Merle Feld

Merle Feld (born in 1947) is an educator, activist, author, playwright, and poet.[1][2]

Merle Feld
BornMerle Feld
(1947-10-18) October 18, 1947
Brooklyn, New York, USA
OccupationWriter, poet, educator, activist
NationalityAmerican
Period1980s–present
Genrememoir, poetry, plays
Notable worksA Spiritual Life, The Gates Are Closing, "We All Stood Together"
Website
www.merlefeld.com

Merle Feld was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. In 1968 she graduated from Brooklyn College and moved to Boston, where she became involved with the newly founded Havurat Shalom, the community "often considered a flagship of the havurah movement."[3] She began writing her first play, The Opening, in 1981, and in 1983 began work on her second, The Gates Are Closing.[4] This play is often read in synagogues in preparation for the High Holidays. In 1984 she joined B'not Esh, a Jewish feminist community, and early on, during one of their annual retreats, shared her first poems.[5][6]

In 1989 she went to Israel for a sabbatical, where she facilitated an all-female Israeli-Palestinian dialogue group on the West Bank, and demonstrated with Women in Black.[7] This part of her life was the basis of her third play, Across the Jordan, which was included as part of the first anthology of female Jewish playwrights, Making a Scene (Syracuse University Press, 1997).[2][8]

In 1999 she published a memoir, A Spiritual Life: A Jewish Feminist Journey, which has been translated into Russian and published in the former Soviet Union. A revised edition was published in 2007 as A Spiritual Life: Exploring the Heart and the Jewish Tradition.[7]

In 2000 she was named a "Woman Who Dared" by the Jewish Women's Archive for her peace activism.[7]

In 2005 she became the founding director of the Albin Rabbinic Writing Institute, mentoring rabbinical students and recently ordained rabbis across the denominations.[2]

In 2011 she published a collection of poems, Finding Words.[1]

She is married to Rabbi Edward Feld, and the two have a daughter, Lisa, and a son, Uri.[9]

References
  1. "ZEEK: Articles: Merle Feld Finds Her Words". forward.com.
  2. Ellen M. Umansky; Dianne Ashton (January 1, 2009). Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality: A Sourcebook. UPNE. p. 277. ISBN 978-1-58465-730-9.
  3. "JTA: Countercultural Spirit Lives on at Iconic 1960s Havurah". jta.org.
  4. Sarah Blacher Cohen (April 1, 1997). Making a Scene: The Contemporary Drama of American-Jewish Women. Syracuse University Press. p. 331. ISBN 978-0815604044.
  5. "Bridges: A Jewish Feminists Journal Vol 16.1: A Congenial Anarchy: An Affirmation of Jewish Feminist Space". muse.jhu.org.
  6. Merle Feld (August 9, 2007). A Spiritual Life: Exploring the Heart and Jewish Tradition. SUNY. pp. 284–286. ISBN 978-0791471883.
  7. "Publication of Merle Feld's "A Spiritual Life: A Jewish Feminist Journey"". jwa.org.
  8. "Merle Feld". jwa.org.
  9. "Ed Feld, JTS website". Archived from the original on March 28, 2014.
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