Zackary Sholem Berger writes and translates in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. He has been a Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellow in 2013 and 2026, and has published five collections of original poetry—Not in the Same Breath (Yiddish House, 2011), One Nation Taken Out of Another (Apprentice House, 2014), All the Holes Line Up (Ben Yehuda Press, 2019), Vi Lebt Zikh Dortn (self-published, 2019), and Covid: Poems, Impressions, and Testimonies from a Pandemic (Yiddish Branzhe, 2023). His translation of Avrom Sutzkever's prose poetry, Essential Prose, was published in 2020 by White Goat Press, and his illustrated bilingual edition of Sutzkever's Ode to the Dove was published in 2023 by Ben Yehuda Press. His best known Yiddish literary work is likely his translation of Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat (Di Kats der Payats, 2003).
Berger’s work has been translated into a number of languages, and he has taught about Yiddish poetry in a variety of settings. By day a primary care physician and bioethicist, he lives with his Yiddish-speaking family in Baltimore.
