Marcia Falk
Marcia Falk is a poet, translator, and liturgist whose knowledge of the Bible and of Hebrew and English literature informs the feminist spiritual vision of her work. She is widely considered one of the foremothers of, and foremost contributors to, the Jewish feminist movement. An exhibited artist who brings a sense of visual imagery and balance to her writing, she has produced a series of pastels to accompany passages from her books. She is the author of two books of liturgy, two books of poetry translations from Hebrew and Yiddish, several editions of her translation of the Song of Songs, three collections of her own poetry, and one book pairing her blessings and poems with her paintings. Originally from New York, Falk lives in Berkeley, California.
Personal Life and Education
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Biblical Scholarship
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Liturgy
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Poetry Translations
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Poetry and Paintings
Falk’s own vision, characterized by clarity and quietude, shines forth in her poems, which have appeared in the American Poetry Review, Choice, Moment, Poet & Critic, Poetry Society of America Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Women’s Review of Books, Zyzzyva, Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2018), Her Face in the Mirror: Jewish Women on Mothers and Daughters (Beacon Press, 1994), September 11, 2001: American Writers Respond (Etruscan Press, 2002), Voices Within the Ark: The Modern Jewish Poets (Avon Books, 1980), and many other magazines and anthologies. Her poems—which can also be found in her collections It is July in Virginia: A Poem Sequence (1985), This Year in Jerusalem (1986), and My Son Likes Weather (2006)—are highly visual and evoke the beauty, mood, and sacred essence of place. Above all, like Falk’s blessings, they remind us that we must open our eyes, ears, hearts, and minds to let the ineffable enter our lives.
As a painter, Falk has created her own art form based on the traditional decorative Jewish plaques called mizrachs, which are hung on the eastern walls of homes and synagogues to indicate the direction to face during prayer. In Western countries one faces east during prayer, the direction of Jerusalem. Falk’s new mizrachs pair her paintings with her poems and blessings to inspire viewers to enter a contemplative, prayerful state, i.e., to find the “inner east” within themselves. In 2018, she published Inner East: Illuminated Poems and Blessings, which contains painting/poem and painting/blessing pairs, such as those in her mizrachs. This is the first book in which Falk’s paintings have appeared.
Selected Works by Marcia Falk
Inner East: Illuminated Poems and Blessings. Oak & Acorn Press. Berkeley: 2018.
The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival. With a New Preface by the Author and New Afterword by Rabbi David Ellenson, Rabbi Naamah Kelman, and Rabbi Dalia Marx. CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis) Press. New York: 2017.
The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season. Brandeis University Press. Waltham: 2014.
My Son Likes Weather. Oak & Acorn Press. Berkeley: 2006.
The Song of Song: Love Lyrics from the Bible. Brandeis University Press. Waltham: 2004.
The Spectacular Difference: Selected Poems of Zelda. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes. Hebrew Union College Press. Cincinnati: 2004.
The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival. HarperCollins. San Francisco: 1996.
With Teeth in the Earth: Selected Poems of Malka Heifetz Tussman. Translated, edited, and introduced. Wayne State University Press. Detroit: 1992.
The Song of Songs: A New Translation and Interpretation (includes commentary). HarperCollins. San Francisco: 1990.
This Year in Jerusalem. State Street Press. Brockport, New York: 1986.
It Is July in Virginia, A Poem Sequence. Rara Avis Press. Riverside, California: 1985.
The Song of Songs: Love Poems from the Bible. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. New York and London: 1977.
Alpert, Rebecca. “Can Prayer Be Revolutionary?” Tikkun, May-June 1998.
Beck, Mordechai. “Prayer as a Form of Art.” Jerusalem Post, December 17, 1999.
Crumm, David. “Bible’s Song of Songs Is Given Beauty, Elegance It Deserves.” Detroit Free Press, January 9, 1991.
Day, Lucille Lang. “Creation’s Blessing.” Poetry Flash, March 2020.
Day, Lucille Lang. “Reimagining the Sacred.” Poetry Flash, April/May 1998.
Day, Lucille. “In the Hidden Garden: Two Translations of the Song of Songs.” The Hudson Review 48.2 (1995): 259-269.
Day, Lucille. “With Teeth in the Earth: Selected Poems of Malka Heifetz Tussman. Translated, edited, and introduced by Marcia Falk.” Calyx 15.1 (1993): 105-107.
Dirda, Michael. “The Bible Tells Us So.” Washington Post, April 19, 1992.
Ellenson, David. “Marcia Falk’s The Book of Blessings: The Issue Is Theological.” CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis) Journal, Spring 2000, 18-23.
Exum, J. Cheryl. “Love Lyrics from the Bible.” Journal of Biblical Literature, December 1985.
Furstenberg, Rochelle. “An Uncommon Poet in Everyday Struggles.” Hadassah Magazine, May 2005.
Griffin, William. “The Song of Songs,” Publishers Weekly (starred review), February 1, 1991.
Groner, Rishe. “Prayer, Illuminated.” Lilith, Winter 2019–2020.
Hoffman, Lawrence. “Marcia Falk’s The Book of Blessings.” Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History, 19.1 (1999): 87-93.
Kirsch, Jonathan. “Falk Marries Her Poetry with Her Artwork.” Jewish Journal, May 22, 2019.
Kirsch, Jonathan. “A Poet’s Passionate Reflection in Prayer.” Jewish Journal, August 9, 2017.
Kushner, Aviva. “Legends of Zelda.” Literary Supplement of the Jerusalem Post, September 29, 2004.
Levine, Miriam. “A Little Place.” American Book Review, January 1994.
Lewis, Joel. “Tussman’s Life in Verse.” Forward, February 19, 1993.
Musleah, Rahel. “Herstory and the Jewish Tradition.” Publishers Weekly (starred review), April 12, 1993.
Meyers, Isaac. “A Poet’s Contradictory Properties.” Forward, March 25, 2005.
Niebuhr, Gustav. “Taking a Fresh Look at Sacred Texts,” New York Times, June 7, 1997.
Plaskow, Judith. “Traditions and Transformations.” Women’s Review of Books, January 1998.
Posner, Michael. “A Gender-Neutral Take on the Prayer Book.” The Globe and Mail, September 4, 1999.
“Forecasts: Religion. The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival.” Publishers Weekly (starred review), July 29, 1996.
Sasson, Jack. “Unlocking the Poetry of Love in the Song of Songs.” Bible Review, February 1985.
Schneider, Ada Jill. “Zelda’s Poetry, Marcia Falk’s Translation.” Midstream, May/June 2005.
Singer, Suzanne. “Review of Inner East: Illuminated Poems and Blessings by Marcia Falk,” CCAR Journal: The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Winter 2020.
Solomon, Alisa. “Whose Sh’ma?” Village Voice, April 2, 1996.
Teutsch, David; Alpert, Rebecca; Eisenstein, Ira; Falk, Marcia. “The Poet as Liturgist: Three Reactions and a Response.” The Reconstructionist, Spring-Fall 1997.
Whitman, Ruth. “Humanities: Language and Literature.” Choice, May 1993.
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