Cherie Karo Schwartz

2008 Corn Mother Honoree

BIO

Cherie Anne Karo Schwartz is a self-employed storyteller, author, and educator who has presented performances, workshops, and storytelling training in Colorado, and also abroad, for over three decades. Author of three books and with stories in a dozen anthologies, she specializes in Jewish tales, natural history, worldwide folktales, and personal and original stories.

Cherie is Jewish, from a Polish, Russian, Hungarian, English, Spanish, and Israeli background. She is likely a descendant of the illustrious Rabbi Yosef Karo, who was born in Spain in 1488 and exiled in 1492 in the Inquisition, went to Greece, and later settled in Israel, where his synagogue is still in use. Rabbi Karo said that he had an angel who sat on his shoulder and whispered stories to him. And he was the author of the Shulchan Arukh, an authoritative work on Jewish law that is still consulted today. Although Cherie was born in Miami, her family has had roots in Colorado since 1919. She was married to Larry Schwartz for 36 beautiful, wondrous years until his passing in 2015.

Cherie'S

LIFE QUOTE

“Our job is to make the old new and the new holy.”

— Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi
of the Land of Israel

This quote has been an essential part of my life for decades, since I first read it. Treasuring each moment for what it offers and opens to us, and bringing it forward in a sacred way… this is the essence of who and what we can be at our best. In all of my Storytelling, teaching, writing, and life, I try to keep this forever before me to remember. As a Storyteller, I take what is on the page and lift it up in a new way each time that I tell the story. In my teaching, every time is a new experience of even the same basic material because the students are new, and I have evolved, too. Remembering that the stories are holy — each one of them from throughout the world and all time — is essential. Being open of heart, mind, and spirit allows me to enter each experience with new eyes and gratitude. I am thankful for each story that has come to me, and each person I share the stories with is a blessing.

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