Hours of Devotion with Dinah Berland
at the Santa Monica Public Library


Date:  March 3, 2008

Contact:  Julie MacDonald, Public Services Librarian, Public & Branch Services (310) 458-8644

Santa Monica, California – The Santa Monica Public Library is pleased to present Dinah Berland, discussing her new book, Hours of Devotion: Fanny Neuda’s Book of Prayers for Jewish Women, on Sunday, March 16, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library’s Multipurpose Room, 601 Santa Monica Blvd. 

Poet Dinah Berland discovered, in a used bookstore around the corner from her house, a volume that turned out to be a treasure.  Originally written in German in 1855 by Fanny Neuda, daughter of a Moravian rabbi, Hours of Devotion was the first full-length book of Jewish prayers to be written by a woman for women.

Berland will discuss the history of the book and how she edited and adapted the prayers into poems.  A reading and book signing will follow.

For more information, contact the Santa Monica Public Library at (310) 458-8600; or visit the Library’s web site at www.smpl.org.

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This page was last updated on 03/03/08.