Merle Feld

{{Infobox writer

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1947|10|18}}

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York City, US

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| occupation = {{flatlist|

Writer
poet
educator
activist

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| period = 1980s–present

| genre = memoir, poetry, plays

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| notableworks = A Spiritual Life, The Gates Are Closing, "We All Stood Together"

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| website = {{Official URL}}

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Merle Feld (born October 18, 1947) is an educator, activist, author, playwright, and poet.{{cite web|url=http://zeek.forward.com/articles/117210/|title=ZEEK: Articles: Merle Feld Finds Her Words|work=forward.com}}{{cite book|author1=Ellen M. Umansky|author2=Dianne Ashton|title=Four Centuries of Jewish Women's Spirituality: A Sourcebook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iF7ZUBDdXTQC&pg=PA277|date=1 January 2009|publisher=UPNE|isbn=978-1-58465-730-9|page=277}}

Biography

Merle Feld was born on October 18, 1947, in Brooklyn. In 1968, she graduated from Brooklyn College and moved to Boston, where she became involved with the newly founded Havurat Shalom, the community "often considered a flagship of the havurah movement."{{cite web|url=http://www.jta.org/2014/08/04/news-opinion/united-states/countercultural-spirit-lives-on-at-iconic-1960s-havurah|title=JTA: Countercultural Spirit Lives on at Iconic 1960s Havurah|work=jta.org|date=August 4, 2014 }} She began writing her first play, The Opening, in 1981, and in 1983 began work on her second, The Gates Are Closing.{{cite book|author1=Sarah Blacher Cohen|title=Making a Scene: The Contemporary Drama of American-Jewish Women|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J1_xAbmMG-8C&pg=PA332|date=1 April 1997|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0815604044|page=331}} This play is often read in synagogues in preparation for the High Holidays. In 1984, she joined B'not Esh, a Jewish feminist community, and early on, during one of their annual retreats, shared her first poems.{{cite journal|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/bridges_a_jewish_feminists_journal/summary/v016/16.1.brettschneider.html|title=Bridges: A Jewish Feminists Journal Vol 16.1: A Congenial Anarchy: An Affirmation of Jewish Feminist Space|journal=Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal|year=2011 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=176–181 |last1=Brettschneider |first1=Marla |last2=Pegueros |first2=Rosa Maria }}{{cite book|author1=Merle Feld|title=A Spiritual Life: Exploring the Heart and Jewish Tradition|date=9 August 2007|publisher=SUNY|isbn=978-0791471883|pages=284–286}}

In 1989, she went to Israel for a sabbatical, where she facilitated an all-female Israeli-Palestinian dialogue group on the West Bank, and demonstrated with Women in Black.{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/thisweek/apr/01/1999/merle-feld|title=Publication of Merle Feld's "A Spiritual Life: A Jewish Feminist Journey"|work=jwa.org}} This part of her life was the basis of her third play, Across the Jordan, which was included as part of the first anthology of female Jewish playwrights, Making a Scene (Syracuse University Press, 1997).{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/feminism/feld-merle|title=Merle Feld|work=jwa.org}}

In 1999, she published a memoir, A Spiritual Life: A Jewish Feminist Journey, which has been translated into Russian and published in the former Soviet Union. A revised edition was published in 2007 as A Spiritual Life: Exploring the Heart and the Jewish Tradition.

In 2000, she was named a "Woman Who Dared" by the Jewish Women's Archive for her peace activism.

In 2005, she became the founding director of the Albin Rabbinic Writing Institute, mentoring rabbinical students and recently ordained rabbis across the denominations.

In 2011, she published a collection of poems, Finding Words. In 2023, she published Longing: Poems of a Life with CCAR Press.{{cite book |last1=Feld |first1=Merle |title=Longing: Poems of a Life |date=2023 |publisher=CCAR Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-88123-626-2 |url=https://www.ccarpress.org/shopping_product_detail.asp?pid=50584}}

The poem “Let my people go that we may serve You”, by Feld, was commissioned by the Women's Rabbinic Network in honor of Sally Priesand.{{Cite web|url=https://ravblog.ccarnet.org/2023/02/let-my-people-go-that-we-may-serve-you-a-poem-in-honor-of-rabbi-sally-j-priesand/|title='Let my people go that we may serve You': A Poem in Honor of Rabbi Sally J. Priesand|first=Merle|last=Feld|date=February 13, 2023|website=RavBlog: Central Conference of American Rabbis}}

She is married to Rabbi Edward Feld, and the two have a daughter, Lisa, and a son, Uri.{{cite web|title=Ed Feld, JTS website|url=http://www.jtsa.edu/Conservative_Judaism/JTS_Torah_Commentary/Rabbi_Ed_Feld.xml|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328211227/http://jtsa.edu/Conservative_Judaism/JTS_Torah_Commentary/Rabbi_Ed_Feld.xml|archivedate=March 28, 2014|df=mdy-all}}