The Evelyn Rubenstein JCC's Authors in Conversation Program Returns Next Month

The Evelyn Rubenstein JCC (the J) Authors in Conversation Program returns to the Kaplan Theatre and Our New J in March to celebrate International Women's Day. Susan Weidman Schneider, author of Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine will speak on Wednesday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. preceded by dinner for groups to attend together at 6:30 p.m.

Compiled by editor-in-chief of Lilith Magazine, these short stories represent the widest range of Jewish feminist fiction. Sharing numerous points of view, these stories will resonate with your own experience or share a perspective that expands your world view.

After spending some time in Israel with her family, Susan and a small group of women founded an "independent Jewish women's magazine." They named the quarterly magazine after the bible figure Lilith, Eve's predecessor in the Garden of Eden, who was expelled for wanting equality. The goal of the magazine was to show how the sexism of Jewish religion, history and contemporary life posed a challenge to Jewish women, and at the same time, explore ways in which the religion could change on behalf of Jewish women.

Guests of all ages will connect and relate to the short stories, as this collection showcases a wide range of stories offering variegated cultures and contexts and points of view: Persian Jews; a Biblical matriarch; an Ethiopian mother in modern Israel; suburban American teens; Eastern European academics; a sexual questioner; a Jew by choice; a new immigrant escaping her Lower East Side sweatshop; a Black Jewish marcher for justice; in Vichy France, a toddler's mother hiding out; and more. We hope you can join us for this special opportunity.

Purchase tickets to hear Schneider speak at erjcchouston.org/tickets. Reserve a table for your group by March 6 by emailing ggoodweather@erjcchouston.org. Participants can bring their own dinner or pre-order food through Laykie's Gourmet Café at the J by March 3 when you purchase event tickets.