Alumni Updates

Leah Berkowitz’s (Jewish Creativity Conference for College Students ‘02, Tent: Children's Literature ‘17) first children's book, The World Needs Beautiful Things, was published by Kar-Ben in August 2018. Her next book, Queen Vashti's Comfy Pants, will be published by Apples and Honey Press in March 2021.

Ellen Cassedy (Translation Fellowship ’15) is the translator of "A Gut Morgn! (Good Morning!)," a newly published book of Yiddish poems for children by Boris Sandler.  The 20 poems are full of a child's energy and delight, perfect for reading aloud in Yiddish (including transliteration) and English. Sprightly illustrations by Sonia Filipkina, a talented young artist from Birobidjian. For children 3-8.  Available for $20 at [email protected].

Luna Goldberg (TENT: Creative Writing ’17) recently moved to Miami, Florida to start a position leading education, public programming, and community engagement initiatives at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. She writes, “Please come by for a visit if you're ever in the area!”

Barbara Krasner (TENT: Children’s Literature ’17) is a second-year student in the PhD program Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Gratz College where she is currently taking Yiddish II. Her middle-grade novel in verse about the MS St. Louis, 37 Days at Sea, will be published by Kar-Ben, Spring 2021.

Linda Elovitz Marshall (TENT: Children’s Literature ’17) writes, “Over the moon! Five picture books in 2020! Saving the Countryside: The Story of Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit (Little Bee Books), Have You Ever Seen a Ziz? (Albert Whitman Books), Shalom Bayit (Kar-Ben/Lerner), Polio Pioneer: The Story of Jonas Salk and the Polio Vaccine (Knopf), Anne Frank: The Girl Heard Around the World (Scholastic). And, best of all, a new grandchild expected!”

Caitlin McGill’s (TENT: Creative Writing '16) essay, "Paved in Gold" (original published in Consequence Magazine), was re-published in The Wrath-Bearing Tree: wrath-bearingtree.com/2020/01/nonfiction-from-caitlin-mcgill-paved-in-gold/ and consequencemagazine.org/non-fiction/paved-in-gold/. Her essay "How to Disappear" is also forthcoming in CutBank Magazine.

Isaac Moore (Yiddish Book Center Fellow ’14–’15) writes “Since last fall I have been enrolled in a two-year graduate program at Harvard University, where I am pursuing a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration and Policy at the Graduate School of Education. It’s so exciting to learn and engage with others who care about making American higher education more accessible and equitable. I miss the Center! :)”

Kinga Esther Neder (Steiner Summer Yiddish Program '12, Cowl Cultural Liaison '12/13, Summer Intern '14) writes, “Shalom aleychem! I am currently living in the City of Love, Light and huntpup, Paris, where I work as the Communications Officer at the Espace Culturel et Universitaire Juif d'Europe/ ECUJE (a Parisian home for Jewish culture) and our academic branch, the Institut Elie Wiesel. Do let me know if you ever come by Paris and especially if you are interested in presenting or performing your work in the French capital!”

Janine Jankovitz Pastor (TENT: Creative Writing ’13) will be graduating from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and ordained as a rabbi in June. Senior year has allowed her more time to read fiction and poetry—currently she is enjoying Lombardo's "The Most Fun We Ever Had” and teaching Yehuda Amichai's poetry to congregants.

Leah Sauter (Steiner Summer Yiddish Program ‘17, Wexler Oral History Program Internship) is currently in her second year at the Weiss Livnat Program in Holocaust History through the University of Haifa. She is finishing up an internship translating Yiddish survivor testimonies through the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC and will soon begin another internship at the Virginia Museum of the Holocaust in Richmond. She is beginning work on an MA thesis about fantasy and folklore in Holocaust literature.

Rabbi Bob Sternberg (Great Jewish Books Teachers Summer Seminar '16) has relocated from Springfield, MA, to Sun City, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix. He continues to teach his online Holocaust literature classes at Westfield State University. He has also completed the writing of an English translation of the Yiddish children's classic Yingele ringele and is currently in discussion with a publishing house about the publication of the book. This book, written and published in 1929, has never been translated into English.

Marianne Tatom (Yiddish Pedagogy Fellowship '18) writes, "We had a very successful first year of Yiddish classes at Congregation Beth Shalom, culminating in a community Yiddish third seder with over 20 participants, and will be adding an intermediate Yiddish class as well as a new beginning class this fall. I will also be teaching an adult ed class on 'Yiddish idioms and expressions' at Seattle Central College in the fall quarter. Yiddish lebt bay undz in Seattle!"

Joy Nelkin Wieder’s (TENT: Children's Literature '18) debut picture book, The Passover Mouse, was published in January 2020 by Doubleday Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, and illustrated by Shahar Kober. Based on a passage of Talmud, The Passover Mouse is a rollicking, funny, and ultimately inspiring story in which a little mouse disrupts a town’s preparations for the holiday when it steals a piece of leavened bread—or chometz—just as all the houses have been swept clean in time for the holiday. The mouse tears through the town with the chometz, spoiling everyone’s hard work. But just when it seems as if the townsfolk will never be ready for their Seder, the little mouse’s actions unwittingly bring everyone together, to work as a group to save the holiday.