7 Questions for Me’ugelet Founding Editor Lucy Marshall
Lucy Marshall is a queer Ashkenazi Jewish educator, facilitator, ritualist, and network weaver who was JWA’s 2022 Twersky Education Fellow. She is the creator of Neshama Mama, a new library of Jewish rituals for pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. The organization is newly launching Me’ugelet, a Jewish art, ritual, and creative writing journal about pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. The journal’s sponsors include the Red Tent Fund, the Rising Tide Open Waters Mikveh Network, the Jewish Fertility Foundation, Maayanot Community Mikveh of Minnesota, Mayyim Hayyim, Hava NaBaby, and the Jewish Women’s Archive.
JWA sat down with Marshall to discuss her relationship to Jewish ritual and the journal’s first issue.
Emma Breitman: When did you first get connected to exploring lesser-practiced Jewish rituals?
Lucy Marshall: I’ve been drawn to Jewish practice since I was a child, but I think the first time I really discovered Jewish ritual as a malleable, creative medium for meaning-making was when I learned about Rosh Chodesh from At The Well about a decade ago. The invitation to shape Jewish ritual, especially a tradition that had been omitted from my standard Jewish institutional education, felt really powerful. Since then, whenever I reached a life milestone like an engagement, wedding, graduation, or pregnancy, I knew that there was Jewish wisdom to discover that I hadn’t encountered yet. So I dove into research about relevant Jewish traditions and wove those threads into newly imagined rituals.
EB: What inspired you to create Me’ugelet?
LM: Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum are life-altering transformations that can, at times, make us feel isolated or lonely. Through the joys and oys of becoming a parent, I’ve found so much comfort and connection in others’ stories and in the rich library of related Jewish traditions—but those haven’t always been easy to find. Pregnancy and birth helped me reconnect with my creativity, and I experienced a lot of healing through my own artmaking and interactions with Jewish art and ritual. So, I created Me’ugelet to serve as a cultural container for connection and healing, and to elevate the power of Jewish journeys through life’s meaningful moments.
EB: What can readers expect from the first issue?
LM: Wow, I am just so excited about this inaugural debut of Me’ugelet! The publication itself is beautifully designed by my mother, Liza Bachrach. Collaborating with her has been such an honor and a very sweet manifestation of intergenerational creativity. The issue features contributions from more than 20 Jewish artists who represent a wide range of identities, geographies, and experiences with fertility, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Through mediums like poetry, painting, fiber arts, song, collage, personal narrative, and beyond, contributors share their stories of love, loss, and learning. An adoptive mother shares about witnessing her baby’s birth, a rabbi offers a new version of the V’havta prayer for weaning from breastfeeding, a sewing artist heals from her fear of stitches after birth, a Jewish doula literally maps out her postpartum story, and so, so much more. Readers will feel inspired, invigorated, and in awe of our community’s wisdom, strength, and creativity.
EB: What connection do you see between art and ritual?
LM: Both art and ritual help us access the divine sparks within us. They are extremely personal and unique to our individual experiences, while simultaneously strengthening our connections between each other, our ancestors, and future generations.
EB: Is there a particular ritual from the issue that has held special meaning for you?
LM: Mayyim Hayyim is publishing a new mikveh immersion ceremony for after giving birth in this issue of Me’ugelet. Water ritual has played a major role in my parenthood journey, including two mikveh experiences in a nearby Minneapolis lake during the ninth month of both my pregnancies. While some people may be familiar with this tradition during pregnancy, I’m excited to invite folks into the power of Jewish water ritual in the postpartum experience as well.
EB: Are there any historical figures you’ve drawn inspiration from for this project?
LM: I love this question. I draw inspiration from the bobes and hyvens, Ashkenazi Jewish midwives who also served as healers, religious and prayer leaders, ritualists, scholars, and venerated wisdom-holders in Eastern Europe. I am also inspired by the contemporary Torah of Rabbi Adina Allen, who taught me what I’ve known in my bones my whole life — God created us creative.
EB: Where do you hope to see Me’ugelet grow next?
LM: I hope the first issue of Me’ugelet finds its way into the hearts and minds of Jewish people around the world. I hope every one of us who encounters Me’ugelet is transformed in some way. And I hope the publication inspires “everyday” people, even if they’re not professional artists, to unbridle their gifts of creativity, share their stories about pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, and contribute new art and ritual to the next issue of Me’ugelet in Nisan / April.
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