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| Director, Jewish Storytelling Center |
| Peninnah Schram has been called the doyenne of Jewish storytellers. Over the last two decades, she has been crucial in creating a network of Jewish storytellers throughout North America. Ms. Schram founded the Jewish Storytelling Center in 1984 and brought it to the 92nd Street Y two years later. The Center presents Storytelling Workshops and the Jewish Storytelling Newsletter. |
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| Ms. Schram is a storyteller, teacher, recording artist and author. She is also Professor of Speech and Drama at Yeshiva University's Stern College and Azrieli Graduate School, where she has been teaching for over 30 years, and taught (in 1974) what was the first college course on Jewish storytelling. Ms. Schram was instrumental in bringing storytelling to the national Jewish scene through the Storytelling Network, which she established in cooperation with the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education. She has appeared as a featured storyteller at major conferences and festivals, including the National Storytelling Festival (NSN) in Jonesborough, Tennessee. She travels across the United States and internationally, presenting storytelling workshops and performing stories and folktales drawn from a variety of Jewish and non-Jewish sources. Among the Jewish stories included in Ms. Schram's repertoire are legends, parables and folktales from the Bible, Talmud and midrash; Hasidic and Yiddish tales; and stories from Sephardic and Israeli sources. Ms. Schram's most recent book is The Hungry Clothes and Other Jewish Folktales. She is also the editor of Chosen Tales: Stories Told by Jewish Storytellers and author of Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another, Tales of Elijah the Prophet and Stories Within Stories: From the Jewish Oral Tradition. She has produced plays for adults and children, narrated two radio series and recorded several audio and video cassettes, including six folktales on the CD The Minstrel and the Storyteller: Stories and Songs of the Jewish People, performed with singer/guitarist Gerard Edery. Ms. Schram is a recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for Outstanding Jewish Educators from The Covenant Foundation and The Circle of Excellence Award and the 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Storytelling Network. She received her B.A. from the University of Connecticut and her M.A. from Columbia University. Ms. Schram grew up in Connecticut and first heard stories from her father, who was a cantor who told her biblical and midrashic tales, and her mother, who shared with her the proverbs and folktales of the Jewish people. Ms. Schram lives in New York. |
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© 2010 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association
All Rights Reserved. |
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