Kolya Borodulin, Director of Yiddish Programming

Kolya Borodulin is the master teacher and Director of Yiddish programming at the Workers Circle in New York, the largest non-academic program in the United States.

Kolya has been teaching Yiddish since 1988, just three months after he began learning the language himself. He joined the Workers Circle staff in 1993, and has been developing curricula and leading classes for Workers Circle students of all ages ever since. He teaches Yiddish language and culture to multigenerational audiences: kids, teens, and adults (sometimes four generations together), nationally and internationally, and is credited with giving hundreds of Yiddishists their foundation in the language. His dynamic style has garnered a growing fan base across the United States and beyond.

He is the organizer of the Trip to Yiddishland program (Circle Lodge, Hopewell Junction, New York). Borodulin is the author of Yiddish Year Round: A Curriculum for the Young Beginners and a number of Yiddish educational materials for children. He piloted in 2014 and is successfully running live, online Yiddish classes at the Workers Circle. Kolya is a recipient of Adrienne Cooper Dreaming in Yiddish award (2019) and among NY Jewish Week’s 36 to watch, 2022