Rhonda Rosenheck

Rhonda Rosenheck, MA, ABD (“all but dissertation”) toward a doctorate in Jewish Education, can be reached via www.rhondarosenheck.com.

In 1995, I was honored to shlep world-renowned textual scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, of blessed memory, around Palm Beach County for two weeks. “So,” he said one day on the way to his umpteenth lecture that week. “You’re in Jewish education.” “Yes,” I responded. He continued, “It’ll kill you, you know.”

In 2014, when it very nearly did (kill me) after 33 years, I retired to begin editing for a living. That business grew successful, so I sold it. Now I write. And write. Essays, poems, some fiction, though poorly, and children's books.

My forthcoming book of poems entitled The Five Books of Limericks (Ben Yehuda Press, 2021) will be available here or via the publisher's site, benyehudapress.com.

Looking:Out, Up, In & Under Rocks, a chapbook of poems (Elephant Tree house Press) is available now through rhondarosenheck.com.

Yiddische Yoga's illustrator, DanaToon, and I met first over redeemable bottles. Then at my makerspace. Then somewhere else, and somewhere else again. It's like the punchline of that joke where God says to the drowning homeowner: “I sent you an evacuation warning, a policeman, a boat, and a helicopter! What more do you want from me?” Well, by now I had to ask why I had not yet brought Dana on as the illustrator I'd been seeking for two years. Unlike the shlemazel in that joke, I took the Divine kick in the head—uh, hint—and acted.

The idea for this book arose one night at dinner with my eldest nephew, Daniel Rosenheck, and his good friend, Aaron Klauber. Aaron was talking about his stepmom doing yoga and accidentally said Worrier One instead of Warrior One. Thus was born this book.