Happening
CONFERENCES
“The Jewish Woman’s Spirituality Convocation” is the title of a seven-day meeting to be held June 16-23, 1985, hosted by Oregon Jewish Women. This will be an opportunity for women to join together to celebrate rituals and share their ideas on enlarging the scope of patriarchal Jewish religion and culture. For further information, contact
Ms. Karen Visman, 8449 South West Ninth Drive, Portland OR 97219
GROUPS AND PROJECTS
Denver, Colorado will be the site of the Jewish Women’s Resource Center. It is intended to be a clearinghouse for information and materials, ranging from birth ceremony guides to wedding florists. The center will also assist individuals and agencies in the community in developing study groups. For further information, contact
Jewish Women’s Resource Center, Jewish Community Center, 4800 E. Alameda, Denver, CO, (303) 399-2660
The Professional Women’s Theatre Group of the Jerusalem Drama Workshop needs $10,000 to complete its project on the reinterpretation of Esther’s role in the Megillah. The group, which traveled to the U.S. in 1983 with the production of “Beruria,” is dedicated to raising the consciousness of Israeli women to realize their potential in society through workshops and education programs in schools and community centers.
Jerusalem Drama Workshop, Negba 7, Jerusalem, Israel
Congregation Baith Israel Anshei Ernes, better known as the Kane Street Synagogue, is a Conservative egalitarian congregation in Brooklyn, New York. Services are held Friday nights and Saturday mornings. They have a women’s studies group that meets occasionally. The address is
236 Kane Street, Brooklyn NY 11231, (212) TR5-1550
FILMS AND DRAMA
The daily life of an Egyptian-Jewish grandmother living in Brooklyn is the subject of award-winning filmmaker Mary Halawani’s documentary, “I Miss the Sun.” Halawani’s grandmother fled Egypt in the 1960’s, bringing a rich culture with her. Utilizing the motif of an Egyptian-Jewish seder ritual, the 20-minute film depicts a modern-day Exodus from Egypt. For further information, contact Mary Halawani
Sphinx Productions, 151 Joralemon St., Brooklyn NY 11201, (212) 858-4898
All Of our Lives, an investigative documentary about elderly women, is available for discussion groups. Through interviews with eleven older women and archival film, the half-hour documentary depicts the emotional isolation and economic hardships faced by these women and analyzes the possible alternatives. For more information, write
National Film Board, 1 Lombard St., Toronto, Canada
Project Little Bear is a sexual abuse prevention program in dramatic form sponsored by the Phoenix Jewish Family and Children’s Service. Performances will be given through the spring of 1985. For further information, contact
Project Little Bear, 2946 N. Seventh Ave., Phoenix AZ 85013
RESOURCES
A series of nine posters of notable Jewish women, from Abigail Minis to Rabbi Sally Priesand is available from Biblio Press. Useful for the classroom or office, the posters, all printed on heavy stock, are $4 each, plus handling and mailing. Order from
Biblio Press, P.O. Box 22, Fresh Meadows NY 11365
“Shalom Yiddish,” a unique self-teaching language method, has recently been released by the Yiddish department at the Sorbonne in Paris. The program, which consists of 25 45-minute cassettes and two 300-page books, is the first comprehensive self-contained Yiddish course and is the equivalent of two or three semesters in a university language course. It is available for $239 from:
League for Yiddish Inc., 200 W. 72nd St., Suite 40, New York NY 10023
NSOF Inc., 4530 N. Jefferson Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33140
The American Friends of the Anne Frank Center (of Amsterdam), Inc., which supports human rights activities in the home where Anne and her family hid during the war, has speakers available to lecture to schools in the NY-NJ area and host the opening of an exhibit brought from The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. The AFAFC is also a resource center distributing material relating to Anne’s Diary and the fight against discrimination today. To learn more about their program contact
Roberta Meyers, Coordinator, The American Friends of the Anne Frank, Center Inc., 135 East 55 St., New York NY 10022, (212) 758-6819
MAGAZINES
The theme of the Spring 1984 issue of Women’s League Outlook was “The Jewish Woman: A Progress Report.” The issue discussed various aspects of the lives of Jewish women, ranging from “Women in the Pulpit,” by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso to “A Minority of the Minority: The Jewish
Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, 48 East 74th St., New York, NY 10021
A group of English feminists has brought out the first issue of a new Jewish feminist magazine called Shifra. The 42-page magazine, run by a collective, contains lively features, poetry, and reviews. For subscription information and to submit articles, fiction, poetry, news, biographies of women, songs—anything of concern to Jewish women—write
Box 2, c/o 59 Cookridge St., Leeds 2, Yorkshire, England
New Traditions: Explorations in Judaism is a new, independent magazine published by the National Havurah Committee. The premiere issue (Spring 1984), featured an article by Susannah Heschel on Jewish women plus poetry by Marcia Falk, as well as articles on contemporary Judaism. For subscription information, write
National Havurah Committee, 2521 Broadway, Room 25, New York NY 10025
A symposium in the Winter 1984 issue of Judaism focused on women as rabbis. The eleven contributors agreed that “distrust of feminism” is the key source of antagonism toward women’s ordination. To obtain a copy write
American Jewish Congress, 15 East 84 St., New York NY 10028
CALLS FOR MATERIALS
Women’s rituals, prayers, customs, new and old wanted for book. Write
Bletter, 342 East 53 St., New York NY 10022
Two editors invite submissions for an anthology of original works of ritual prayer, liturgy, meditations, kavannot for mikveh, candlelighting, as well as feminist G-d imagery, naming ceremonies, rituals for life transitions not yet acknowledged, and utilization of art, music, song, drama, dance. They hope the book will bridge the gap between “orthodox” and “innovative.”
Elana Schacter, 303 Glen Echo, Philadelphia PA 19119
Geela Rayzel (Randy) Robinson, c/o Jewish Student Federation, 4700 Keele St., Downsview Canada M3J1P3
“Supernatural” fiction is wanted for a series of reprint anthologies (the editor’s definition of supernatural is broad). Authors will receive a percentage of the royalties for anything selected for publication. Send queries or submissions to
Jessica A. Salmonson, Editor, POB 20610, Seattle WA 98102
The Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) will hold a special forum at its Nov. 7-9, 1985 conference on Fannie Hurst, the German-Jewish-born writer who has sometimes been dismissed as a “sob sister.” MMLA ’85, to be held in St. Louis, her home town, invites papers for the Hurst Forum on her fiction, career, “the writer as secularized American Jew writing about ethnic immigrant Americans”; feminism, literary influences, etc. Completed eight-page papers or one-page abstracts for consideration must be received by April 13, 1985 by
Susan Koppelman, 6301 Washington Ave., St. Louis MO 63139
BOOKS AND BOOKLETS
A booklet, “The Pornography Issue: A Jewish View,” by Lawrence Grossman cites the Bible, the Talmud and other traditional sources to show that pornography is antithetical to Jewish teachings. The issue of free speech, however, raises serious questions, Grossman believes. To order the booklet, write
American Jewish Committee, 165 E. 56th St., New York, NY 10022
The American Jewish Committee has also published a study on “The Jewish Father, Past and Present.” The author, Professor Chaim Waxman, notes that “the price of occupational striving has been the virtual disappearance in modern society of the Jewish father as an educator and transmitter of ethical values.” Waxman traces the role of Jewish fathers throughout history and makes some recommendations for the future.
The third volume of Studies in American Jewish Literature, entitled “Jewish Women Writers and Women in Jewish Literature,” can be ordered from
State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany NY 11246
On Our Spiritual Journey: A Creative Shabbat Service is a siddur (prayerbook) compiled by twelve Jewish feminists which borrows much and deviates little from the traditional Shabbat service. It also includes new liturgy, commentary, poetry, and song. In keeping with the siddur’s feminist orientation, the authors have deliberately excluded all references to male images of G-d.
To order the siddur, send a check or money order for $5.95 + $.63 postage to
Women’s Institute for Continuing Jewish Education, 4079 54th St., San Diego CA 92105
Let Their Own Works Praise Them: The Legacy of Judaic Fiberarts, a publication of the Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework, shows photographs of needlework done during the Holocaust, as well as later works on Holocaust themes. For information write
Pomegranate Guild of Judaic Needlework, c/o Gilda Joan Hecht, PO Box 4150, Great Neck NY 11022
The National Council of Jewish Women has just published a report called “Adolescent Girls in the Juvenile Justice System.” The report was inspired by earlier studies which concluded that a double standard of justice exists for boys and girls. Copies are available for $4 each (including postage and handling) from
National Council of Jewish Women, 15 East 26 St. New York NY 10010
