**Irena Klepfisz** taught Jewish Women's Studies at Barnard College for 22 years. She is the author of four books of poetry including _Periods of Stress, Keeper of Accounts, Different Enclosures, A Few Words in the Mother Tongue,_ and a collection of essays _Dreams of an Insomniac._ An advocate of the Yiddish language and active in its renaissance in the United States, she has published poetry and essays have appeared in _Jewish Currents, Tablet Magazine, In Geveb, Sinister Wisdom, The Manhattan Review, Conditions, The Georgia Review_ and _Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures._