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Voices in Verse: A Summer of Jewish Poetry

Explore six sessions of poetry, song, and story that span generations and homelands, led by a historian of American Jewish culture and a cantor with deep expertise in Hebrew poetry and music. Each series meets monthly over the summer, running concurrently and open to all: register for individual sessions or join us for the full journey.

Voice and Witness: The Poetry of Three American Jewish Women with Dr. Joellyn Zollman
Travel through a century of American Jewish women’s poetry shaped by immigration, identity, and activism. Each session focuses on one poet, weaving together biography, history, and close reading. Together, these voices form a lyrical archive of what it has meant to be Jewish, female, and American—across generations of hope, displacement, protest, and belonging.

  • June 10: Emma Lazarus and the Poetry of Belonging
  • Best known for her iconic words at the base of the Statue of Liberty, Emma Lazarus was a Sephardic New Yorker whose poetry gave voice to both Jewish pride and American promise. In this session, we will explore Lazarus’s 19th-century life and work, reading beyond “The New Colossus” to discover a writer who helped define what it meant to be American and unapologetically Jewish.
  • July 8: Anna Margolin and the Poetry of Immigration
  • An immigrant from Russia, Anna Margolin arrived in New York as part of the very wave of Jewish migration that Emma Lazarus had championed decades earlier. Writing in Yiddish with lyrical intensity and deep ambiguity, she captured the chaos and beauty of urban Jewish womanhood in the early 20th century. We will explore her life and her verse in both Yiddish and English, listening for what still echoes.
  • August 5: Muriel Rukeyser and the Poetry of Witness
  • Muriel Rukeyser carried the legacy of poets like Lazarus and Margolin into the charged politics of the 20th century. A poet, activist, and truth-teller, she believed that poetry could—and should—speak to the injustices of the world. In this final session, we will explore how Rukeyser placed herself within a Jewish tradition of resistance and moral imagination. Through her mid- to late-century writing, we will consider poetry as both a personal reckoning and a form of public witness.
Voices of the Land: A Century of Israeli Poetry in Song with Cantor David Lipp
Experience a century of Hebrew poetry shaped by the dreams and tensions of Zionism. Each session explores one poet through musical performance and cultural context, tracing how language, land, and longing have shaped the Israeli soul. These poems offer not only a record of national transformation, but a soundtrack to its emotional journey.
  • June 17: The Poet Rachel in Song: Longing, Landscape, and Loss
  • Rachel Bluwstein, known simply as “the poet Rachel,” gave voice to the inner life of early Zionism: its loneliness, its yearning, and its deep connection to the land. In this session, we’ll explore how iconic poems like Zemer Nugeh (“A Sad Song”) and Ve’ulai (“Perhaps”) have been reimagined in music by composers such as Naomi Shemer and Yehudit Ravitz. Though her life was brief, the resonance of her quiet brilliance still echoes through the voices and instruments of Israeli artists today.
  • July 15: Bialik in Harmony: From National Poet to Folk Hero
  • Chaim Nachman Bialik, often called Israel’s national poet, left behind a legacy that stretches from epic laments on exile to playful children’s rhymes. In this class, we’ll explore musical settings of his poetry, from traditional arrangements to modern choral and orchestral interpretations. How does music express Bialik’s tension between sorrow and hope, and what can these adaptations tell us about the evolution of Israeli identity?
  • August 12: Leah Goldberg: The Music of Elegance, Intellect, and Grace
  • Leah Goldberg’s poetry blends European lyricism with emotional depth, creating work that continues to inspire composers and performers. In this session, we’ll listen to musical settings of poems like Halicha LeKesariya (“A Walk to Caesarea”) and Lamdeini, as interpreted by artists such as Chava Alberstein. We’ll explore how melody draws out the quiet strength and philosophical nuance in Goldberg’s writing, revealing new layers of meaning through sound.
We strive to ensure access and meaningful participation by all. As such, this program will have closed captioning.

Faculty photo

Dr. Joellyn Zollman holds a PhD in Jewish History from Brandeis University. Her areas of specialization include religious material culture and American Jewish History. She has worked with exhibits and collections at the Smithsonian Institution, the Skirball Museum, and the San Diego History Center. Dr. Zollman has been teaching in the Melton Program since 2011. She teaches the Crossroads/History year for the Core Curriculum annually. In addition, she has taught From Sinai to Seinfeld (a student favorite!), Jewish Denominations, Jews in America, and We Are What We Remember.


Faculty photoCantor David A. Lipp came to Congregation Adath Jeshurun as Hazzan in 1994. He currently leads worship services, prepares youth for bar and bat mitzvah, teaches synagogue skills to children and adults, co-officiates at all life-cycle events, does pastoral work and directs the Adath Jeshurun Adult Choir. Cantor Lipp teaches Melton courses in his community in Louisville as well as internationally and has taught numerous international courses for the Cantors Assembly. Cantor Lipp has recently completed his service as President of the Cantors Assembly.


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