Mike Burstyn

Yiddish Theater Academy Instructor

Mike Burstyn is an actor and director who is fluent and performed in eight languages. He is an Israeli Oscar winner and recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Israeli Union of Performing Artists. He is a Director of Dubbing at Netflix and wrote and directed the award-winning Israeli feature film “Azimuth”, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War, streaming on Amazon Prime. He stars in the hit Israeli TV series “Judah” on HULU, in the Israeli feature film “Happy Times” and as the voice of Amos in the English version of the Netflix hit series “Fauda.”

Rafael Goldwaser

Yiddish Theater Academy Instructor

Born in Argentina in a Yiddish-speaking home, Rafael Goldwaser is the son of the Yiddish actor Zishe Goldwaser, who worked in the IFT (Yiddisher Folks Teater). He studied Theatre and General History at Tel-Aviv University. His M.A. in History of the Israeli Theater is from University Paris VIII (Vincennes), in Paris. He also received a diploma of D.E.A (Diplome d’études approfondies). He wrote a book of articles concerning “New Pedagogy for Yiddish Theater.”

Daniel Kahn

Yiddish Theater Academy Instructor

Detroit-born, Germany-based troubadour and translator Daniel Kahn combines Yiddish, English, German, and Russian in a radical mixture of Klezmer, lyrical folk ballads, dark cabaret, and political punk. He is a founding member of The Painted Bird, The Brothers Nazaroff, Semer Ensemble, and The Unternationale, his duo with Psoy Korolenko. As a Yiddish theatre artist, he originated the role of Perchik in Fiddler on the Roof, played Biff in the Death of a Salesman, and was featured in “From Shtetl to Stage,” in Carnegie Hall. Ashkenaz named him the inaugural Theodore Bikel Artist-in-Residence.

Daniel Galay

Yiddish Theater Academy Instructor

Composer and writer that developed original techniques in the fields of music and theater improvisation. Published 8 books, mostly theater and poetry as well. Published articles about different themes. Columnist of the Yiddish Forward. Lives in Tel-Aviv.

Sasha Hoffman

Yiddish Theater Academy Instructor

Sasha received a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan, with a dissertation focused on humorous representations of oppression in classical Yiddish and Harlem Renaissance literature.  Among other things, Sasha is a carpenter apprentice and a student and teacher of Yiddish language and culture, with a particular interest in leftist and women’s writing.

Naomi Miller

Yiddish Theater Academy Instructor

Naomi is a native speaker of Yiddish, a Yiddish teacher, and a singer. She has performed concerts throughout the United States and in the Czech Republic, Spain, Canada, Puerto Rico, Greece and Israel. For several years, she was a featured performer at The Wallington Exchange, an international nightclub, where she expanded her repertoire to include Pop and Broadway music. You can find out more about Naomi from her website: www.naomimiller.com

David Shafir

Yiddish Theater Academy Instructor

David Shafir is a life-long student of Yiddish. Having spent many years among the native speakers of Yiddish in Canada and USA has helped him a lot in better understanding the language and its culture. He loves collaborating on new Yiddish-focused projects.