“Liz was profoundly Jewish,” shared Dr. Judith Ginsberg, Executive Director of the Nash Family Foundation. “She was very much engaged in the Jewish scene. In fact, she thought the greatest stories came from the bible,” Ginsberg continued.

Dr. Ginsberg, a long-time friend and former Executive Director of the Foundation, got to know Liz back in the early 1990’s, when they collaborated on The Hating Pot, a musical with city teens about racism and anti-Semitism. 

At the time, Ginsberg explained, Liz was working on a project with Richard Siegel at the former National Foundation for Jewish Culture. “Rich was very knowledgeable and attuned to Jewish culture and arts,” Ginsberg said. “And he brought us together.” 

“What was really great,” Ginsberg reflected, “was that the Board of the Covenant Foundation was so supportive of the project, even though it was edgy. This wasn’t typical—this broke ground for new things, it was really out of the box. And we needed that. We still do.”

The goal of The Hating Pot was to create dialogue with young people through music and movement, and to understand what underlies issues of hatred amongst and within different ethnicities and races. The piece was performed for young audiences at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and was also presented on tour. In her composition for the production, Liz blended the musical styles of Yiddish song, African and Spanish rhythms, and incorporated a variety of dance genres.

“[The production] knocked the socks off the Board,” Ginsberg continued, “and the project grew. We brought it to PBS, to Chicago, all around to schools; it was really revolutionary. You know, you hear that some creative people can be difficult to work with, but that was not the case at all with Liz. That’s why we remained friends. We trusted each other.” 

Ginsberg shared that at one point in the production, Liz decided to bring the group of kids to Grand Central Station, in Manhattan. “These were really great kids,” Ginsberg noted. “And Liz brought them to the Station, in the middle of rush hour, and they stood right in front of the information booth, and they sang a few songs from the show. It was really exciting.”

“I think that watching Liz helped these young people realize that you can be the person you want to be—and you don’t have to compromise your art, or fit into a narrow definition of one thing or another. You can just keep on creating.”

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To learn about Liz’s most recent collaboration with The Covenant Foundation, The Jewish Books Cooking project, click here.

To read more about Liz’s work in the Jewish world, click here and here.