Raphael Finkel (Refoyl)

Raphael Finkel (Refoyl) comes from a family of Yiddishists in Chicago.His grandparents used to host "Yiddish Thursdays". But that was years before Refoyl was born. In order to preserve his Yiddish inheritance, Refoyl started studying Yiddish at the Hillel House at the University of Chicago under Rabbi Max Ticktin of blessed memory. Later as a graduate student at Stanford University he continued his Yiddish studies on the side of his "regular job":Computer Science. He speaks only Yiddish with his two children (now adults) and is a regular attendee at Yugntruf's Yiddish-Vokh. Refoyl has developed various useful computer facilities, such as his Shraybmashinke and his online dictionary. He was the technical editor of the web journal "Der Bavebter Yid". He is currently occupied with correcting an online version of the entire opus of Sholem Aleichem.