Bio Batya Podos
A retired middle school drama teacher, Batya Podos is now an ordained maggid, bringing Jewish stories to life in the classroom, shul and community as Director of Nahalat Shalom’s Education Program. She was co-mother of Abraham’s Tent--an interfaith summer camp for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim children, and continues her commitment to interfaith work. She worked as Faculty for the Jewish Spiritual Education program, and now she is one of the directors of NewCAJE’s RISE Storytelling Initiative which trains storyteller-educators. With over forty years’ experience as a storyteller, educator, writer and performer, she is the director of the NM Jewish Storytelling Festival. In her spare time, she works on novels for young people and watches The Great British Baking Show. Her first novel, Rebecca and the Talisman of Time, was published in November 2013 by Portal Center Press and was nominated for the Oregon Spirit Book Award. She has completed her second, B’one Deep, a Jewish-themed science fiction and is currently looking for an agent.