Sunday, April 24th - Friday, June 3rd
KOL U'DEYO
Drisha's work has always centered around honest, rigorous engagement with Jewish texts. But there are so many ways to go about that. Kol u'Deyo, a new program for writers, translators, and editors, seeks to establish an ecotone between the writers' workshop and the beit midrash. Leaning into Drisha's strengths in the literary interpretation of the Bible, and reaching out to the widely talented members of our learning community, we hope to provide a unique experience for those who wish to study their Jewish texts and write them, too.
How It Works...
Select one Sunday lecture series. Happening Zoom lectures with our experts.
Enjoy supplemental events that suit your schedule and interests. Our schedule will be released, soon!
Write, edit, translate, revise, read, learn, bond, laugh, share, and delight in a community where there's no such thing as writing that's "too Jewish."
Financial Matters
These rates reflect a substantial subsidy and include access to your choice of nine-hour workshop series, six-hour lecture series, and at least a dozen hours of supplemental program events.
We will award at least ten half-tuition work-study positions.
We will award at least one full-tuition Ezra scholarship to a writer or editor, and at least one full-tuition Esther scholarship to a translator or editor.
Financial aid is available for as long as there are still seats open in the workshop you wish to participate in; apply at any time.
The Lectures
Sundays, 1:00PM-2:00PM Eastern
When students choose a workshop, they are asked to select one of two lecture series to attend on Sundays. There is also an option to purchase recordings of the alternate lecture series. Each series has a cap of 60 participants.
Sound, Substance, Seduction: An Introduction to Biblical Poetry
with Dr. Adele Berlin and Dr. Simeon Chavel
While readers and lovers of Torah continue to debate whether the overall body of text is poetry or prose—and whether such distinctions are meaningful—what most do agree on is that the linguistic choices and literary devices employed throughout the Hebrew Bible are there deliberately. Join Dr. Adele Berlin and Dr. Simeon Chavel for an introduction to the world of the Tanakh’s words, images, sounds, substance, and intentions. Dr. Berlin will start us off with three weeks getting the group acquainted with major themes and features in the poetry of the Bible, and Dr. Chavel will follow with three weeks of additional questions and deeper considerations.
Dr. Simeon Chavel
Dr. Simeon Chavel is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. His interdisciplinary research focuses on genres, techniques, ideas, and history of the Hebrew Bible. In addition to his more traditional academic work in research and teaching, he also writes a blog on biblical poetry, The Bible Sleuth.
How the Bible Tells Its Story: An Introduction to Biblical Narrative
with Rabbi David Silber
"There's nothing new under the Sun," was first written by King Solomon, according to our tradition. But the sentiment has been kept alive by writing instructors and book critics. If there is nothing new under the Sun, how does life spin meaningfully beneath it? The Bible tells its stories time and again, with meaningful repetition and deliberate changes. Focusing on David and Batsheva, a tale full of questions about consent, power dynamics, sin, and responsibility, we will examine the techniques biblical narrators use to tell their stories, and explore the ever-important question of why a given story is told, retold, and revised over the ongoing course of Jewish textual conversation. As we examine how our tradition chooses to tell and retell stories, we might find space to tell our own, and perhaps even inspiration to develop more redemptive arcs, more relatable heroes, and more satisfying endings.
Rabbi David Silber
David Silber is the Founder and Dean of Drisha Institute for Jewish Education in New York and Israel. Rabbi Silber received ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is a recipient of the Covenant Award, for excellence in innovative Jewish education, and is the author of A Passover Haggadah: Go Forth and Learn (Jewish Publication Society 2011), For Such a Time as This: Biblical Reflections in the Book of Esther (Koren Publishers 2017), and Human Kingship: Studies in the Book of Samuel (Koren Publishers 2021). He is also a nationally acclaimed lecturer on the Bible.
The Workshops
We are delighted to offer a variety of workshop experiences, some suitable for total beginners and others a worthy challenge for advanced writers, all led by gifted instructors. Each workshop meets for a total of nine hours, one and one half hours per session, at the same time each week.
Poetry
Divinely Inspired: Jewish Text as Poetic Conversation
Tuesdays, 3:00PM-4:30PM Eastern
with Aviya Kushner, MFA
This class will consider Jewish texts as poetic inspiration. We’ll read selections from ancient, medieval, and contemporary Jewish texts with a poet’s eye, and we’ll use them as springboards to write our own poems.
Aviya Kushner is the Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago and the Forward's language columnist. She is also the author of The Grammar of God, as well the poetry chapbook Eve and All the Wrong Men, and most recently the poetry collection Wolf Lamb Bomb.
Beneath a Banner of Love: Imagery and Motive in Jewish Love Poetry
NEW TIME: Tuesdays, 7:00PM-8:30PM Eastern
with Julia Knobloch
Poetry gives shape to our most intense emotions – be they secular or spiritual. Inquiring about sacredness in our lives is a lyrical act in its own right, and it may be no surprise that much of our traditional texts use imagery and metaphors of love when they try to describe the bond between Israel and God. This class will explore various epochs and genres, in order to build a vocabulary and understanding of Jewish love poetry that participants can apply to their own writing.
Julia Knobloch is a poet, educator, and rabbi-in-training at the Ziegler School for Rabbinic Studies. In 2021, she was awarded a Bruce Geller Memorial Prize/AJU Word Grant. The author of two poetry collections Do Not Return and Book of Failed Salvation, Julia is currently working on a series of poems about Los Angeles, inspired by the blessings of the Amidah.
Prose
Living With Our Stories: Joining National and Personal Memoir
Wednesdays, 11:00AM-12:30PM Eastern
with Ilana Blumberg, PhD
In this workshop, we will write companion pieces to a number of biblical texts, using the biblical texts as intensely focused accounts of personal, familial, and national experience that evoke and hint more than they relay directly. Reading chapters from Genesis and Exodus, each workshop will also take one literary text as a model.
Ilana Blumberg is author of Open Your Hand: Teaching as a Jew, Teaching as an American, and Houses of Study: a Jewish Woman among Books, winner of the Sami Rohr Choice Award for Jewish Literature. She directs the Shaindy Rudoff Program in Creative Writing at Bar Ilan University.
Be Not Afraid: Writing the Jewish Supernatural
Wednesdays, 1:00PM-2:30PM Eastern
with Gavriel Savit
By the end of this course, students will have gained confidence in writing short fiction and in integrating the details of lived experience with the sorts of supernatural incidents and episodes so frequently depicted in foundational Jewish sources.
Gavriel Savit is an award-winning, New York Times Bestselling author. His first novel, Anna and the Swallow Man, won the National Jewish Book Awards' Goldberg Prize and has been translated into 18 languages. His second novel, The Way Back, was a National Book Award Finalist, won the National Jewish Book Award for Young Adult Fiction, and has been optioned for development as a major motion picture.
Writing the Talmud: Crafting Narratives of Learning that Teach
Wednesdays, 6:00PM-7:30PM Eastern
with Maggie Anton
The class will focus on how to incorporate Jewish text study into a fictional narrative. We will go over the basic rules of writing fiction, discuss the process of deciding which text(s) to include and how, read published examples, and work with a chevruta to create a piece of fiction that includes at least one Jewish text.
Maggie Anton is the author of the award-winning trilogy, Rashi’s Daughters, the National Jewish Book Award finalist, Rav Hisda’s Daughter: Apprentice and its sequel, Enchantress. Her latest work is The Choice: A Novel of Love, Faith and the Talmud, a novel that takes characters inspired by Chaim Potok and ages them into young adults.
Screenwriting
Flipping Jewish Scripts: An Introductory Screenwriting Workshop
Thursdays, 11:00AM-12:30PM Eastern
with Leah Gottfried
What makes a film Jewish? Is it text? Deeper meaning and values? Characters? Something else? In this workshop we will delve into those questions as we analyze both Jewish text sources and films all while learning to craft our own “Jewish” scripts.
Leah Gottfried is an award-winning director, writer, producer and actor, and founder of the production company Dignity Entertainment. She is the creator of the hit web series "Soon By You" which follows young Orthodox Jews living and dating in NYC. Leah graduated with a Film Studies degree from Yeshiva University where she studied drama, screenwriting and TV writing as well as cinematography at NYU.
Translation
Vos iz der taytsh: a translation workshop
Mondays, 11:00AM-12:30PM Eastern
with Pamela Brenner, MSt
This workshop will discuss challenges and opportunities of translation, with special emphasis on translation from Yiddish to English. We will be introduced to the contours of translation and will push the limits of what it is possible to create in English. Each session will focus on a different angle for thinking through and crafting a translation.
Pamela Brenner is a Yiddish researcher and translator. She holds an MSt from the University of Oxford and a BA from Barnard College, both in Yiddish Studies. A Yiddish Book Center Translation Fellow, Pamela is completing a translation of short stories by Shomer.
Ki D’vash L’Matok: the Practice of Hebrew Translation from Tanakh until Today
Mondays, 2:30PM-4:00PM Eastern
with Rabbi Levi Morrow
Throughout its history, the Hebrew language has been both the common thread that stitches the Jewish people together across time and place, and a medium for depth, mystery, and challenge. In this workshop we will examine the syntax, diction, symbol, and sense used in various eras and movements in Jewish texts, asking ourselves how to sincerely speak the language of a diversity of thinkers who have all elected Hebrew.
Levi Morrow received semikhah from the Shehebar Sephardic Center in Jerusalem and his MA in Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. He has translated a volume of derashot from Rav Shagar that will be published by Maggid Books, and a book of teachings from Rav Menahem Froman.
Editing Skills
Editing Jewish Experience: Examining Text, Relationship, and Change
Tuesdays, 11:00AM-12:30PM Eastern
*or*
Thursdays, 6:00PM-7:30PM Eastern
with No'a L. bat Miri, MFA
In this workshop, writers will practice the editorial relationship from both sides with the aim of developing skills that serve the entire literary community. We will gain experience and discuss what it takes and what it means to work earnestly towards the perfection of a design not our own.
No'a L. bat Miri earned her MFA in Queens University of Charlotte's Latin America program, where she was mentored by Mary Gaitskill, Francisco Goldman, and others. She has served as editor and reader for a variety of publications, presses, and independent projects, most recently editing fiction for PROTOCOLS. She currently works for Drisha.
Multi-Genre
Waking the Dawn: Writing Through the Days of Creation
Wednesdays, 6:00AM-7:30AM Eastern
with No'a L. bat Miri, MFA
In the beginning... the Divine set the stage for every story we tell each other. Day by day, every setting, prop, and character had its potential laid down, waiting only for interaction and other imaginations to start up the drama.
Each week in this workshop, we will view texts related to one of the days of creation, both from within the Jewish religious canon and the larger world of engagements. We will contemplate how the Divine's creative process relates to our own as writers, and we will spend most of the class time generating new work in any genre with optional prompts.
No'a L. bat Miri earned her MFA in Queens University of Charlotte's Latin America program, where she was mentored by Mary Gaitskill, Francisco Goldman, and others. She has served as editor and reader for a variety of publications, presses, and independent projects, most recently editing fiction for PROTOCOLS. She currently works for Drisha.
Supplemental Events
Our full schedule of supplemental program events will be posted soon. Expect at least two hours of additional, optional events at different times throughout each week of our program, including industry-related events, participatory programs, learning-oriented surprises, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions
I can't make one week. Is that OK? Can I still participate? Will I still qualify for financial aid?
Please check with us about the specific workshop you would like to participate in. In most cases, missing one week and catching up with the recording will be fine, but each workshop has a different dynamic. If you only need to miss one week for a prior obligation, we would still love to have you participate, and you will still qualify for financial aid.
These hours are atrocious. Why did you pick these times?
Our faculty range in geographic location from Israel to California, and our students come from an even wider reach across the globe. Additionally, this program is for undergraduate and graduate students, professionals, shift-workers, retirees, individuals with self-designed schedules, and more. We hope that everyone can find at least one workshop that suits her schedule, and some instructors are open to additional sections if what is listed fills.
Are there any plans to have a more traditional in-person writers’ program?
After this program, we will reevaluate its strengths and weaknesses. At present, an in-person program is not being planned for the near future due to ongoing public health concerns and accessibility considerations. Traditional in-person programs often cost five to ten times as much as what we are able to offer online.
Are there any plans to have programming for writers with less of a time commitment?
Yes. Stay tuned.
Do I have to have experience as a writer to join the program?
Each workshop has its own prerequisite guidelines, and most are open to beginning writers. If you want help trying to suss out which workshop is right for you, feel free to be in touch with the Program Director, No’a bat Miri, via email: [email protected].
I only know English. Is that OK?
The majority of programming at Drisha is designed to be accessible to those who are only proficient in English, and this is the case for the majority of Kol u’Deyo, as well. Please check requirements for translation workshops before registering. In our classes, we typically provide texts both in translation and in the original so that people can build their language skills at the pace that works for them.
I’m also interested in joining the summer kollel. Can I do both of these things?
Yes! Our kollel in NYC is scheduled for well into the summer and has no time conflicts with Kol u’Deyo. If you wish to join the virtual kollel, that does happen during the final two weeks of this program, but we can help you design a schedule that enables you to do both. Learn more about our kollel programs at kollel.drisha.org.
I’m also interested in joining the Beit Midrash for Mental Health Professionals and Clergy. Can I do both of these things?
Yes! The Beit Midrash for Mental Health Professionals and Clergy meets on four Sundays, and you will be let out with enough time before the Kol u’Deyo Sunday Lecture Series that you can have a stretch, make a pot of tea, and post fabulous pictures of your pet to instagram between the two. Learn more about the program here.
Can I do more than one workshop?
We ask that individuals only register for one workshop as a full-participant, at this time. If you would like to audit a second workshop, please contact No’a bat Miri for a supplemental registration code. If space is still available in select workshops over chol hamoed, we will open for secondary registrations.
Can I do more than one lecture series?
This is not possible. We offer the option to purchase recordings of the alternate series, but we ask that you choose to actively participate in only one during its scheduled time.
Can I get academic or theological school credit for participation?
Drisha is not a credit-granting institution, but if your institution offers credit for independent and other external work, we are happy to help you secure the necessary materials. Each workshop is nine contact hours; the Sunday lectures are six contact hours; supplemental programming can account for up to fifteen additional contact hours, depending on individual participation.
What kind of Jews is Drisha for?
All kinds. Seriously. Drisha has been proudly and thoughtfully pluralistic for over forty years. We believe that your religious and cultural commitments are your own to deal with, and you can segment yourself however your wish or shirk labels entirely. But when you are in our beit midrash—or our writers’ workshops—you are an individual, and all we ask is a commitment to respecting the dignity of others, as otherly as they might be, and centering the integrity of our texts. This means trying to read better, being socially generous, and taking responsibility for one’s own speech and actions. All the rest is commentary, now go and learn.
This costs a lot. Can’t it be cheaper?
The tuition we are charging reflects substantial subsidy and is comparably priced or cheaper than many programs of a more limited scope. We insist on offering our educators a respectable rate, though some have chosen to donate some of their time or work for reduced payment because they care about Kol u’Deyo and Drisha. Because of our commitment to accessibility, we are happy to offer full-tuition scholarships and half-tuition work-study arrangements; information can be requested in the Financial Matters section of this page. Nonetheless, it is important for members of our community who can afford to pay to please do so.
I’m interested in sponsoring this program for others. How can I donate?
Thank you for your generosity! Feel free to donate through our webstore, using any of the available options. If you would prefer to donate offline, or if you love the program so much you’d like to put your name or that of a beloved on it, please contact No’a bat Miri directly to coordinate these processes.