Reuven Goldfarb
poet; essayist; fiction writer; storyteller; literary, social, and cultural critic; journalist; editor; teacher; and spiritual counselor.
Residence
Keren HaYesod 128, Artists Quarter, Tzfat 13202, Israel
Email: poetsprogress@gmail.com
Local phone: 04-697-4105
Cell phone: 058-414-0266
Int’l phone: 510-542-8350
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reuven-goldfarb-74a74344/
Education
Arad Arts Project, WUJS Institute, Arad, Israel (1999-2000); Received ordination from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi as Morenu, Maggid, and Rabbinic Deputy (1993); Pardes Institute, Jerusalem (Summer 1990); Hartman Institute (Summer, 1979); Master’s Program in Creative Writing, Syracuse University, earned 21 credits (1965-67); A.B., Lafayette College, Honors in English (1965); James Madison High School, Brooklyn, NY (1958-61); Andries Hudde Junior High School (1956-58); East Midwood Jewish Center, Brooklyn, NY (1955-58); Ahavat Israel, Brooklyn, NY (1954-55); P.S. 193, Brooklyn, NY (1950-56).
Teaching
Creator and teacher of courses Poetry Immersion and Short Story Intensive at Bayt Maor HaLev in Tzfat, 2009-2012; Adjunct Professor of English at Merritt College, 1989-1997; Melamed at six different Hebrew schools in the SF Bay Area; class teacher, workshop leader, and facilitator at Aleph Kallah, Ruach HaAretz, and Joys of Jewishing.
Literary work
Proofreader and Copy Editor for Master of the Ladder, a biography of Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag by Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Gottlieb, translated and edited by Yedidah Cohen (Safed: Nehora Press [in preparation]).
Co-editor (with Rabbi Joseph Schonwald) of What Do We Know? The Carlebach Anthology (Jerusalem: Zimrani Press, 2017).
Editorial Board member for Voices Israel 2016 & 2017: Poetry from Israel & Abroad.
Proofreader and Copy Editor for A Tapestry for the Soul: The Introduction to the Zohar by Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag, compiled by Yedidah Cohen (Safed: Nehora Press, 2010).
Author of California Israelite: New and Old Poems (AGADA Books, 2009).
Author of Random Access Memory: Narratives (AGADA Books, 2009).
Author of Trains of Thought: Essays, Articles, & Features (AGADA Books, 2008).
Editor of I Knock at Every Door, poems by Dan Trupin (AGADA Books, 1995).
One of three judges of The Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards (Berkeley: Judah L. Magnes Museum, early ’90s).
Co-founder and publisher/editor of AGADA, the illustrated Jewish literary magazine (1981-88).
Co-editor of First Edition, Poems by Ellen Margaret Clark (San Francisco: 1981).
Author of poetry chapbooks, Leather (1970), “To be a Jew…” (1977), and Fourteen Sonnets (1978).
Contributor to literary magazines: The Madisonian, The Marquis, Agada, Galley Sail Review, Oxygen, Exquisite Corpse, The Robert Frost Review, Spitball, The Neo-Victorian/Cochlea, Poetica, The Healing Muse, Natural Bridge, Arch and Quiver, The Deronda Review, Blueline, Letterhead, arc-23 and arc-25, and The San Pedro River Review.
Anthologies: The Fine Arts Society Poetry Yearbook, 1964 & 1965 (Lafayette College); Syracuse Voices (1965); Children of the Dawn: Visions of the New Family (1986); Worlds of Jewish Prayer: A Festschrift in Honor of Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi (1993) ; Chester H. Jones Foundation National Poetry Competition (1998); Ancient Roots, Radical Practices, and Contemporary Vision: The 25th Anniversary Festschrift of the Aquarian Minyan; View from the Seventh Floor: Arad Arts Project (2000); Voices Israel (several times) ; and What is Jewish About America’s “Favorite Pastime”? – Essays and Sermons on Jews, Judaism and Baseball, edited by Marc Lee Raphael and Judith Z. Abrams and published by The College of William and Mary Press, 2006 (includes a revised and expanded version of my 1990 essay, “Baseball Kabbalah,” selections from which are also featured on three of the web sites mentioned below; Before There is Nowhere to Stand: Palestine / Israel: Poets Respond to the Struggle (Sand Point, ID: Lost Horse Press, 2012).
Other periodicals: Voice of the Trees, New Menorah, Tikkun, Pumbedissa, Kol Chevra; newspapers: Lafayette College student weekly, Good Times, The Northern California Jewish Bulletin, The Montclarion, The National Jewish Post and Opinion, The Jewish Star, The Jerusalem Post, and The Jerusalem Report.
Newsletters: Kaliflower, The Aquarian Minyan Nitzotzot, The Berkeley-Richmond JCC Monthly, The Bay Area Jewish Newsletter, Kol Yakov (Congregation Beth Jacob, Oakland, CA), Or HaDor (Network of Jewish Renewal Communities), Good News (of Moshav Meor Modi’im), and Voices Israel.
Websites: Havurah Shir Hadash, Ascent of Safed, Torah Circle, The Shalom Center, Pam Frydman, Haiku Journal, and Reuven Goldfarb.
Other internet sites: Reuven Goldfarb – YouTube & soundcloud.com/reuven-goldfarb.
Awards
The MacKnight Black Poetry Award (Lafayette College, 1965); Best Poem of the Month: Song-of-the-Siren, a now-defunct website (mid-90s); Commendation Award from the Chester H. Jones Foundation National Poetry Competition (1998); First Prize, most outstanding poem on Spirituality, Poetica Magazine (2004); Third Place, the Reuben Rose Poetry Competition 2007; Gemini Magazine, Notable Story (2012).
Featured reader
Saul’s Delicatessen, the BR/JCC, and Cody’s Books, Berkeley; T’mol Shilshom, Jerusalem; Auerbach Café Gallery, Beirav Shul, and Mystic Mountain, Tzfat; Voices Israel Anthology, Beit Daniel, Tel Aviv; arc-23 and arc-25, annual issue launches, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem; ALEPH Kallah Cabaret and similar platforms in Berkeley (1993); Fort Collins (1995); Corvallis, OR (1999); DeKalb, IL (2001); Bellingham, WA (2003); Johnstown, PA (2005); Albuquerque, NM (2007); Columbus, OH (2009); Redlands, CA (2011); Rindge, NH (2013); and Fort Collins, CO (2016).
Posted in: About Reuven.
Last Modified: March 18, 2018