I was born into a Jewish household steeped in art and books — my father an artist, my mother a literary scholar — so in many ways, my path was written before I could even walk. I tried the visual arts and did well, but words were always my true calling.

In the 1980s, in the thick of Soviet censorship, I taught myself Hebrew from samizdat materials. Not as a hobby — more as a declaration of independence.

In 1993, I founded and became Editor-in-Chief of Noar, the first Jewish youth newspaper in the post-Soviet space. From there my editorial career moved fast: in 1998 I led the national Jewish newspaper From Heart to Heart, in 1999 the magazine Gesher, in 2000 I became Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Jewish Observer, and since 2009 I’ve served as Editor-in-Chief of Hadashot, Ukraine’s largest Jewish newspaper.

I work across formats — print, radio, and digital — and across genres, from serious journalism to columns and long-form editorial work. My experience ranges from editing travel glossies and lifestyle work at Kyiv Weekly to contributing as a columnist for Penthouse. I also pushed beyond print early: in 1998 I edited the radio program Kyiv–Jerusalem; in the 2000s I moved into digital editorial leadership; and since 2011 I’ve led online editorial work for JewishNet. I’m equally at home shaping journalism, building editorial systems, and doing painstaking literary editing — from business media to academic collections.

Academically, I’m trained in linguistics, hold an M.A. in Judaica (cum laude) from International Solomon University, and completed an academic program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For many years I have served as editor of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress yearbook on Jewish communities in Europe and Asia — a joint scholarly publishing project spanning research institutions in the region. In this vein, my study Jewish Periodicals in the Post-Soviet Realm: 30 Years was published by De Gruyter. In December 2025, my monograph on Jewish refugees of the Russo-Ukrainian war was published by the Institute for Euro-Asian Jewish Studies with The Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center, Tel Aviv University.

Community leadership found me, too: I’ve served as a board member of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, as president of Ukraine’s World Union of Jewish Students chapter, and in leadership roles across Kyiv’s Jewish community organizations.

February 24, 2022 rewrote my mission. In the first days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I began collecting first-hand testimonies of Jewish refugees from what became the largest European war since World War II. Those voices — hundreds of them — formed Exodus-2022, a multilingual testimony project featured widely in international media. By capturing the raw, lived experience of war, I’ve helped turn journalism into a historical record.

In 2026, Folio — Ukraine’s leading publishing house — published the Exodus-2022 book with the most dramatic testimonies, with English, Russian, and German editions in progress.

I’m always open to new professional challenges, collaborations, and serious conversations. If your work intersects with text, memory, identity, or impact — let’s talk.