Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, born in 1958 in the Bronx, grew up in a staunchly Yiddishist home. She studied in the Sholem Aleichem Folkshul 21, and graduated from the Jewish Teachers Seminary with a diploma in Jewish literature. Read More She also earned degrees in Russian (Barnard College), nursing (Columbia University) and health administration (New York University), and currently works as a clinical consultant in long-term care. She has been active in the Yiddish movement her entire life, and has worked as an editor for several Yiddish magazines. The first volume of her Yiddish poetry (with English translations), Sudden Rain, was published in 2003. She is currently the chairperson of the New York-based organization League for Yiddish, and lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, with her husband and three Yiddish-speaking children.