A special event with author, Elayne Klasson

The Shir Hadash Sisterhood will sponsor a discussion with Elayne Klasson, former and founding member of Shir Hadash, and author of Love is a Rebellious Bird.  Read the book on your own time and then join us for a Q&A session tonight. 

This tale of a sixty-year love affair examines the age-old question of why we love the people we do. A beautiful, charismatic and wildly successful man is adored by a woman. Even as children, growing up together in Chicago’s Jewish Northside neighborhoods, he held the power. Never married to each other, but bound throughout their lives by tragedy and friendship, he defined the terms of their relationship, until finally, in old age, the power shifts. Looking at the roles of Beauty, Insanity, Magic, Deceit, Consolation, Sensory Fulfillment and, finally, Being Seen, Judith Sherman explores why she loved Elliot Pine—a relationship that impinged on every other in her life. Through marriages to others, children, moves to opposite coasts, Judith sees how the pattern established in sixth grade was one that persisted their whole lives: a relationship that was a cocktail mix of rivalry and loyalty—shaken with a strong dose of resentment and passion.

To purchase the book in advance of our discussion, and to learn more about Elayne Klasson, please go to her website.

Author Elayne Klasson has never done anything just halfway: from a career of scholastic achievements, contributions to society and bold moves, to her rise as a writer to successful newspaper columnist. A debut novelist at 72, Elayne is receiving critical praise for Love is a Rebellious Bird, her novel examining why we love the people we do.  

Elayne grew up in Chicago. She went to university and graduate school in the Midwest—Ohio State University and the University of Michigan—where she earned a Masters of Public Health and a PhD in Psychology. For several years she lived in Barbados, West Indies, working as a health care consultant with the Pan American Health Organization; then returning as a writer and columnist for the Barbados Daily Nation. Her professional career has largely been in academia at San Jose State University, with her research and clinical area of expertise being the severely mentally ill. Elayne has appeared on San Francisco public television as a restaurant critic and been awarded several writer’s residencies, including Hedgebrook Writers' Colony on Whidbey Island, Washington and Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, California.

A recent transplant to the Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara, California, she is a popular lifestyle newspaper columnist there.

ABOUT WOMEN OF SHIR HADASH SISTERHOOD

Women of Shir Hadash Sisterhood is an organization of women who come together to promote friendship, education, spiritual growth, and social action through programs and activities that enrich our congregation and the community. 

LEARN MORE 

For information about Sisterhood, contact Julia Sandelman at: board-sisterhood@shirhadash.org