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Ask Us Anything: The MFA @ JTS 

A Really OPEN Open House

Monday, November 9, 2026
12:00 p.m. ET
Online

The Dean, Director, and Core Faculty Member answer ALL your questions about the JTS MFA in Creative Writing. Join Dr. Lisa Springer, Etgar Keret, and Rachel Kadish for a discussion about the program and all it offers as we kick off the 2027 Admission cycle. This a great chance to discover: 

• What happens when your writing life becomes part of a community?  
• What happens when you give writers permission to be weird?  
• Can I be a writer and still have a day job?  
• Can I skip the MFA and just get the book deal? 

This session will be recorded and shared with registrants.

About the Speakers

Dr. Lisa Springer serves as Dean of the Division of Lifelong and Professional Studies (DLPS) and Associate Provost for Continuing and Digital Learning. In this role, she leads efforts to expand and innovate JTS’s education for learners at all life stages—whether they seek personal enrichment, professional development, or leadership opportunities. Through DLPS, she oversees programs that extend JTS’s world-class scholarship beyond traditional degree programs, making the institution’s learning more accessible, flexible, and relevant to today’s world.  

Etgar Keret is one of the foremost writers of contemporary Israeli literature. His books have been published in some fifty languages and won numerous awards. In addition to being an internationally acclaimed virtuoso of the short story, Etgar explores a variety of storytelling techniques, including plays, screenplays, songs, animated and live-action films, comic books and choreography. Etgar is an Associate Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is excited to guide the JTS MFA program’s vision and mentor emerging storytellers.  

Rachel Kadish is an award-winning fiction writer and essayist. Her work has been read on National Public Radio and has appeared in The New York Times,  Paris Review, ²¹²Ô»å ±Ê±ô´Ç³Ü²µ³ó²õ³ó²¹°ù±ð²õ; her most recent novel, The Weight of Ink, was a U.S.A. Today bestseller and recipient of a National Jewish Book Award. She has been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, Radcliffe’s Bunting Institute, the Bellagio Center, and the Bogliasco Foundation, a Koret writer-in-residence at Stanford University, and a Fordham Jewish Studies Fellow at the New York Public Library.

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