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

Biography

Merle Feld was born and raised in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

. In 1968 she graduated from Brooklyn College and moved to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

, where she became involved with the newly founded

Havurat Shalom Havurat Shalom is a small egalitarian chavurah in Somerville, Massachusetts. Founded in 1968, it is not affiliated with the major Jewish denominations. Havurat Shalom was the first countercultural Jewish community and set the precedent for the ...

, the community "often considered a flagship of the havurah movement." She began writing her first play, ''The Opening'', in 1981, and in 1983 began work on her second, ''The Gates Are Closing''. This play is often read in synagogues in preparation for the

High Holidays The High Holidays also known as the High Holy Days, or Days of Awe in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim ( he, יָמִים נוֹרָאִים, ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm''; "Days of Awe") #strictly, the holidays of Rosh HaShanah ("Jewi ...

. In 1984 she joined B'not Esh, a Jewish feminist community, and early on, during one of their annual retreats, shared her first poems. In 1989, she went to Israel for a

sabbatical A sabbatical (from the Hebrew: (i.e., Sabbath); in Latin ; Greek: ) is a rest or break from work. The concept of the sabbatical is based on the Biblical practice of ''shmita'' (sabbatical year), which is related to agriculture. According to ...

, where she facilitated an all-female Israeli-Palestinian dialogue group on the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, and demonstrated with

Women in Black Women in Black ( he, נשים בשחור, ''Nashim BeShahor'') is a women's anti-war movement with an estimated 10,000 activists around the world. The first group was formed by Israeli women in Jerusalem in 1988, following the outbreak of the F ...

. 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). 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.'' In 2000, she was named a "Woman Who Dared" by the

Jewish Women's Archive The Jewish Women's Archive (JWA) is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to document "Jewish women's stories, elevate their voices, and inspire them to be agents of change." JWA was founded by Gail Twersky Reimer in 1995 in Brookli ...

for her peace activism. In 2005, she became the founding director of the Albin Rabbinic Writing Institute, mentoring rabbinical students and recently ordained rabbis across the denominations. In 2011, she published a collection of poems, ''Finding Words''. In 2023, she published ''Longing: Poems of a Life'' with

CCAR Press The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), founded in 1889 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the principal organization of Reform Judaism, Reform rabbis in the United States and Canada. The CCAR is the largest and oldest rabbinical organization ...

. She is married to Rabbi

Edward Feld Edward Feld, born 1943, is a conservative rabbi and author. He was the senior editor of the conservative Rabbinical Assembly's High Holiday maḥzor '' Maḥzor Lev Shalem'' (2010), which was the first conservative Jewish liturgical publication to ...

, and the two have a daughter, Lisa, and a son, Uri.

References

External links

*
Text of "We All Stood Together," Merle Feld's most famous poem
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feld, Merle 1947 births American women dramatists and playwrights American women poets Jewish American writers Jewish feminists Living people 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 21st-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American poets 21st-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Brooklyn College alumni 21st-century American Jews