“Princess or Prisoner?” Jewish Women Past and Present

Journey back in time to the Holy Land under the Ottoman Empire with Talia Carner’s novel Jerusalem Maiden which depicts a woman’s struggle for freedom against her community’s strict religious dictates.

Then fast-forward to today, as Deborah Feldman, author of a memoir, Unorthodox, speaks of her escaped from a similar environment of relentlessly enforced customs in the name of religion and teenage marriage to a man she barely knew.

Deborah Feldman will be selling and signing copies of Unorthodox following the event.

Talia Carner will be selling and signing copies of Jerusalem Maiden following the event.

Sonia Taitz will be selling and signing copies of The Watchmaker’s Daughter following the event.

What do YOU want to ask Talia Carner or Deborah Feldman? Now's your chance. Leave your questions below, and we will forward them along during the Q&A. So get questioning!

Brief Bios

Talia Carner is formerly the publisher of Savvy Woman magazine and a lecturer at international women’s economic forums. Award-winning author of Jerusalem Maiden (Harper Collins, 2011) and numerous stories, essays and articles, she is a committed supporter of global human rights. Carner has spearheaded research and ground-breaking projects centered on female plight and women’s activism.

Deborah Feldman was born and raised in the Hasidic community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of The New York Times bestselling memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots (Simon and Schuster). Deborah attended Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York City with her son.

Sonia Taitz is a graduate of Ramaz, Barnard, Yale Law School and Oxford University, where she received an M.Phil in English literature. She has written extensively for The New York Times and The New York Observer, where she held a column, and is also a columnist for Psychology Today and The Huffington Post. Her first book, Mothering Heights, was highlighted in O Magazine and featured in a PBS special on love; In the King's Arms, a novel published last year, was praised by The New York Times Book Review and The Jewish Book World. Sonia Taitz’s new memoir, The Watchmaker's Daughter depicts her life as the American child of Yiddish-speaking, Orthodox concentration camp survivors, and her efforts—through education, travel and romance—to bridge past and future. The Watchmaker's Daughter has been nominated by the ALA for the Sophie Brody Medal, given to a book that enhances understanding of the Jewish-American experience.