Share a Story - Change the World
-
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff
- 37, Female
- Reisterstown, Maryland
- United States
- Share
- Blog Posts (4)
- Discussions (2)
- Events
- Groups (4)
- Photos (2)
- Photo Albums
- Videos
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff's Discussions
Dealing With Disappointing Response
Replied Mar. 13, 2008
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff's Groups
-
Applied Storytelling: ...
174 members
-
Jewish Storytelling
21 members
-
Coaching Storytellers
50 members
-
In the Fishbowl... wit...
44 members
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff's page
Profile Information
- About Me:
- I am a professional storyteller based in Baltimore, Maryland. I tell stories mostly in the Jewish community, for adults, teens and children. I co-teach an Oral History and the Holocaust class at Goucher College, coaching students individually in their performance pieces about their experience interviewing a Holocaust survivor. I am a certified teacher of InterPlay, a creative process for personal and community transformation which is rooted in storytelling, movement, song and stillness. I love to tell stories to my three-year-old daughter who always has a story of her own to share!
OFFICIAL BIO...
When storyteller Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff performs, biblical figures speak,
rabbinic Midrash leaps off the pages of the Talmud, and Judaism’s rich folklore
dances to life. And Jennifer’s contemporary stories challenge her listeners to respond
to the issues confronting the Jewish community today. She uses storytelling as an educational tool to inspire children and adults to explore Judaism and their
spirituality. Jennifer is a performer, teacher and coach.
Jennifer performs as a storyteller at Beth Israel Congregation, Chizuk
Amuno Congregation, Beth Tfiloh Congregation, Beth Am Synagogue and many other synagogues in the Baltimore area. Since 1999 she has performed in synagogues throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C. and has performed and facilitated staff workshops at schools and camps. Her performances include stories of biblical women, her own versions of ancient folktales, and stories about modern Jewish history and Jewish leaders.
During the 2007 Baltimore Playwrights Festival, Jennifer received excellent reviews for her performance of Dorothy, the lead role in Almost Vermilion, a play about life in rural West Virginia in the 1950s. Later in 2007, Jennifer also performed this part and two others roles at the Kennedy Center’s “Page to Stage” Festival.
As much as Jennifer enjoys performing, she loves teaching and coaching new storytellers. For the past four years she has co-taught the “Oral History of the Holocaust” course at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. She facilitates weekly storytelling workshops and individually coaches her students throughout the semester as they prepare for their performances.
Jennifer coaches students, teachers, school principals, and librarians, teaching them to use their intuition to turn their mental images into powerful stories. She uses her training as a certified InterPlay teacher to help her students trust in the story they are meant to tell. InterPlay is an active, creative way to unlock the wisdom of the body. InterPlay is a creative process for personal and community transformation. Through powerful, practical ideas and a system of practices rooted in storytelling, movement, song, and stillness, participants gain access to their own “body wisdom” – what gives them purpose and makes them fully alive. Jennifer leads InterPlay training sessions for teachers, camp staff members, and community leaders.
Jennifer began using storytelling to help students learn and perform stories of Holocaust survivors back in 2002 when she participated in the first “Compassionate Listening for Jewish-German Reconciliation” project, traveling to Germany with 14 other Jewish Americans to share stories with German participants. Since her return from Germany, Jennifer has shared “And We Listened,” the story of her experience, with adult and teen audiences.
After September 11, 2001, Jennifer interviewed Muslim-American children, college students, professors, and imams about their experiences in America before and after the terrorist attacks. She has performed her program “Isaac and Ishmael, Jews and Muslims: Are We Our Brother’s Keeper?” for synagogues, middle schools, high schools, and colleges.
In May 2003, Jennifer served as the keynote speaker as she performed another original piece, “Remembering our Dance,” for the annual meeting of the Women’s Department of the Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore.
The following summer Jennifer presented her workshop, “Teachers Telling Tales” at the National Storytelling Network’s conference in Chicago.
In May 2004, Jennifer performed original family stories as the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the United Jewish Fund and Council of St. Paul’s Women’s Division.
Jennifer has taught several storytelling workshops for the Center for Jewish Education in Baltimore, teaching Jewish educators about the benefits of storytelling and how to use storytelling in their classrooms. She has performed at the annual conference of the National Alliance of American Jewish Youth Workers and at the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education Conference.
Jennifer served as a keynote speaker at the Baltimore Girl’s Project annual conference in December 2000. She created and performed “Emily,” a dramatic performance for pre-teens and parents about a teenage girl struggling with body image, popularity, and self-esteem. “The Answer is in Your Hands” program is another of Jennifer’s programs that deal with the issues of peer pressure and rejection in a Jewish context.
Jennifer loves to bring to life the women of Torah through her first-person stories of Sarah, Rachel, Miriam, Ruth, Esther, and others. She also tells family stories and stories about her experiences in Israel, as well as Jewish folktales.
From the fall of 1998 through the spring of 1999, Jennifer toured the western United States, telling stories in Jewish communities in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado. A Baltimore native, Jennifer began her storytelling career in 1994 while living in St. Paul, Minnesota.
- Website:
- http://www.jenniferstories.com
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff's Photos
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff's Blog
From the beginning... the gift of story
Today, I told stories to children at a synagogue in Washington, DC. The annual cycle of the Torah has begun again, and I told stories from Bereshit, the beginning. How many times have these children learned about the seven days of creation? Every year, they study this story in religious school. Yet, they are still interested. They do not tire of hearing that G-d said, "Let there be light" and that there was light. They want to hear again how the plants were brought to life, how the sun and the m… Continue
Posted on October 26, 2008 at 9:00pm — 4 Comments
intuition in storytelling teaching
I have not written for a long time, but I thought I would mention the importance of intuition in storytelling and storytelling teaching. Yesterday, I was working with the college students in the "Oral History of the Holocaust" class I co-teach. The students were sharing their stories with partners, still unsure where their performance pieces were headed. I had an intuition that they needed to share an image from their story with the entire class. So we sat in a circle and each student presented… Continue
Posted on October 24, 2008 at 10:52am — 2 Comments
Even though I have a bug...
Wow! Whatever has been going around has decided to bite me too. I am exhausted, I ache all over, and my cough makes me sound a bit frightening. But the advantages: my husband took our daughter to preschool, my father picked her up and I get to stay in my pajamas all day!
I spent two hours e-mailing with storytelling contacts, mostly about summer jobs. Once one of the camp directors discovered that I tell stories of women in the Torah, she asked me about telling some of these stories for an adul… Continue
I spent two hours e-mailing with storytelling contacts, mostly about summer jobs. Once one of the camp directors discovered that I tell stories of women in the Torah, she asked me about telling some of these stories for an adul… Continue
Posted on March 19, 2008 at 4:01pm —
Learning Each Day
I am inspired by the "Five Things I Did for my Storytelling Today" idea Buck and so many others are using. If every few days I can add even one thing, that will be a start. Something exciting... I am taking an on-line Hebrew class. As a Jewish storyteller and Jewish educator, I would like to be able to have at least some basic conversational skills in Hebrew. I can read Hebrew phonetically and I know a lot of vocabulary, but I cannot really speak the language. Tonight I began taking a weekly cla… Continue
Posted on March 12, 2008 at 10:51pm — 3 Comments
About
Badge
© 2009 Created by Dianne de Las Casas, Author, Award-Winning Storyteller on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
Comment Wall (37 comments)
You need to be a member of Professional Storyteller to add comments!
Join this Ning Network
I tried posting a comment on your blog, but it wouldn't upload. I wanted to say that as a "second generation kid," I wish I could take your classes. You sound like a wonderful teacher and mentor.
Kind regards,
Reisa Stone
Diane moved to Florida a couple of months ago, so Barbara Woody is the best point of contact for 4th @ 4 now. I'm telling for adults at Tellabration this year, but my family, including my 7-yr old granddaughter-in-training (another story) will be there for the kids tales. This year the theme is 'Green', so I'm taking a break from my usual Jewish repertoire to tell the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. If I like the way it plays, I might adapt it to fit Sir Bovo for future tellings (why is this knight different from all other knights?).
I'll check my calendar for December dates when we might get together.
Abi gezint,
Marc
Whew! Just Simchas Torah to go and we can catch a breath 'til Hanukah.
Have you ever been to a gathering of the Fourth at Four group? We meet the Fourth Sunday of every month from 4-6 PM right off Dulaney Valley Road for storytelling and a light nosh. We also stage the local Tellabration event in Towson on the Saturday night preceding Thanksgiving. I'll be at the October meeting, and also performing at Tellabration, and I'd be delighted to have you join us for either or both. If not, let's definitely arrange to meet elsewhere to compare notes. L'hitraot, --- marc
Katye :)
Don
gantsehmegillah@gmail.com
I have not managed to firm up Baltimore yet but I hope to in the fall I am off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival I perform there every year.
View All Comments