CLAL Faculty
Janet R. Kirchheimer
Janet R. Kirchheimer is a poet whose work has appeared
in a variety of publications both in the U.S. and abroad. Her moving
collection of poems about the Holocaust How To Spot One Of Us (CLAL,
Nov. 2007) has received endorsements from Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, Sir
Martin Gilbert, and Rabbis Harold Kushner and Irving “Yitz” Greenberg
(Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council), as well as
renowned poets Mary Stewart Hammond, Yerra Sugarman, and Jeanne Marie
Beaumont. Her work has or will appear in the Atlanta Review,
Potomac Review, Kalliope, Lilith, Natural Bridge,
PoetryNZ, Confrontation, Main Street Rag, Alimentum,
on Beliefnet.com and babelfruit.com. Janet was nominated for a Pushcart
Poetry Prize in 2007.
A recipient of a Drisha Institute for Jewish Education Arts Fellowship for
2006-2007, she was a semi-finalist in the “Discovery”/The Nation contest, a
finalist in the Portlandia Chapbook contest, and first runner up in the
Concrete Wolf Chapbook contest (2006). A finalist in the Small Poetry Press
2004 Select Poets Series chapbook contest, her essay, “Make Your Selection,
Please,” was a Jewish Telegraphic Agency feature article for Yom HaShoah in
2001. In 1999, she was awarded honorable mention in the Judah Magnes Museum
Poems on the Jewish Experience contest.
Janet has given several readings and spoken at Kristallnacht and Yom HaShoah
commemorations at locales including ADL/Hidden Child Foundation, The
Westover School, Poet’s House, KGB Bar, Manu in Exile, Teachers and Writers,
Makor, and various synagogues and schools. She is also a member of
Chevrah Kadishah (the ritual preparation for Jewish burial), as are her
parents. Through this experience, as with her poems, she has been able to
transform her family’s pain into a moving tribute. “So many members of my
family never had a burial and, as the daughter of survivors, the opportunity
to give someone a proper Jewish burial is a great honor for me.”
Janet is a Teaching Fellow at CLAL–The
National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. In addition to readings
and speaking about the Holocaust, she conducts writing workshops, including,
“Changing the World with Words” teaching adults and teens about Judaism
using creative writing exercises and poetry, and leads a “Poetry Shmooze”
where participants read and discuss Jewish-themed poems.
