In Search of My Father's Poems: From Poland to France, North Africa, America and Brazil

Claire Rolnik Aloof

Dr. Claire Yvette (Yocheved) Rolnik Aloof was born in New York City and later moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with her parents. Her father, a Yiddish poet from Poland, only spoke to her in Yiddish. She got her B.A. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, an M.A. from Penn State and her doctorate from the University of Toulouse-le-Mirail, France. She has taught English at different institutions in Venezuela and in the US. She studied Yiddish in the Workmen's Circle in New York as a child with Yosef Mlotek. In 1995, she attended the Platt Summer Program of Yiddish Studies at Bar llan University in Tel Aviv. She has presented lectures on Yiddish folk music, and just finished writing a book about her father, which includes her translations of his poetry.