KEY TO YIDDISH aims to introduce the student to the fundamentals of Yiddish language and culture. It contains idiomatic constructions, dialogue, selected readings, exercises and worksheets, all geared to welcome the student to the world of Yiddish, its history, tradition, customs, rituals, songs and holiday celebrations. Miriam (Schmulewitz) Hoffman was born in Siberia in 1936. At the end of World War II, Miriam and her parents escaped the Soviet Union, spending 4 years in a D.P. Camp in Ulm, Germany. Miriam finally arrived in the United States in 1949. Miriam graduated from the Jewish Teachers Seminary in New York in 1957. She later earned her BA (suma kum laude) from the University of Miami, and her Master's degree from Columbia University, where she has been a Lecturer for the past 19 years. Miriam has also taught Yiddish summer programs both at Oxford University, England and the University of Vilnius, Lithuania. Miriam has been a journalist and feature writer for the Yiddish Forward since 1983. She has also written for prestigious literary magazines including Di Goldene Keyt, Yivo Bleter, Oxford Yiddish Literary magazines and the Jerusalem Almanakh. As a playwright, she wrote, adapted and translated over a dozen plays, many performed at the "Folksbine" Yiddish Theater as well as at the New York Shakespeare Festival / Joseph Papp Public Theater. Outside of her professional life, she loves to read, fish, laugh and enjoy the company of her family and close friends.