Learn to Spin Yarn From the Masters at This Festival of Jewish Storytelling

For the past 20 years, Ruthie Buell--aka Uncle Ruthie--has been performing songs and stories on her KPFK radio show, “Halfway Down the Stairs.” She loves her job, which gives her the opportunity to tell stories about death, divorce, strong women and alternative families.

“I talk about life the way it really is,” said Buell, 59.

Although she has a passion for her work, she’ll also say with equal zeal: “There’s a quality in storytelling that makes me sick. It’s that saccharin type of storytelling, when people speak at 33 1/3 r.p.m. in a 78 r.p.m. world. There’s a patronization when the voice changes and this invisible wall develops between the storyteller and the audience.”

Buell will have none of that.

When she, along with four other storytellers from across the country, performs Sunday at A Jewish Storytelling Festival at the University of Judaism, the storytellers will strive for the real thing--real laughter, joy, tears and intimacy.

“You want to make the audience feel like they’re sitting in your kitchen over a cup of coffee,” explained Buell, who also teaches special education at Alfonso B. Perez Special Education Center in East Los Angeles.

Sunday’s festival also will feature storytellers Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of Albuquerque, N.M.; Joel Ben Izzy of San Francisco; Syd Liebermann of Evanston, Ill., and Peninnah Schram of New York City. The program is set to include a morning of storytelling performances by the five masters, with a series of afternoon workshops afterward.

Workshops will cover adapting literary stories for oral presentation, using family history for material, incorporating music and movement, and adapting biblical text into storytelling.

Liebermann taught elementary school for 20 years before he turned to storytelling seven years ago, now earning a living solely with his storytelling skills. He will lead a workshop dealing with the process of turning real-life anecdotes into interesting stories.

“There’s so much gold in our lives we don’t realize,” Liebermann said. “We gobble our existence and turn to machines for entertainment. Before radio and television were around, we entertained one another by talking.”

Liebermann, 45, thinks television shows such as “The Cosby Show” and “The Wonder Years” succeed because they concentrate on telling good stories. “After we watch these shows, we can remember similar incidents in our own lives,” he said. “We all have those stories. It’s just a matter of knowing how to find them.”

Sunday’s event is one more example of the increasing interest in storytelling, Liebermann said. He pointed to the phenomenal growth of the National Assn. for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling in Jonesboro, Tenn., as proof that the oral tradition is thriving.

Seventeen years ago, Jimmy Neil Smith, intent on keeping the art form alive, started a storytelling festival in Jonesboro. Back then, fewer than 100 people attended the event, but it still became an annual tradition. At the 1989 festival several weeks ago, 5,500 people showed up.

Fran Cammel, the coordinator of The University of Judaism’s Jewish Storytelling Festival, also sees increased interest in storytelling. A librarian at Whittmann Elementary School in Cerritos, Cammel has been instrumental in organizing storytelling events over the past three years in the ABC Unified School District in Cerritos. This year’s festival attendance was 650, up 350 from last year, Cammel said.

“The schools see it as a tool to improve kids’ listening skills, their memories and sequencing skills,” she said. “When I teach children to tell stories, I see a great increase in their self-esteem. They’re able to get up in front of a group, without being afraid. It gives them more confidence.”

Yet another sign of storytelling’s popularity: IBM, in association with Good Housekeeping Magazine, is sponsoring a storytelling contest titled “Tell Me a Story Celebration.” Liebermann said 160,000 entry kits will be distributed to public elementary schools nationwide to encourage youngsters to practice storytelling.

“There’s this celebration of American folklore going on all over the place,” Liebermann said. “Storytelling is a celebration of being alive.”

Although Sunday’s festival will focus on Jewish storytelling, Buell and Liebermann agree that people of any nationality, religion or ethnic background can understand and enjoy the stories. “People are people, no matter if they’re Jews, Italians, blacks or Eskimos,” Liebermann said. “As human beings, we all go through a similar passage” in life.

Certain elements distinguish Jewish stories, which focus on characters that are Jewish in nature, such as a rabbi. Common elements from Jewish culture--like gefilte fish, kosher foods and Hannukah--often also are mentioned.

Storytellers are dedicated to keeping Judaism alive, Buell said. “When you’re threatened with extinction, you’re more interested in preserving your culture.”

Certain themes also are repeatedly found in Jewish stories--money and wealth, love and marriage, oppression and the struggle of the human spirit to persevere.

Humor is often a prime component, too. In Buell’s solo performance, she plans to speak about “tree envy”--a strictly Jewish phenomenon in which Jews develop envious feelings toward their Christian neighbors because they wish that they could have Christmas trees, too. In one humorous anecdote, Buell relates the story of her Jewish neighbor who insisted on getting her own Christmas tree; when a rabbi moved next door, the neighbor had to deal with his unorthodox reaction to her desire to practice a Christian tradition.

Buell also has written some Jewish Christmas carols that she will perform.

“To be a success, the storyteller must get the audience involved,” Buell explained. “When you’ve really connected on an emotional level and you see tears in the eyes of the audience--that’s a storyteller’s reward.”

A Jewish Storytelling Festival will be from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday at The University of Judaism, 15600 Mulholland Drive. Tickets are $50 per person, $25 for students and senior citizens 65 and older. Registration will be accepted at the door. For information, call (213) 476-9777.