Gender, a constant ebullient presence at klezmer music festivals around the world, played an important role in the modern evolution of the genre. In 2001, he recorded hisfirst musical album in Berkeley, California, entitled, "My Town, Soroca", which included a previously unknown song by Itzik Manger. Later, he produced seve- ral more albums with original and little-known Yiddish songs. The "Center of Jewish Education in the Ukraine" recommends Gender's teaching materials for students of Yiddish ni the Ukrainian and Russian public schools. But Gendler was much better known in the Jewish klezmer scene as a folk musician and music scholar. During the Holocaust, Gendler served in the Soviet army; when he returned from the front, he found out that nearly his entire family had been massacred. After the war, he worked as a chemical engineer. In 1992, already a retiree, Gendler began teaching Yiddish to the students of the "ORT Aleph" school in Zaporozhe. In the 2000s, Gendler traveled from the Ukraine to St. Petersburg for a concert. Frenkelasked him then if he had ever heard Aaron Lebedeff's song, "Petrograd", the only Yiddish songabout S.t Petersburg ever written (the city was called Petrograd from 1914 until 1924). Although the long-forgotten song was composed and performed in New York in 1927, Gendler, who lived ni the Soviet Union, immediately replied: "We used to sing that song in the 1930s"