Story List
Here is a sampling of her extensive repertoire.
PERSONAL STORIES
From Holiday Memories of a Shtetl Childhood
ZISL'S
HANNUKA LAMP
SUCCOTH IS FOR SAUERKRAUT
IT'S ONLY A PURIM SHPIEL
GUT YONTEV GUT YOR (Happy Holiday, Happy New Year)
PREPARING
FOR PESACH
From Stories of Immigration and
Acculturation
A CAN OF GREEN PAINT
MY BUBBEH SHAYNE NEVER LIKED ME
LEAVING
FOR AMERICA
MY FIRST THANKSGIVING
THE SUNFLOWER AND THE ALPHABET
ON THE SUBWAY FROM THE BRONX - I found myself sharing a shtetl story with a
4th grade class of children of various ethnic groups going on field trip on a
New York City subway. The response of the children was fascinating.
I'M
FROM NEW HAVEN - An unusual tale of an unusual woman that took place on a
train going from New Haven to New York. A continuation of the story above.
THE JEWS ARE COMING, THE JEWS ARE COMING! - A comic anti-Jewish story
of a group of middle-aged women looking for a different approach to the problem
of the loneliness of old age.
MY SISTER ON THE HOOD - A hilarious story of how an idiosyncratic
Jewish folksinger gets into trouble with the New York City traffic police, and
what she does to get out of it.
FROM
NEW YORK WITH LOVE - How the need to participate in the healing ritual of
sitting shiva with relatives living very far away develops into a bittersweet
incident that creates both laughter and tears.
LEONARD BERNSTEIN AND THE SENIOR CITIZENS - The mix of working class
habits, New York's cultural life, and the humanity of Leonard Bernstein makes
this a uniquely comical story.
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO OUR SEDER - Makes one think, feel, cry, and even
smile. It is a question being asked by a great many of us.
JERUSALEM
-MY MOTHER'S DREAM - A tender story of love, disillusion and the influence
of one person's sincerely held ideas on an entire family
THE WEDDING IN THE CEMETERY - A ghost story told by my grandmother that
was supposed to make me less afraid of going by our cemetery in the little
shtetl where I was born, but accomplished the exact opposite.
GRAF POTOTSKI'S AYNICL (grandchild) - What happens to an idiomatic
expression or a legend when carried across the sea and passed from one
generation to another, mix a little humor and pathos, add a splash of nostalgia
for an entertaining mix.
FOOD
IS MORE THAN EATING - How are traditions transmitted from generation to
generation? Surely food is one of the important symbols, but is food enough?
Smile at some of the answers, and learn a great deal about how life used to be.
THE STRIKE IN THE TANNERY - Was there labor unrest in the shtetl? My
mother says yes. She tells me of a strike which took place around the year 1907
in our town in which my grandmother and grandfather participate.
ALL
IN A DAYS WORK - How I got into the garment industry, became the senior
designer, and what I had to do to stay in that lofty position. The story deals
with dyslexia, characteristic garment industry antics, and the man who made me,
my boss Morris. You laugh a lot!
DER SIGNAL (The Signal) - The transmigration of a story. Personal and
Literary.
UN
DO MINE AYNICL - The story of my last day before leaving for America and my
grandfather's last words whispered lovingly into my ear.
RACING
WITH THE MOON - A shtetl story about childhood, mores, love, dreams, and
sleigh riding on a frosty moonlit night.
MY NEIGHBOR CHANA FRYSCHDORF - A Holocaust story.
GOING
HOME TO NOWHERE - A personal story of my going back to my little shtetl of
Wysokie-Litewskie in Belarus.
MY FATHER AND THE COW'S UDDERS
Folktales
STORIES OF THE MAGGID OF DUBNO
THE MAGGID AND THE DRIVER
THE BULL'S EYE
ALL BECAUSE OF A FLOOR
HERSHELE OF OSTRAPOLE- My own rendition in verse of a folk story called
"I'll just have to do what my father did" a story about the famous trickster
HERSHELE.
A SINGLE GRAIN OF RICE - A Korean folktale about what to do with a
treasure.
THE
REBBE FROM LEMBERG - A tongue-in-cheek story about a stingy man with an
unruly wife, strife, love, and the advice of the Rebbe from Lemberg. As told by
storyteller, Steven Sanfield.
THE SILENT DEBATE - A Middle Eastern folktale. When the Jews are
commanded to debate in signs with the Bishop, the signs given make a very
interesting mix of interpretations.
THE
FINGER - A folktale from 16th century Palestine -retold by Howard Schwartz
- This amusing tale of mystery and fantasy illustrates Jewish law and justice.
THE TAILORS ' PRAYER - REBBE LEVI-YITSROK OF BERDITCHEV
TEARS OF REPENTANCE - As told by Rabbi Steven Rosman, a Yom Kippur
story.
FIND
THE PLACE, LIGHT THE FIRE, TELL THE STORY - A Baal Shem Tov story - When
the Jews are threatened with harm, four rabbis successively attempt to use the
same form of prayer to save them, though each has lost some aspect of it.
WHY DOES THE RABBI TELL STORIES ?- Rabbi Steven Rosman - A story about
a blacksmith and what he needs to make a fire glow. A parable.
HOW TO TELL A STORY - A folktale - Grandfather was lame and blind and
old, but just ask him to tell a story.
LAUGHTER
- A myth - When the world was new, laughter completed it.
THE SPARK OF IMMORTALITY - A myth - Where God decides to hide this
spark taken away from humans where they won't find it.
STORIES FROM CHELM - A fantasy town of child-like people who take
everything literally and whose foolish actions and reactions create laughable
situations.
THE
MOST PRECIOUS THING OF ALL - A folktale of a woman's devotion and wisdom.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD
GAM ZE YAAVOR - This too will pass away.
CHALLAHS IN THE ARK - A folktale as told by Sid Lieberman.
MIDRASHIC TALES –
DEBRA,
WOMAN OF LIGHT
MOTHER SARAH
WHY DID GOD CHOOSE MOSES?
Literary Tales
ALL BECAUSE OF 40 CENTS - BY MOISHE NADIR - A philosophy of why we fast
on Yom Kippur as well as the story of a strike in the town of Roosevelt and how
one person views it in Moishe Nadir's cynical, hilariously funny, rendition.
IF NOT HIGHER - BY I.L. PERETZ - A much-loved story by one of the great
writers of the Yiddish language. A Hasidic tale told through the eyes of a
Litvak. Perhaps man's concern about his fellow creature may be "even higher"
than his concern about GOD.
JOHNNY
LINGO'S EIGHT-COW WIFE - by Patricia McGerr - Many things can change a
woman, things from the inside, things from the outside. But the thing that
matters most is what she thinks about herself.
AND MUCH, MUCH MORE - - -
The photographs contained here are of family, friends,
classmates, and neighbors from the shtetl in Belarus.
All the above perished in the Holocaust.
ZISL'S
HANNUKA LAMP 
PREPARING
FOR PESACH 
LEAVING
FOR AMERICA
I'M
FROM NEW HAVEN - An unusual tale of an unusual woman that took place on a
train going from New Haven to New York. A continuation of the story above. 
FROM
NEW YORK WITH LOVE - How the need to participate in the healing ritual of
sitting shiva with relatives living very far away develops into a bittersweet
incident that creates both laughter and tears. 
JERUSALEM
-MY MOTHER'S DREAM - A tender story of love, disillusion and the influence
of one person's sincerely held ideas on an entire family 
FOOD
IS MORE THAN EATING - How are traditions transmitted from generation to
generation? Surely food is one of the important symbols, but is food enough?
Smile at some of the answers, and learn a great deal about how life used to be.
ALL
IN A DAYS WORK - How I got into the garment industry, became the senior
designer, and what I had to do to stay in that lofty position. The story deals
with dyslexia, characteristic garment industry antics, and the man who made me,
my boss Morris. You laugh a lot!
UN
DO MINE AYNICL - The story of my last day before leaving for America and my
grandfather's last words whispered lovingly into my ear. 
