Elya Piazza

Elya (Zissel/זיסל) Piazza (they/them) is a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley and a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. They are currently working on their doctoral dissertation which explores how queer readings of the Talmud reveal subversive impulses and discursive strategies that came to influence many later sites of Jewish thought including the use of Yiddish for resisting oppression. Elya teaches in both academic and community settings, and they love employing creative and accessible pedagogical methods. They have been a teaching fellow at SVARA: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva, as well as a Yiddish language pedagogy fellow and translation fellow at the Yiddish Book Center. They have taught Yiddish classes at all levels and draw so much nakhes from seeing their students progress semester after semester. Their translation of Di Agune by Maria Lerner--the earliest known Yiddish play by any woman playwright--is forthcoming in a volume of 3 Yiddish plays from Bloomsbury. When not teaching or writing, Zissel enjoys singing and hiking with their dogs Ketzele and Porcini.