Mouthing Off for MassMouth

Last night (September 8th) I co-hosted the second MouthOff for our wonderful organization MassMouth with Andrea Lovett.  Many marvelous tellings were shared, which Andrea and I video-taped using equipment lent to us by the masterfully savvy and multi-talented Norah Dooley.   Check them out here at the Massmouth site!  

In addition, I told the following tale, 

called "The Dubner Maggid",  as retold by Eric A. Kimmel 

in his delightful book  "The Spotted Pony: 

A Collection of Hanukkah Stories."

This book is one of those gems you 

come across in the library while

 looking for something entirely different, which sends you off in a delicious  folkloric tailspin.

                                  

Here is my version, as told at Toscanini's in Central Square, after one of their sublime micro-sundaes (hazelnut ice cream and hot fudge, thank you very much).

                            

While researching this story, I learned not only that the Dubner Maggid was a real historical person, but that the places mentioned by Kimmel - Tarnopol and Dubno, most notably - are real as well.  An important reminder that these stories are more than just entertainment (and excellent entertainment at that); they are part of Jewish oral tradition and history, and they need to be remembered and retold.  

So often, as a storyteller, my stories teach me.  They teach me to laugh and to cry and to think, but most especially to remember.