Peninnah Schram | |
|---|---|
| Born | Peninnah Pearl Manchester December 28, 1934 New London, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
Peninnah Schram (born December 28, 1934) [1] is an American academic, author, and folklorist focused on Jewish storytelling.
Schram was born and raised in New London, Connecticut. She was the second child of Samuel E. Manchester (1878-1970), a Lithuanian-American cantor and composer, and Dora (nee Markman, d. 1978), a Belarusian-American Yiddish enthusiast and entrepreneur. [1] [2] [3] Growing up, both of her parents frequently told her stories. [3] She attended The Williams School in New London. [4]
She earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Connecticut (graduated 1956), and went on to obtain a master's degree at Columbia University in 1968. [1] [5]
In 1964, [1] Schram and one of her friends founded Theatre à la Carte, which put on plays in New York. She two began working with the Jewish Heritage Theatre at the 92nd Street Y in 1966, where they wrote musical plays for children. [3]
Schram began teaching at Iona College in 1967. [3] After two years, she began working at Stern College for Women in their speech and drama department. [3] [5]
Schram became interested in Jewish storytelling in 1970, after working with the Jewish Braille Institute to record books for the blind. [3] In 1974, Schram taught a class on Jewish storytelling for the first time; [3] the class was the first American college course to focused on the subject. [5] That same year, she became "storyteller-in-residence" at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan, recorded three albums, and headed two radio series on storytelling. [3] During her time at Stern, Schram organized three Jewish Storytelling Festivals. [5] She later founded the Jewish Storytelling Center. [3]
Schram retired from teaching in 2015, [3] and remains professor emerita of speech and drama at Yeshiva University. [5]
In 1958, Schram met and married Irving Schram. The couple moved to Paris in 1960, and visited Israel for the first time in 1961. [1] They had two children: Rebecca (b. 1963) and Mordechai (b. 1965). [1] Irving died in 1967 of a heart attack. [1] [6] Schram remarried in 1974. [1]
In 1995, Schram received the Covenant Award for Outstanding Jewish Educator. [3] That same year, she received the National Jewish Book Award for Jewish folklore and anthropology for her book Chosen Tales: Stories Told by Jewish Storytellers. [5] [7] In 2003, the received the National Storytelling Network's Lifetime Achievement Award. [5]
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
