Miriam Hoffman

Miriam Hoffman is a world-famous scholar of Jewish and Yiddish culture, with a 50-year career that includes 25 years of teaching Yiddish language and Jewish culture at Columbia University. Her many books and weekly newspaper columns in the Forward have been read by thousands, and her 700-page Key to Yiddish textbook is a standard curriculum for Yiddish educators around the world. She’s also a founder of the Joseph Papp Yiddish Theatre and a highly acclaimed playwright, with award-winning works produced internationally. Miriam recently authored A Breed Apart: Reflections of a Young Refugee, an intellectual and emotional journey describing Hoffman’s experience as a young refugee girl growing up in a post-war DP (Displaced Person) refugee camp in Ulm, Germany, after the destruction of World War II.