Ellen Frankel

Frankel has published two books for young people - Choosing To Be Chosen, a collection of stories for Jewish pre-teens, and a sequel, Tell It Like It Is: Tough Choices for Today’s Teens, which she co-authored with her teenage daughter.

Frankel has also written libretti for two oratorios composed by Andrea Clearfield, Women of Valor and The Golem Psalms. The first was premiered in Los Angeles in 2002; the second in Philadelphia in 2006. Her most recent opera, with composer Leonard Lehrman, is "The Triangle Fire," based on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York. The opera will premiere at the American Labor Museum on September 4, 2016. She is also developing an opera libretto based on Karel Capek's science fiction classic, R.U.R.

Frankel wrote the libretto for the fact-based opera Slaying the Dragon with music by American composer Michael Ching, based on the book Not by the Sword by Kathryn Watterson. The opera was commissioned by the Center City Opera Theater in Philadelphia, and had its world premiere in June 2012, conducted by Andrew M. Kurtz.

Frankel received the Myrtle Wreath Award from Hadassah in February 2000, the Bernard Reisman Professional Excellence Award from Brandeis University in May 2009 and the National Jewish Book Award in the Illustrated Children's Book category for The JPS Illustrated Children's Bible in 2009.

Frankel received her B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1973 and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Princeton University in 1978.

Ellen Frankel (born 1951) was the Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) from 1991 until 2009, and also served as CEO of the JPS for 10 years. She retired in 2009 to pursue her own writing and scholarly projects, serving as JPS's first Editor Emerita.