Gillian Murray Kendall

Bio

I moved to Northampton in 1986 with my husband, Robert Dorit, and we became members of Congregation B’nai Israel shortly thereafter. Both of our sons, Sasha and Gabriel, had their bar mitzvahs at CBI, and  I have served on the Board for many years — and was a co-president for a two-year stint (beginning 2014). I loved co-editing the Weekly and the Kehila and am happy to see them morph into ever more reader-friendly publications. I am an English professor at Smith College, where I specialize in Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama outside of Shakespeare. I have published a book of essays on Shakespearean Power and Punishment (Fairleigh Dickinson  University Press, 1998), and, more recently, published two novels, The Garden of Darkness (Ravenstone Press,  2014) and The Book of Forbidden Wisdom (HarperCollins, 2016). By serving on the Board, I hope to be of service to Congregation B’nai Israel and to give back to an institution that has given my family so much.