Theater

We all know the clichés that characterize the usual depiction of Jewish women — the overbearing Jewish mother, the yenta, the Jewish princess. To promote a more multidimensional portrayal of the modern Jewish woman, a small group established the Jewish Women’s Theatre. The nonprofit entity, which has been operating for three years on a shoestring budget, is having its first fundraiser Jan. 22 and 23 at the Museum of Tolerance. Proceeds from the event will help finance the Jewish Women’s Rabbinic Archive, for which the personal stories of women rabbis worldwide are to be recorded and posted on the Internet. The benefit will present “Stories From the Fringe: Women Rabbis, Revealed!” a play taken from interviews with female rabbis in Los Angeles and written by Ronda Spinak and Rabbi Lynne A. Kern. Both are founders of the Jewish Women’s Theatre, and Spinak — who wrote for the Emmy Award-winning children’s program “Rugrats,” has authored numerous plays and had a nonfiction book published — described the genesis of the group:

Sam Bobrick is an anomaly — a happy, cheerful writer. After 30 plays, six books, and innumerable TV skits and songs, Bobrick maintains, “I’m a happy guy, I’m not complicated, I don’t need a therapist.”

When Philip Roth met with David Hare in the mid-1990s, the American novelist urged the British playwright to visit Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

Widely recognized as one of the most esteemed theater directors working today, Gordon Edelstein at one time considered becoming a rabbi. That was in the early 1970s, when he was a religious studies major at Grinnell College in Iowa.