January 7th | 7:30-8:45 ET
Restoring the Feminine to Jewish Folklore
Since Jewish women are famously strong, it should be easy to find Jewish stories that feature powerful female characters. But, not so! Women are glaringly absent from the tales that convey the values of our culture. Join storytellers Debra Gordon Zaslow, Gail Pasternak, and Deborah Rosenberg, as they tell stories from their groundbreaking new collection, the Rooster Princess and Other Tales, and talk about the journey to restoring women to their rightful place in Jewish folklore.
Debra Gordon Zaslow
was ordained as a Maggidah by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in 1995. She travels nationwide telling stories and leading workshops in storytelling and writing. She holds an MFA in writing and she taught storytelling at Southern Oregon University for thirty years. She is the author of the memoir, Bringing Bubbe Home, and the editor of the anthology of feminized Jewish stories, The Rooster Princess and Other Tales.
Gail Pasternack
is a writer, storyteller, and educator, whose writing has appeared in JewishFiction.net, the New Mitzvah Stories for the Whole Family anthology, Wanderlust Journal, and The Fruit of Yitzhak’s Tree anthology. She was ordained as a Maggidah in 2021, and is a co-editor of The Rooster Princess and Other Tales.
Deborah Rosenberg
has been a professor of costume design and stage make-up at Southern Oregon University for over twenty years. She holds a BA in anthropology from Trent University in Ontario and an MFA in costume design from North Carolina School of the Arts. She was ordained as a Maggidah in 2021, and is a co-editor of The Rooster Princess and Other Tales.