Oakland, CA - A major conference on Jewish women’s creativity and scholarship will be held at Mills College on Sunday, February 26, 2006 from 10 am to 4:30 pm in the Concert Hall. Entitled “Kol Isha: Jewish Women’s Voices Unbound,” the daylong gathering will feature performances, workshops, and panels on Jewish women who have revolutionized the study of Jewish history, electrified literary arenas, and transformed cultural, religious, and political institutions.

The first event in a spring series (see listings below), this gathering is presented by Mills College, The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), and the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center (BRJCC). Collaborators also include the Osher Marin Jewish Community Center and Chochmat HaLev, A Center for Jewish Spirituality.

The Conference keynote speaker is Irena Klepfisz, associate professor (adjunct), women’s studies, Barnard College, and Sara Felder, juggling diva, will present a performance.

Workshop Presenters and Panelists

• Roslyn Barak, cantor, Congregation Emanu-El, San Francisco
• Judith Berlowitz, visiting assistant professor, Spanish and Spanish American Studies, Mills College
• Sharon Bernstein, hazzan, Congregation Beth Sholom, San Francisco
• Chana Bloch, poet and translator
• Carlota Caulfield, professor of Spanish and Spanish American Studies, Mills College
• Charlotte E. Fonrobert, assistant professor, religious studies, Stanford University
• Marcia Freedman, member of Knesset, author of Exile in the Promised Land: A Political Memoir, and president of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace
• Lisa Geduldig, comedian, comedy producer
• Nan Gefen, PhD, president of Chochmat HaLev
• Nancy Katz, artist
• Chana Kronfeld, professor of Hebrew, Yiddish and comparative literature, UC Berkeley
• Lital Levy, doctoral candidate, comparative literature, UC Berkeley
• Shana Penn, program director, Taube Foundation for Jewish Life and Culture, and visiting scholar, The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union
• Naomi Seidman, Koret Professor of Jewish Culture, and director, The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union
• Dina Stein, associate professor, rabbinics and folklore, The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union

Workshop Highlights

• Death of a Prince: A 500-Year-Old Memory Perpetuated in the Voices of Sephardic Jewish Women (presented by Berlowitz)
• Portraits of Women: Feminism and Peace Work in the Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch (Bloch and Kronfeld)
• Latin American Jewish Women Writers and the Search for Heritage: Memory and Writing (Caulfield)
• The Tallit as Personal Expression: A Sampling of the Creativity of Bay Area Women and Girls (Katz)
• A Jewish Woman in the Arabic Renaissance: Arabism, Judaism, and Feminism in the Writing of Esther Azhari Moyal, 1893-1914 (Levy)
• Bringing Paula Hyman to Poland: The Reconstruction of Jewish and Gender Identities After Communism (Penn)
• Meditations from Jewish Traditions (Gefen)
• Ko Ha-Isha Erva (Woman’s Voice is Obscene): The Sexual Politics of Gossip (Freedman)
• Stand Up Schmand Up: Confessions of a Jewish Lesbian Comedian/Comedy Producer (Geduldig)

Registration

Advance registration and ticket purchase are required for all conference participants, including students. Please visit the website for more information or to purchase tickets online: www.mills.edu/kolisha.  Tickets cost $25 (members of the public), $10 (seniors, Mills and GTU faculty/staff and BRJCC members), and are free of charge for all students. A vegetarian lunch is available for $10.

For further information, contact Cynthia Scheinberg, Mills professor of English, cyns@mills.edu, or Gal Adam Spinrad, event coordinator, galadam@earthlink.net

Upcoming Series Events

• Making a Home for God on Earth: Women in Habad Hasidism, presented by Ada Rapoport-Albert, Thursday, March 2, 2006, 7 pm – 9 pm, The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies, Graduate Theological Union (free of charge)
• Celebrating Dalia Ravikovitch, Thursday, March 9, 2006, 7 pm – 9 pm, Morrison Library, UC Berkeley (free of charge)
• Daughters of the Dream: A Conversation with Yolanda King and Susannah Heschel, Monday, April 10, 2006, 7 pm – 9 pm, Mills College Concert Hall (free of charge)
• The Creative Dialogue: Jewish Women in Prose and Poetry – A conversation and reading with Chana Bloch and Elizabeth Rosner, Sunday, April 30, 2006, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm, BRJCC ($5 workshop fee; brunch provided)

Sponsors

“Kol Isha - Jewish Women’s Voices Unbound” is sponsored by generous grants and in-kind contributions from: Koret Foundation Funds, The Jewish Community Foundation, the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, Mills College Department of Women’s Studies, The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center, Emily L. Blanck and Daniel G. Weiss, Eva Lokey, Alan and Susan Rothenberg, Morton and Amy Rothschild Friedkin, Ilene Weinreb, Bar-Ristorante Raphael, and Hagafen Cellars.

Mills College is a nationally renowned, independent liberal arts college offering innovative degree programs for undergraduate women, and graduate degree and certificate programs for women and men. Consistently ranked among the top 75 liberal arts colleges in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Mills is also recognized as one of the country’s 20 most diverse colleges. The Princeton Review selected Mills as one of 11 colleges for first-time inclusion in its Best 361 Colleges - 2005. Nestled in the foothills of Oakland, California on 135 lush acres, Mills provides a dynamic liberal arts education fostering women’s leadership, social responsibility, and creativity.

PRESS CONTACT:
Deborah Dallinger
Communications Consultant
925.788.9131