I forgot to do something before Pesach!!!

April 20, 2023beccakinla interview, jewish motherhood, Jewish writing Tags: new book 1 Comment

Shortly before Passover hit (I hope everyone had a good one) I had the pleasure of being interviewed by long-time colleague and friend, Merri Ukraincik. Her new Substack newsletter, Days of Rest, has been running for a couple months now, and she chose me as her first interviewee for an ongoing section called, “The Creative Pause.” Merri—who is, like me, an Orthodox Jew—wants to know how other frum artists negotiate the requires respite from creation on Shabbat. We talked about ideas which pop up on Shabbos, parenting as a creative, encorporating faith into our art, my favorite part of Shabbos, and a bit about my forthcoming picture book, How to Welcome an Alien. You can find the full newsletter, including Merri’s interview of me, here.

In other writing news:

-I’m scribbing and submitting, scribbling and submitting. I hope to have good news for you soon.

-ARCs—advance review copies—of How to Welcome an Alien are now going out. I got my first review and others are forthcoming. If you’ve got a child, student, nephew, niece, or the like who is 4 – 7 years old, you might want to preorder the book. You can do that on Amazon.

If you read the interview I link to above, I’d love to hear your thought in the comments. 🙂

Where have I been?

January 15, 2018September 16, 2019beccakinla Jewish, jewish motherhood, Jewish writing, news, Uncategorized, women, writing Tags: fiction, jewish, Klempner, literature, magazine, mikvah, mikveh, orthodox, rebecca, short story, the layers project, women 1 Comment

As usual, I have lots of good excuses for going missing on this blog. I completed my manuscript for NaNoWriMo, then immediately started work on some short stories…and THEN I started working on *another* novel, which I am hoping will hit the 50,000 word mark (G-d willing!) by the end of this week.

Many of my FB friends, family, and colleagues know I’ve been slowly shifting my writing away from venues which don’t include images of women or older girls. That means I’ve had to find new publications to publish my short stories, which used to appear primarily in Binah and Hamodia. Recently, I had a second piece appear on Hevria, and now I’m privileged to be the first fiction writer featured in the new women’s magazine, The Layers Project Magazine. My story featured there is entitled, “Taking the Plunge.”

One of the perks about this switch of venue is that I get to talk about all sorts of topics not usually covered in Haredi magazines. Even though a lot of my writing is for children, the two stories I link to above are for readers 16 years old and up.

While the piece on Hevria is free, to read the second story, you have to pay a subscription. The Layers Project Magazine would like to be able to pay its writers and staff, and so just like the print mags charge a fee for you to buy them, they are asking for a subscription. For a month, it’s $5.99 for unlimited access, and you get three free articles without subscribing. However, if you consider it’s a replacement for four issues of Binah or Mishpacha‘s Family First, or the like, it’s a cheaper option. (UPDATE: Accessing the story “Taking the Plunge” is now free!)

Visiting “Life in the Married Lane” today for Part 2 of the Orthodox Women Talk Roundtable

September 18, 2014beccakinla Jewish, jewish motherhood, parenting Tags: advice, jewish, mother, parenting Leave a comment

Last week, the Orthodox Women Talk Roundtable debuted at Keshet Starr’s blog, and this week Rivki Silver is hosting. On this week’s roundtable (you can find it here) we discuss preparing for and celebrating Shabbos when there are kiddos running around the home. I read lots of great insights from the bloggers included. Can’t wait to find out what the next question is! Anyone who wants to contribute a question — about life as an Orthodox woman, Jewish motherhood, or the like — can send it to Rivki through the “Contact Me” link on her blog.

Still need a daisy? 6 years of Raizy

May 21, 2014beccakinla A Dozen Daisies for Raizy, advice, art, art project, Jewish, jewish motherhood, Jewish writing, Judaism, klempner, kosher, preparing, recommended reading, shavuos, Shavuot, stories, students Tags: a dozen daisies for raizy, art, art project, book, class, creative jewish mom, daisies, flowers, har sinai, holiday, homeschool, idea, ideas, jewish, Jewish Mom, kveller, lesson, lesson plan, mt. sinai, parent, picture book, preschool, preschooler, project, raizy, school, shavuos, shavuot, teacher, tie-in Leave a comment

My picture book, A Dozen Daisies for Raizy, has now been out for six years. With Shavuos just around the corner, I know that parents and teachers will be teaching about the holiday –some using my book, some not — and I thought I’d provide a few links to help them. Continue reading →

New wacky Passover poetry

April 6, 2014April 8, 2014beccakinla advice, Jewish, jewish motherhood, Jewish writing, klempner, literature, passover, pesach, poetry Tags: chometz, jew, jewish, judaism, kooky, laugh, levity, limerick, Passover, passover cleaning, Pesach, pesach cleaning, poem, reading, share, silly, wacky Leave a comment

I’m not going to have much time to post in length before Pesach hits next week, but I’m going to try to share something small every day to make up for it.

So here’s your tiny morsel of Passover-related kookiness for today:

(throat-clearing)

You cleansed the windows of mud

And you scrubbed all the toys in your tub

But you still won’t be through

When Pesach is due

If you don’t clean chometz off the rug.

Free writing tip…don’t be afraid to write bad poetry. And if you’d like to share your own corny/hammy/couldn’t-hechsher-if-it-tried Pesach poetry, just add it in the comments.

March 10, 2013March 10, 2013beccakinla advice, children, funny, Jewish, jewish motherhood, Jewish writing, Judaism, kids, passover, pesach, songs, wacky 2 Comments

Pesach is just a couple weeks away! Here’s a post from three years ago, with wacky Pesach songs I created for our seder. I’ve long wanted to add another couple songs, perhaps for the story of the rabbis in Bnei Brak, but not sure I’ll get to it this year.

Do you have other songs or traditions that liven up your family’s seder? Please share them in the comments below!

Rebecca Klempner

The central mitzvah of the Passover seder is “L’higgadeta L’vincha”—to relate the story of our redemption to children.This means the section of the haggadah called “Maggid” is the most essential portion of it.However, most of the exciting songs and actions of the seder come before or after “Maggid”. Some children, even some adults, don’t really enjoy this part of the seder for that reason.

I know Pesach is long past, but it’s never too early to get ready for next year…

Here is a supplement to the haggadah to be used during “Maggid”.Here are the best songs that I wrote this year to help tell the story of our first Pesach. My original lyrics are sung to familiar children’s songs for ease of use, and I tried to be true to the original text.Please enjoy and tizku l’mitzvos!

To the tune of “Oh, Susanna”

Oh…

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So here’s your tiny morsel of Passover-related kookiness for today:

Free writing tip…don’t be afraid to write bad poetry. And if you’d like to share your own corny/hammy/couldn’t-hechsher-if-it-tried Pesach poetry, just add it in the comments.

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