Marcia Falk is a poet, liturgist, painter, and translator who has written several books of poetry and prayer.
Early years
She was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in
New Hyde Park, Long Island. Her mother Frieda Goldberg Falk, a teacher, spoke Yiddish fluently and attended Hebrew school as a child at her Orthodox synagogue, the only girl to do so. Her mother's influence helped inspire Falk's feminist spiritual vision and commitment to women's religious education.
[Jewish Women's Archive]
/ref>
Falk took classes as an adolescent in Hebrew and Jewish studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studie ...
. She was awarded a B.A. in philosophy ''magna cum laude'' from Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, pro ...
, followed by a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. Falk was a Fulbright Scholar
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
in Hebrew and Bible literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
, and returned four years later as a Postdoctoral Fellow.
Life and career
As a university professor, Falk taught Hebrew and English literature, Jewish studies and creative writing at Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, Binghamton University
The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...
, and the Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)—Pomona College, Scr ...
. In 2001 she was the Priesand Visiting Professor of Jewish Women’s Studies at Hebrew Union College
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
in Cincinnati.
Falk is a life member of the Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists.
Although artists may stu ...
, where she studied painting as a child and adolescent. Her painting "Gilead Apples" was used as the cover illustration for her book ''The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season.'' She has also created a series of mizrachs featuring oil pastel paintings accompanied by texts from her volume of Hebrew and English prayers, ''The Book of Blessings.''
Falk’s poems have appeared in the ''American Poetry Review
''The American Poetry Review'' (''APR'') is an American poetry magazine printed every other month on tabloid-sized newsprint. It was founded in 1972 by Stephen Berg and Stephen Parker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The magazine's editor is Elizab ...
'', ''Choice'', ''Moment'', ''Poet & Critic'', ''Poetry Society of America
The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...
Magazine'', ''Her Face in the Mirror: Jewish Women on Mothers and Daughters'' (Beacon Press
Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James B ...
, 1994), ''September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond'' (Etruscan Press
Etruscan Press is an American publisher founded in 2001 with a grant from the Oristaglio Foundation. Housed at Wilkes University and partnering with Youngstown State University
Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public ...
, 2002), ''Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets'' (Avon Books
Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reach ...
, 1980), ''Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California'' (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2018), and many other magazines and anthologies. She has published three collections of her own poems: ''My Son Likes Weather,'' ''This Year in Jerusalem,'' and ''It Is July in Virginia.'' Falk is also the author of ''The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems of Zelda,'' a volume of translations of the Hebrew poetry of twentieth-century mystic Zelda Schneerson Mishkovsky, and "With Teeth in the Earth: Selected Poems of Malka Heifetz Tussman
Malka Heifetz Tussman (1893–1987) was a Ukrainian-American Yiddish poet and teacher.
Life
Tussman was born in Volhynia in 1893, the second of eight children. As a young child, she was educated in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, and English. She imm ...
."
''The Song of Songs: Love Lyrics from the Bible,'' a classic verse translation of the biblical Song of Songs, was first published in 1977. The poet Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "th ...
called her translation "a beautiful and sensual poem in its own right."
1996's ''The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival'' was acclaimed for its nongendered depictions of the divine, replacing traditional masculine terminology for God (i.e., Lord and King) with what Falk calls "new images for divinity." Writing in ''The Women's Review of Books'', Judith Plaskow
Judith Plaskow (born March 14, 1947) is an American theologian, author, and activist known for being the first Jewish feminist theologian. After earning her doctorate at Yale University, she taught at Manhattan College for thirty-two years before ...
hailed the book's "extraordinarily beautiful prayers," which use "no female images and little feminine grammar. Instead, alkevokes the sacred as totally immanent in creation, offering an alternative to the whole notion of God as male or female person."
''The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season,'' published in 2014, takes a similar approach to the High Holy Day season, recreating the holidays’ key prayers and rituals from an inclusive perspective. Rabbi David Teutsch of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) is a Jewish seminary in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. It is the only seminary affiliated with Reconstructionist Judaism. It is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Associa ...
praised the author for demonstrating "a poet’s gift for words that open inner vistas, a liturgist’s capacity to speak to the universal, a scholar’s insight into Jewish traditions and texts, and a contemporary feminist’s fresh vision."
She published ''Inner East: Illuminated Poems and Blessings'' in 2019. In ''Inner East'', Falk’s poems and blessings are paired with her paintings, as they are in her mizrachs. Traditionally, in Jewish communities west of the Holy Land, mizrachs are hung on an eastern wall to indicate the direction to face during prayer. “Inner east” refers to a direction of the heart, a pointer toward the spiritual core within ourselves.
In 2022, Falk published ''Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah'', the third publication in a series of feminist rewritings of Jewish liturgy.
Falk lives in Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, with her husband, the poet Steven Jay Rood; they have one son, Abraham Gilead Falk-Rood.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falk, Marcia
1946 births
Living people
Writers from Berkeley, California
Writers from New York City
Artists from New York City
21st-century American poets
20th-century American poets
Jewish American poets
Jewish Theological Seminary of America alumni
Brandeis University alumni
Stanford University alumni
Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni
Stanford University faculty
Binghamton University faculty
Claremont Colleges people
Art Students League of New York alumni
Jewish women artists
Jewish women writers
Jewish American artists
American women poets
Jewish translators
American translation scholars
American Conservative Jews
Conservative Jewish feminists
21st-century American women writers
Fulbright alumni