As many of you know, I’ve recently collaborated on a groundbreaking collection of Jewish stories, The Rooster Princess and Other Tales, Jewish Stories Repopulated with Spunky Heroines, Wise Women, Brave Crones, and Powerful Prophetesses. Monkfish is publishing, Sept 2025.

Although on the surface, a book of Jewish stories does not seem remarkable, this one is different. As a Jewish storyteller I’ve encountered an appalling lack of female characters in the stories of our people.  Why does that matter? Since the lessons of stories are absorbed through identification with story characters, it’s important that all types of people are centered and wholy represented.

In this collection, by ten Jewish women, we’ve taken traditional stories, and substituted women in the leading roles. We’ve added in some original stories, some strong women in Torah stories, and a few personal tales to create a unique anthology.

My contribution to this collection is an original folktale called, “The Day the Shtetl Wept”.  It is a story about Leybeshke the cemetery keeper and what happened when one year she hurt her knee and couldn’t gather the melodies from the bees by the river. Without these melodies the gates of heaven remained closed to the prayers of the village of Krements, until one day….

Join us at 6pm Saturday Dec 6th at the Havurah in Ashland or on zoom.