaking household for the past 5 years.

Eli Benedict
native speaker, expert on Hasidic culture

I am a Yiddish teacher and an expert in Hasidic culture and folklore. Teaching Yiddish, and creating a young Jewish culture in the streets of Vienna is very powerful for me personally, especially as my entire family who come from the city and the region was forcibly deported from there by the Nazis. I bring to this course my expertise as a native Yiddish speaker of Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish and my extensive experience in teaching lessons in Jewish culture and folklore, such as music and dance lessons.

Mendy Cahan
native speaker, Yiddish language and culture expert

I am a native Hasidic Yiddish speaker born and raised in Antwerp. During my university studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem I studied European and Yiddish literature. In 1993 I founded the YUNG YiDiSH Library and Cultural Centre in Jerusalem and later Tel Aviv. I have been teaching Yiddish language and culture in numerous international summer schools including the Vilnius Summer School, which I co-founded, the Tel Aviv summer School and the Yiddish Summer Weimar schools. I am especially delighted that Hasidic Yiddish language is at the heart of this school's focus, which makes this school unique in the world.

Eidel Malowicki
native speaker, Yiddish language teacher

I am a student at the University of Vienna and a member of the Austrian Jewish Student Union. I am an editor and author of the union's magazine, "NOODNIK". I was born into a Yiddish-speaking Hassidic family in Vienna. Throughout my academic pursuits, I delved into the realm of Hassidism, specifically Hassidism in Vienna through an ethnographic lens and I also enjoy studying sociology of religion. She has been teaching Yiddish at the Austrian Student Union for eight months.

Kriszta Eszter Szendrői
Yiddish linguistics expert, Coordinator

I have been researching Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish since 2017. I led the UCL research group that argued for this variant of the language to be recognised as a variant of Yiddish on its own right. I planned the first summer school to be on Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish for May 2020, but this had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. I am very excited to finally be able to realise this idea!