Joel Engel was a musicologist, composer, music critic, and folklorist. Born in 1868 in Berdyansk, from 1897 to 1918 he headed the music department of the Moscow newspaper "Russkie Vedomosti". He also served as the editor of music articles in the Granat Encyclopedic Dictionary. In 1906, he became one of the founders of the People's Conservatory in Moscow. Joel Engel gained fame as a researcher of Jewish folk songs. In 1900, his lecture with musical illustrations at the Moscow Imperial Ethnographic Society gave impetus to the creation of the Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg. The author published three volumes of the collection "Jewish Folk Songs" in his own arrangements. In 1922, Joel Engel emigrated to Berlin, and in 1924 he moved to Mandatory Palestine. In Tel Aviv, he continued his publishing and concert activities, taught at the "Shulamit" women's pedagogical college, and from 1925 held the position of musical director of the "Ohel" variety theatre. The Bakhrushin Theatre Museum's online collection features archival documents containing Joel Engel's reviews of Moscow Conservatory students' performances and other materials related to his work.