Unpacking the Book: Confronting Conformity
The Jewish Museum
1109 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10128
Copresented by Jewish Book Council, The Jewish Museum, Tablet Magazine, and Lilith Magazine
Find a video of this program here.
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Hear authors Abby Chava Stein and Goldie Goldbloom in a conversation with Stephanie Butnick, Tablet Magazine
Tickets: Free; Advance RSVP Required
Reception to follow, celebrating Abby Chava Stein, Goldie Goldbloom, and the winter issue of Lilith magazine — independent, Jewish & frankly feminist
In ultra-Orthodox, Hasidic communities, maintaining norms to protect a family’s reputation or status is often of high importance, leaving little room for questioning or individual differences. Join authors Abby Chava Stein (Becoming Eve), and Goldie Goldbloom (On Division) for a conversation with Tablet Magazine’s Stephanie Butnick that will explore what happens to community members who don’t quite fit in. In a memoir and a novel, respectively, the authors describe the struggle to keep secrets, and the impact of being true to oneself even when that means defying family and friends.
Admission to the event is free, and includes an opportunity to visit the Jewish Museum’s galleries on the day of the program. Advance RSVP is required; however, early arrival is suggested as space is limited, and entry is not guaranteed.
Goldie Goldbloom’s first novel, The Paperbark Shoe, won the AWP Prize and is an NEA Big Reads selection. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards, including fellowships from Warren Wilson, Northwestern University, the Brown Foundation, the City of Chicago and the Elizabeth George Foundation. She is chassidic and the mother of eight children.
Abby Chava Stein is the tenth-generation descendant of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement. In 2015, Stein came out as a woman, and she now works as a trans activist. In 2019, she served on the steering committee for the Women’s March in Washington, DC, and she was named by the Jewish Week as one of the “36 Under 36” Jews who are affecting change in the world. She lives in New York City.
Stephanie Butnick is deputy editor of Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast. She is the author, along with her co-hosts, of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia: From Abraham to Zabar’s and Everything in Between. She has written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Copresented by Jewish Book Council, The Jewish Museum, Tablet Magazine and Lilith Magazine.