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Zoë Klein

b. March 4, 1971

by JWA Staff
Our work to expand the Encyclopedia is ongoing. We are providing this brief biography for Zoë Klein until we are able to commission a full entry.

Photo of Rabbi Zoe Klein, courtesy of Rabbi Klein.

Rabbi  Zoë Klein’s fascination with the language and emotion of the biblical books of the prophets led her to craft Drawing in the Dust, a novel imagining the prophet Jeremiah’s private life. She studied at Brandeis University and spent her junior year abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, later turning 600 pages of her letters home into the foundation of a novel. After she graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in psychology, she was ordained by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in 1998. After serving briefly at Temple Shalom in Norwalk, Connecticut, she became Director of Adult Education and Engagement at Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles in 2000, where she still serves as of 2023. While studying to become a rabbi, she began writing a coda to the Book of Jeremiah from the perspective of the prophet’s imagined female acolyte and lover, Anatiya. Over time, this evolved into her first novel, Drawing in the Dust (2009). Since then she has authored three additional books: The Scroll of Anatiya (2009), The Goblins of Knottingham: A History of Challah (2017), and Candle, Feather, Wooden Spoon: New Jewish Stories (2023). Klein has also written short stories for Harper’s Bazaar and other journals as well as contributed a chapter to the Women’s Torah Commentary. Beyond her writing and her rabbinic career, she has served as a commentator on the History Channel show Digging for the Truth, which focuses on archaeological and historical mysteries. 

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Zoë Klein." (Viewed on October 12, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/klein-zoe>.