He has been a rebbi since 2000. He taught sixth grade for 13 years, and currently teaches eighth grade in Mill Basin Yeshiva Academy, about which he says, “I love what I do there.”

A talmid of Torah Vodaath, Yitzy is proud to have learned under Rav Avrohom Pam and Rav Yisroel Belsky zichronam livrachah. He received semichah from Rav Pam.

Yitzy has worked in Camp Agudah every summer since 1989 — today he’s a learning rebbi and director of musical programming. Once as a counselor, he was in his bunk desperate for a can of soda, but he was short a quarter. He called out, “I’ll compose the world’s worst song for a quarter right now,” when one camper named Yehoshua came through with the coveted quarter. “So I composed the world’s worst song, but then I realized it wasn’t really the world’s worst song. As a matter of fact, I ended up selling it for a thousand dollars to Shloime Dachs — it’s “Sheyiboneh” on One Day at a Time. Yehoshua and I split the profit.”

At age nine, the young music enthusiast picked up  the accordion. For two years, this was his instrument, until his left arm started to hurt from holding it, and Yitzy decided to teach himself to play the keyboard. Today he’s comfortable on both, but the keyboard has become his primary instrument.

While he composed his very first melody when he was just eight years old, the first of Yitzy’s compositions to go public onto the music scene was “Pischu Li,” sung by Shloime Dachs on his 1998 Acheinu album.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 748)