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Dr. Ellen Frankel will deliver the opening keynote address during lunch on Monday, June 27, at the Association of Jewish Libraries Conference 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Frankel will share a brief history of how Jewish books in English made their way into the American publishing industry and marketplace, including the breaking down of antisemitic barriers among American presses, the creation of the Jewish Publication Society as the first general Jewish press, the proliferation of Jewish presses and books, American Jews’ invention of the paperback and the book club, and the state of Jewish publishing today.
Dr. Ellen Frankel served for eighteen years as the editor in chief and CEO of the Jewish Publication Society. She received her BA from the University of Michigan and her PhD in comparative literature from Princeton University.
She is the author of eleven books, among them The Classic Tales: 4000 Years of Jewish Lore, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols, The Five Books of Miriam, and The Jewish Spirit. She has also written three books for young people. Her JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible won the 2010 National Jewish Book Award.
Frankel travels widely as a storyteller, lecturer, and scholar-in-residence.
She has written librettos for several chamber pieces with various composers, including "The Golem Psalms," “Ruth,” “Hagar,” "The Esther Diaries," and "Mothers of Moses." Her opera Slaying the Dragon, with music by Michael Ching, premiered in Philadelphia in 2012. Her second opera, The Triangle Fire, premiered in New York in 2017. Her oratorio, Beyond the Binary, with Andrea Clearfield, will premiere in Philadelphia in May 2022.
Frankel is currently at work on a mystery series featuring Israeli intelligence agent Maya Rimon. The first two books, The Deadly Scrolls and The Hyena Murders, are due out in May and November 2022.
Frankel lives in Sarasota and Maine with her husband, Herb Levine.
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