The Jewish Connection

Marge Piercy has given poetry readings, workshops, lectures; has been a scholar-in- residence and has participated in panels at a wide variety of Jewish-oriented institutions all over the country. Her spiritual and liturgical poems are used throughout the English-speaking world for ceremonies and holidays (sample some here). Her work has appeared in many Jewish anthologies, magazines and journals. Below is a partial listing:

More about Marge’s Collection of poems with a Jewish Theme.

Pesach for the Rest of Us: Making the Passover Seder Your Own

Marge’s very personal book about the significance of Passover and how it can be made fresh and meaningful to Jews and all those who treasure this holiday of freedom.

It includes many of Piercy’s famous poems about Pesach, as well as blessings, histories of our favorite Passover foods, scrumptious recipes and a deep look at her own Passover family rituals, made new every year for decades.

“Pesach for the Rest of Us is like an intimate conversation with a friend —reading her Passover guidebook is like having a surrogate bubbe, except one who, in addition to being a great cook with a treasure trove of folk wisdom and tips, is also feminist, acerbic and literarily brilliant. As such, Pesach for the Rest of Us is the perfect bridge between the old world and the new — that is, between an old, vanishing Jewish culture and a contemporary world that is both duly suspicious of its antiquity and desperately in need of it.”
—The Forward

Residencies:

Jewish Community of Amherst, Amherst, MA
Albert T. Bilgray Scholar-in Residence Lectureship, Temple Emanue-El
(in conjunction with the University of Arizona Departments of Judaic studies
and Creating Writing) Tucson, Arizona
Temple Israel Silver, Duluth, MI
Elat Chayim, The Woodstock Center for Healing and Renewal, Woodstock, NY
SUNY, Stonybrook, NY (Inauguration of Judaic Studies Dept.)

Honors:

Doctor of Humane Letters, Hebrew Union College.
The Menorah Award given by The Shalom Center.

Readings, workshops, lectures:

Temple Shalom of Newton, West Newton, MA
Temple Israel, Brookline, MA
The Shalom Center, Philadelphia, PA
Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA
A Celebration of Jewish American Writers, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Women of Reform Judaism Conference, Boston MA
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC
Temple Beth Israel, West Palm Beach, Florida
Rabbi Simon Hevesi Jewish Heritage Library, Forest Hills, NY
Vassar Temple, Poughkeepsie, NY
Mahzor Center, New York, NY
Temple Beth El, Sudbury River Valley, Sudbury, MA
Beth El Temple, Belmont, MA
Newton Jewish Book Fair, Newton, MA
Pi Lambda Phi Jewish Studies Lecture, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WVPerspectives: Jewish Women in the 21st Century”, 92nd St. Y, Bronfman Center for Jewish Life (panel with Blu Greenberg and Lottie Pogobren)
The Frank and Yetta Chaiken Center for Jewish Studies, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
Tikkun Conferences, New York and Boston
Symposium on Women and Judaism, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA (keynote speech)
National Museum of American Jewish History, Philadelphia, PA
Woodlands Community Temple, White Plains, NY
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Wyncote, PA
Awards Ceremony, Kolot, Organizing Jewish Girls and Women, Columbia Univ., NYC
Benefit for the 25th anniversary of Lilith Magazine, Herbrew Union College
Falmouth Jewish Congregation, East Falmouth, MA
Providence, Rhode Island JCC, Book Fair
San Francisco Jewish Community Center
North Shore Jewish Community Center, Marblehead, MA
Temple Israel, Boston, MA
Temple Beth El, Knoxville, TN

Readings at Hillels:

Stanford University
University of Pennsylvania
University of Massachusetts
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)
Michigan State University
Boston University

Board membership:

Advisory Board, HILAI, Israeli Center for the Arts, 1989-95
Advisor to the Siddur Project, P’nai Or, 1986-91
Board, Israeli Center for the Creative Arts (HILAI), 1986-88
Board member, Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, 1993-

Editorial:

Poetry Editor, Tikkun, 1988-96
Poetry Editor, Lilith, 2000-

Included in Jewish Publications:

Tikkun, Midstream, Davka, Lilith, Kerem, The New Menorah, New Traditions, The Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, Shmate.

Poetry in Jewish Calendars:
Hadassah
The Jewish Engagement Calendar

Tapes and CDs:

Tape: “The book of Ruth and Naomi” from Mars and her Children included in the oratorio Women of Valor by Andrea Clearfield, 1999
Compact Disc: IN OTHER WORDS, The Jewish Writer Reads her Work, 2001, Brandeis University

Jewish-themed books and contributions to Jewish-themed books: 

Foreword to Hannah Senesh, Jewish Lights Publications, 2005. 
Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Edited by Tony Kushner and Alisa Solomon, Grove Press, 2003.
Best Jewish Writing of 2003, Edited by Michael Lerner, Jossey-Bass, 2003.
Machzor Ruach Chadashah: Services for the Days of Awe, Liberal Judaism, London, 2003.
The Art of Blessing the Day, Poems with a Jewish Theme, Knopf 1999, paperback 2001.
Reading Ruth: Contemporary Women Reclaim a Sacred Story, Ballantine, 1994.
Hadesh Yameinu: A Siddur for Shabbat and Festivals, Rabbi Ron Aigen, Conregation Dorshei Emet, 1993.
“Some blessings”, Kol Haneshamah:Shabbat Eve, The Reconstructionist Press, 1989.
“Mourner’s Kaddish,” Renew Our Days: A Book of Jewish Prayer & Meditation, ed. By Rabbi RonaldAigen (Congregation dorshei Emet, the Reconstructionist Synagogue of Montreal) 1996.
“The Dark Thread in the Weave,” Testimony: Contemporary Writers Make the Holocaust Personal, David Rosenberg, Editor, New York, Random House, 1989.
The New Jewish Wedding, Anita Diamant, Summit Books, New York, 1985.

For information concerning Ms Piercy’s fees and availability, e-mail: Piercy Events 
(Please note: This e-mail address is for information concerning bookings only.)