Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices Continues to Tap Into Community’s Creativity

LA JOLLA, California — The 15th season of Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices continues on Tuesday evening, January 17, at 7 p.m., featuring three Jewish poets from our community, Roberto Nejmias, Julie Potiker, and Lisa Schwartz. Register here: https://my.lfjcc.org/12680/12681

Nejmias writes in Spanish and his sister, Sara Artenstein, will be reading the English translations. He has written over 50 poems. A native of Chihuahua, Mexico, he was educated in Tijuana, where he ran a tourist shop on Avenida Revolucion. He is a great-grandfather.

Potiker, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, is the creator of the “Mindful Methods for Life” program, which she teaches in person and on Zoom. Her Zoom classes for congregants of Congregation Beth Israel always integrate poetry, many written by her. Her recently published book, “SNAP! From Chaos to Calm,” contains her poems.

Schwartz, from Newtown, Connecticut, was the poetry editor of her hometown literary magazine, “The Newtowner,” and served for five years at Poet Laureate of Newtown before coming to San Diego County.

Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices’ first program took place in the Fall of 2008 under the Lawrence Family JCC’s Cultural Arts Director at the time, Jackie Gmach. The format was an hour featuring three local poets followed by half an hour of open mic. Joy Heitzmann was moderator and I was chair of the planning committee; Joy and I are still in those roles in the 15th season. Among the past featured poets are prize-winning Russian-born, Ilya Kaminsky, on the English faculty at Princeton University; Rattle Chapbook Prize winner, Michael Mark; and prolific columnist and poet, Natasha Josefowitz.

Soon, one evening became dedicated to student poets Two members of the Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices Committee, published poet and educator, Janice Alper, and new member, Lisa Schwartz, are offering free poetry workshops for Jewish day schools and religious schools in San Diego to help recruit for the Student Showcase to be held on Tuesday evening, March 14.

Schwartz was contacted after her poetry appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune. She replied, “I’ve been looking for a community of poets since I arrived here in August 2020. It sounds like your program would be a great place to start.”

In 2014, with the support of the JCC’s Director of Literary Arts and Educational Resources, Marcia Wollner, Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices initiated a fourth program: Jewish Poets of the Past. Jewish educator, Gabriella Labson, spearheaded the first evening, featuring the poetry of Haim Nachman Bialik. Since then, Poets of the Past has presented Jewish poetry written in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and English. This season’s Poets of the Past program will feature Italian-Jewish Holocaust survivor, Primo Levi, and Yiddish poet, Bertha Kling. It will take place Tuesday, May 27.

Many of the poems were set to music and local singers, such as Elisheva Edelson, Myla Wingard, and the Ohr Shalom Choir. Rabbi Martin Lawson, rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanuel, has presented the biographies of the various poets. Readers are drawn from the community.

Jewish Poets-Jewish Voices receives strong support from JCC’s Senior & Adult Programs Director, Melanie Rubin and the Director of the Center for Jewish Culture, Ryan Isaac.