2013 Moment Magazine Staff and Volunteer Honoree:
Amy E. Schwartz is a journalist and editor based in Washington, D.C. From 1985 to 2002 she worked as an editorial writer and op ed columnist for The Washington Post, specializing in education and culture. She was born in New York City and attended Harvard College, where she received a B.A. in literature, and worked at Harper’s Magazine and The New Republic before joining the Post in 1985. While there, she wrote more than 200 columns, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in commentary in 1988 and was a three-time winner of the Newspaper Guild’s Bernie Harrison Memorial Award for commentary and criticism. After leaving the Post, she was guest literary editor and contributing editor of the Wilson Quarterly before joining Moment as opinion editor in 2011.
She spent 1990-91 in Germany as a recipient of the Chancellor’s Scholarship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She has lived in France, Germany and Turkey and has reported from France, Germany, Romania, Turkey and Iraq.
She lives in Washington with her husband, attorney Eric Koenig, and three children, and they attend Adas Israel Congregation, where she is a board member and former vice president for education. She also serves on the boards of the Foundation for Jewish Studies and the Frederick B. Abramson Foundation, which funds scholarships for graduates of the D.C. public school system. Since 2010 she has been president of the Jewish Study Center, an adult education organization, which kindly allows her to teach evening classes on a variety of topics, mostly poetry and psalms.
Amy, Many years ago I believe you wrote different versions of Jewish Folktales in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
One of those tales was, “Chelm Moves The Mountain.”
I am a Jewish storyteller for 30 years in St. Louis. I am writing my own collection of Jewish Folktales full of Mitzvot for my book.
I am re-telling my own version of Chelm Moves The Mountain, and want to give credit to you where I first saw the folktale in the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
Are you that Amy, Jewish folktale writer? I’m writing my own versions of ancient Jewish folktlore for my book.
Hope you are only having happy stories on your life journey.
Diann Bank