A Palace of Pearls: The Stories of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav by Howard Schwartz!

Congratulations!! 

to Howard Schwartz from the JSC and all his admirers! 

We are thrilled and can't wait to read your new book!

With utmost reverence and unfettered delight, Schwartz has carefully curated A Palace of Pearls alongside masterful commentary that guides the reader through the Rabbi's spiritual mysticism and uniquely Kabbalistic approach, ultimately revealing Rabbi Nachman to be a literary heavyweight in the vein of Gogol and Kafka. (amazon)

Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1810) is widely considered to be one of the foremost visionary storytellers of the Hasidic movement. The great-grandson of the Ba'al Shem Tov, founder of the movement, Rabbi Nachman came to be regarded as a great figure and leader in his own right, guiding his followers on a spiritual path inspired by Kabbalah. In the last four years of his life he turned to storytelling, crafting highly imaginative, allegorical tales for his Hasidim. Three-time National Jewish Book Award winner Howard Schwartz has masterfully compiled the most extensive collection of Nachman's stories available in English. In addition to the well-known Thirteen Tales, including "The Lost Princess" and "The Seven Beggars," Schwartz has included over one hundred narratives in the various genres of fairy tales, fables, parables, dreams, and folktales, many of them previously unknown or believed lost. One such story is the carefully guarded "Tale of the Bread," which was never intended to be written down and was only to be shared with those Bratslavers who could be trusted not to reveal it. Eventually recorded by Rabbi Nachman's scribe, the tale has maintained its mythical status as a "hidden story." 

News from our Judith Black !

Judith's taken on an additional role in her storied storytelling career. Congratulations, Judith!! Here's her message to all:

Would you like to learn and tell stories while deepening your spiritual practice?  MAGGID-EDUCATOR TRAINING is a unique, powerful, and eminently useful training for educators, rabbis, cantors, gabbais, and anyone in the community who wants to deepen their spiritual connection to mitzvot, text, curriculum, and tikun olam through story and storytelling. 

The Maggid-Educator Training Program of the Institute for Jewish Spiritual Education, reclaims the traditional role of maggid as a master educator who inspires and guides the Jewish journeys of students of all ages.  Trainees in a two or three year program become professional sacred storytellers who educate and guide.  Peninnah Schram, an original faculty member, has stepped into new roles and Judith Black, along with Cherie Karo Schwartz are now the storytelling faculty among a brilliant community of creative artists, religious educators, and spiritual practitioners.

For more information about this program:  www.reclaimingjudism.org  914-500-5696

and that's not all....check out Judith's exceptional TED talk. She's invited us to view:

When you have 17 minutes to contemplate how storytelling and the fate of our planet as a host for our species are intertwined, go and view Judith Black’s TED Talk:  

Storytelling and Climate Disruption: An Antidote To Despair 

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nMAV8xFUMg&list=PLsRNoUx8w3rPTJL9ZY04lnnwbdmiydW1W&index=21

Noa Baum's new TEDx talk now available!! Mazel Tov, Noa!

Watch Noa's TEDx talk:
Beyond Labels - Bridging Differences through Storytelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsg7VTUjYLI&t=5s

www.facebook.com/NoaBaumStorytelling

Author: A Land Twice Promised - An Israeli Woman's Quest for Peace

JSC Member Susan Stone shares her recent experience in Lublin, Poland. Thanks, Susan!

Justice Speaks:  Bringing Jewish Stories Back to Poland

By Susan Stone

 I felt no peace really.   How could there be a feeling of peace?  On that soil?

 The joy I felt being asked to participate in the storytelling festival in Poland was constantly interrupted by murmurings in the cobblestones; by vibrations in the old facades:  "We were here…we lived",  the old stones said.  “Say Kaddish for us.  There is no one else left to say it.”

 I  was invited to perform at a storytelling festival in Lublin, Poland, June, 2017,  at an amazing theatre/museum called TeatreNN  Grodzka Gate http://teatrnn.pl/en/  .My program, "Bringing the Stories Home:  Jewish Tales From Poland" was translated from English into Polish  on a screen.  This is  a whole museum/theatre dedicated to stories. The entrance to the TeatreNN is at the Grodzka Gate, the Jewish gate.  On the other side,  the Jewish quarter (now parking lots ) of Lublin, over 30,000 Jews before WWII; a famous Yeshiva.

 There were storytellers from Italy, France, Poland and Spain...and me.  We shared stories in the theatre for four nights.   My stories, literary and from the Chasidic, and folkloric tradition, also included  stories about my experiences traveling around three years prior with a driver, visiting  the towns mentioned in  the stories.  It was important to me to make these Jewish-empty places vital—living, if only for a moment. I would say,  “Here is a story of the Seer of Lublin, buried just a mile from here”.  Or, “In Chelm, about 90 minutes from here, there lived…..”.

 What stories would resonate with a Polish audience. Would my choices (for over an hour’s worth of tales) be too esoteric? Too spiritual?  Too political?  Would  the audience respond to a Holocaust story with feelings of guilt, and stop listening with open hearts? 

 Almost every story I told was from a town close to Lublin.  When I said the Yiddish name of a town I always told  the  modern Polish equivalent  so my audience would feel the proximity of the perished world. It was important to me to say, through my tales, “Jews lived here.  Here are stories of wise rabbis; of compassion, generosity, and mysticism. This is what Yiddish sounds like.   Look what Poland lost; look what the world lost.  Remember…but open your hearts to the messages, sent through time and space from a forgotten world..

.I wanted my stories to be filled with ways in which we have to make the world a better place through tales of  lovingkindness, and self reflection; This plan, I hoped, would not only entertain (for of course without this  who will even listen?) but inspire listeners to go out and practice tikkun olam (repair of the world).

 All of you reading this are activists in some way…through  community work or just by bringing joy, laughter,  and understanding into the world through performance. But in the end each of us can bring about repair in the world while still  looking towards repair of our own brokenness too.  

The people who started this museum and  those who work there,  are not Jewish.I know this work brings them peace.  Because they collect stories, because of their quest for justice, to me they are holy people.  At the front of the museum they have this sign:  

 Decades have passed since the time of the Holocaust.  As after every apocalypse, a few things left: souvenirs, photos, documents.  The only thing we can do, is to look into the vastness of cold history for individual fates and events, and tell their story.