Staff & Board - KlezCalifornia

Staff & Board

Four careers so far: mathematician, environmental organizer, fundraising consultant, Yiddish culture organizer
Plays classical viola
Grew up in Borough Park, Brooklyn and Lower East Side, Manhattan
Reads Yiddish fluently, speaks nisht azoy ay-ya-ya

judy@klezcalifornia.org

California Klezmer band leader; mandolin, guitar and vocals
Former director of East Bay Kindershul and children’s entertainer
Hosted The Gerson Yankl Show on KPFA
His mame loshn is Yinglish, but his Yiddish is pretty good too.

Arts administrator and conductor; left classical music for Yiddish song during her midlife crisis
Co-founder of the Hot Springs Music Festival, New Yiddish Theater, and KLEZCADIA
Sings in Yiddish, accompanied by her concertina or by one of the more eccentric klezmer bands
Speaks only a bisl Yiddish, but curses in it daily

Had long career as a scientific programmer and analyst
Plays violin in a string orchestra
Hebrew speaker, studied Yiddish
Klezmer music and Yiddish culture enthusiast
Grew up hearing mother speak Yiddish with others, but she sprinkled her speech to us kids with colorful Yiddish phrases which stuck!

Degree in architecture from UC Berkeley
Licensed architect and a principal at Interactive Resources, a Richmond, California architecture and engineering firm
Volunteered with VISTA in Fayetteville, Arkansas
An ardent student of Yiddish

Internationally acclaimed composer, arranger, accordion, cimbalom, and piano player with Budowitz, Veretski Pass, and Cosmic Diaspora
Teacher at KlezKamp, KlezKanada, Yiddish New York, Yiddish Summer Weimar, and the Klezmer Festival Fürth
Performed and recorded with Itzhak Perlman, The Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Theodore Bikel, Rubin & Horowitz, Brave Old World, Alicia Svigals, and Adrienne Cooper
Minimal Yiddish, fluent in German

horowitz@budowitz.com

Born in Germany to Polish Holocaust-survivor parents
Educator, entrepreneur, and volunteer coordinator for Sierra Club and BOSS
Taught English to adults in Israel while she was there learning Hebrew.
Yiddish is her mameloshn and she co-leads the monthly KlezCalifornia Yiddish Salon

Immunological researcher at Harvard Medical School, microbiologist at Mount Zion Hospital, and lab supervisor at Clinica de la Raza in Oakland.
Yiddish singer with Jewish Folk Chorus of San Francisco
Passionate about the history of activism of American Yiddish choruses
Wishes she could have understood all those Yiddish jokes her parents’ friends told.

Director of Events at Mechanics’ Institute where she presents authors, films and literary celebrations
Producer of celebrations, festivals and cultural events for over 35 years
Professionally trained actor, dancer and self-proclaimed stage diva
Lover of Yiddish Theater
Speaks a bisl Yiddish!

Accordionist, composer, arranger, and pianist with Tsvey Brider, Baymele, and Saul Goodman’s Klezmer Band.
Got his first accordion for his bar mitsve
Bay Area native: grew up in Berkeley, now lives in Watsonville
Doesn’t speak Yiddish, fluent in Polish

Recently retired as professor in Department of Ecology and Evolution, U.C. Santa Cruz
Has spent a lot of time studying eucalyptus trees in Australia and maritime chaparral in California
Went to High School of Music & Art in New York City to study violin
Plays klezmer fiddle
Knows not a word of Yiddish but grew up with it because it was her parents’ (and their friends’) first language

Yiddish vocalist, composer and arranger with frequent collaborator and fellow KC board member Dmitri Gaskin
Essayist and lecturer on Jewish culture, the music of the African diaspora and social issues in a number of publications
Born in Texas, raised in the Bay Area; arguably “a combination of the best features of both”
Describes self as “a doggedly intermediate speaker of Yiddish”