is passionate about sacred Jewish texts from across the millennia — the ancient ones, as well as those that continue to be written, now, everywhere. Jake’s diverse teaching experience includes University of Pennsylvania and Adelphia University, Kehillat Hadar and the Pardes/Silicon Valley Beit Midrash, KlezKanada and KlezCalifornia, among many others. As a poet, he is the author of three poetry collections: Cosmic Diaspora (Station Hill Press, 2020), The Neighbor Out of Sound (Sheep Meadow Press, Oct 2018), and Jazz Talmud (Sheep Meadow 2012). He also recorded two klezmer-jazz-poetry records: “Purple Tentacles of Thought and Desire” (2020) and “Hermeneutic Stomp” (2013). Jake is the contributing editor/poetry critic for Tablet Magazine, and his essays have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Jewish Review of Books, the Forward, and in various other publications. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Shoshana and their two kids.