Writing

Content type
Collection

Nancy Popkin Popkin, 1930 - 2013

The legacy of Nancy Popkin Popkin, who danced on my coffee table at her 80th birthday party, is her unrelenting determination to celebrate life, family, and friends, with an abundantly generous spirit and a refusal to let even significant losses stand in her way.

Shulamith Firestone, 1945-2012: In Memoriam

Joyce Antler

Today’s news brought the shocking report of Shulamith Firestone’s death, at age 67.

Joan Rivers, New York City, 2010

Joan Rivers: a woman filled with hate or humanity?

Gabrielle Orcha

Joan Rivers: a woman of chutzpadik and chilarity. We either love her, or hate her. She’s either the talk of the town, or fades into red carpet oblivion . . . only to be resurrected again.

Topics: Comedy, Writing
Nora Ephron circa 1976

Nora, you may remember nothing, but we remember you

Gabrielle Orcha

When Nora Ephron was young, she wanted to be Dorothy Parker.

When I was young, I wanted to be Nora Ephron. I still do.

Topics: Writing, Memoirs
An Open Book

Jewish Book Carnival: November 2011

Leah Berkenwald

This month, the folks at the Jewish Women's Archive and its blog Jewesses with Attitude are honored to host the November Jewish Book Carnival.

Topics: Libraries, Writing
Gyno-Star: Feminist Superhero

Meet Rebecca Cohen and Gyno-Star, the world’s first explicitly feminist superhero

Leah Berkenwald

Wonder Woman, created in the 1940s, showed the world that women could kick butt.

Topics: Feminism, Art, Writing
Lesléa Newman

Ms. Magazine: A chat with Lesléa “Heather Has Two Mommies” Newman

Leah Berkenwald

I want to give a shout out to Lesléa Newman, an iconic yet under-recognized gay Jewish writer whose work continues to inform the changing landscape of GLBT rights in the U.S.

"Self-Portrait (for Graphic Details)" Miss Lasko-Gross, 2010

The Comic Book Diaries

Jessica Leader

As part of Yeshiva University Museum’s “Graphic Details – Confessional Comics by Jewish Women” event, I attended the October 24th “Close and Personal: Jewish Women Artists and Their Graphic Diaries” panel at the Center for Jewish History, which featured authors from the exhibition in dialogue about the confessional nature of comic book art. The panelists come from distinct backgrounds: Lauren Weinstein is the lead singer of a metaphysical rock band; Miss Lasko-Gross is creating an iPhone app about religious fundamentalism; Ariel Schrag is a lesbian screenwriter for HBO and Showtime series; and Miriam Katin is a holocaust survivor. Yet these women share a commonality: they are comic book creators with semi-autobiographical stories about coming of age as a Jewish woman.

Topics: Art, Writing

Author, author! JWA inspires a novelist

Alan Kravitz

JWA often profiles authors on our website. Imagine our pleasant surprise this week when we found out we inspired an author!

Topics: Writing
Wendy Wasserstein

Wendy Wasserstein: Center stage

Alan Kravitz

I miss Wendy Wasserstein. How much so? Well, when Hillary Clinton announced she was running for president, my second thought—right after “All right!”—was: “What would Wendy say?”.

Topics: Family, Writing

Dorothy Fields put the "broad" in Broadway

David Levy

Last Friday marked the 106th anniversary of the birth of Dorothy Fields, the first woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the only woman who holds an uncontested spot in the boys' club that is credited with creating the Great American Songbook. Fields was a member of a prolific showbiz family, with a father and two brothers in the business.

Topics: Music, Music, Writing
Irene Levine Paull circa 1960s

"Irene": A collection of stories and poems from a life lived courageously

Bonnie Paull

Her writings are archived in the Minnesota Historical Society. The Minneapolis Public Library has a chair in her name.

We remember Esther M. Broner

Leah Berkenwald

We were saddened to wake up to the news that Esther M. Broner passed away yesterday. A beloved novelist, playwright, ritualist, and feminist writer, Esther M. Broner was born on July 8, 1927, in Detroit, Michigan. Her writing, including Her Mothers (1975), A Weave of Women (1978) and many others, made her one of the most important teachers of Jewish feminism and feminist Judaism.

Jaclyn Friedman

Meet Jaclyn Friedman: Jewess with attitude

Leah Berkenwald

I recently had the pleasure to sit down for brunch with Jaclyn Friedman, Executive Director of Women, Action and the Media and co-editor of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape. Jaclyn Friedman is writer, speaker, activist, and rising star in the current feminist community.

Jill Abramson ascends to top spot at the New York Times

Kate Bigam

The New York Times announced a change last week in its managerial lineup when current executive editor Bill Keller said he would retire and managing editor Jill Abramson would take his placep in the paper's to spot.

In a new light: Avivah Zornberg and the tale of Joseph

Susan Reimer-Torn

I have long seen myself as the dissident daughter of an orthodox father, a truant who broke her father’s heart by turning my back on his cherished orthodoxy and living a more experimental way of life. It is therefore a delicate matter, this fascination of mine with the Other Daughter – the good girl – the one whose father did not call out after her in censure, the one whose aptitude for learning was cultivated on her father’s knee, the one who no doubt offered both her parents much solace.

Beverly Pepper and Carol Gilligan

Women who frame our world

Elizabeth Stone

Who are the women who frame our world? A small gathering of about 100 women met in San Francisco last week to hear from an array of leaders in the creative arts.

Joyce Antler

Q&A: Joyce Antler on "Women's Liberation and Jewish Identity"

Chanel Dubofsky

I first read the Joyce Antler’s book The Journey Home: How Jewish Women Shaped Modern America as an undergraduate, deep in the thrall of Jewish feminist academia.

"Toys in Babeland," by Vanessa Davis

Graphic Details: Interview with Vanessa Davis

Leah Berkenwald

Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women is the first museum exhibit to explore this unique niche of autobiographical storytelling by Jewish women. The touring exhibit, sponsored by The Forward, features the work of 18 Jewish women artists. The Jewish Women's Archive is interviewing each of the artists about their work and their experience as a female, Jewish graphic artist.

Topics: Art, Writing, Memoirs
Netiva Ben-Yehuda

Remembering Netiva Ben-Yehuda

Ari Davidow

Many years ago I was sitting in a kibbutz dining hall in the north of Israel. One of the older members, a woman, was reminiscing about the equality of the sexes that supposedly existed when the kibbutz was founded.

"The Imposter Daughter" by Laurie Sandell, excerpt page 1

Graphic Details: Interview with Laurie Sandell

Leah Berkenwald

Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women is the first museum exhibit to explore this unique niche of autobiographical storytelling by Jewish women. The touring exhibit, sponsored by The Forward, features the work of 18 Jewish women artists. The Jewish Women's Archive is interviewing each of the artists about their work and their experience as a female, Jewish graphic artist.

"Dyke March" by Ariel Schrag, 2005

Graphic Details: Interview with Ariel Schrag

Leah Berkenwald

Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women is the first museum exhibit to explore this unique niche of autobiographical storytelling by Jewish women. The touring exhibit, sponsored by The Forward, features the work of 18 Jewish women artists. The Jewish Women's Archive is interviewing each of the artists about their work and their experience as a female, Jewish graphic artist.

Topics: Art, Writing, Memoirs
"Grandparents" by Ilana Zeffren

Graphic Details: Interview with Ilana Zeffren

Leah Berkenwald

Graphic Details: Confessional Comics by Jewish Women is the first museum exhibit to explore this unique niche of autobiographical storytelling by Jewish women. The touring exhibit, sponsored by The Forward, features the work of 18 Jewish women artists. The Jewish Women's Archive is interviewing each of the artists about their work and their experience as a female, Jewish graphic artist.

Topics: Art, Israel, Writing, Memoirs

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