←Recommendations of ABRAHAM'S DAUGHTERS

Abraham’s Daughters is a brilliant and very poignant play about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The tragic situation that unfolds reflects the tangled history of the people involved in the birth of Israel and the displacement of Arabs who had been living there for many generations. The play’s well-crafted tension is lightened by comedy and a fast-moving dialogue. I was oscillating between laughter and tears. Emma Goldman-Sherman has created a masterpiece.

Emma Goldman-Sherman has written a powerful, funny, poignant, ultimately heartbreaking play that challenges many common narratives about Israel and Palestine, and that refuses to let us ignore the human cost of the choices, actions, and events that shape life in the occupied territories. Abraham's Daughters is simultaneously intimate and epic; it humanizes a topic that is often presented in abstract and dangerously dehumanizing ways. It illustrates just how much the choices of individuals--our choices--matter. This play is full of heart. It is joyful and gut-wrenching, and so, so timely. And the last line is like a dagger. Produce this play!

In this engaging, quick-moving full length, Abraham, a Jewish New Yorker who recently moved to Tel Aviv after the death of his wife, learns that he is also the patriarch of a family of Palestinian Muslims. With a cast of just five (four of them great roles for women!), "Abraham's Daughters" tackles the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as the discrepancy between how one sees oneself and how one is seen by the world.

This play offers a fascinating glimpse into the interactions between Israel and Palestine in a beautifully human way. It has great roles for women in a variety of ages, and as an added bonus, you can hear Goldman-Sherman's thoughts on the process of making it if you listen on The Parsnip Ship - they are fascinating!

In Abraham's Daughters, a cast of just five stands in for a whole world of missed intentions, short-sighted errors, and embarrassing relatives. It is a great joy to see Emma Goldman-Sherman paint on such a vast, wide canvass to give us this funny, heart-breaking, audacious play.

Abraham's Daughters tells a very contemporary story detailing a very difficult, timely subject. What struck me most was the terrific acting opportunities its roles present. Each character is fully realized as they make discoveries about their lives as well as the lives of relatives they are newly connected to. It's a wonderful, moving, heart-breaking ensemble play.

I listened to this play on the Parsnip Ship podcast. What a tender, touching, human play! Goldman-Sherman writes her characters with such care that you walk away understanding each and every one of them. Although it's a heavily political play, it also talks about intimate themes such as family, identity, and one's relationship with the past on a macro and micro scale. A heartfelt call for unity, "Abraham's Daughters" is the kind of play that will make you want to be a better person.

Funny, moving, poignant. I had the pleasure of attending the recording of ABRAHAM'S DAUGHTERS for Parsnip Ship podcast. The humor in the play aids us in accepting and processing the daily horror faced by residents of Israeli-occupied territories in Palestine. A beautiful work about the founding and displacing of nations, with complex characters, set within the context of a family. If you want to give your audience something to discuss, this is the play.

This is a rich drama based on the writer’s experience in Palestine about the price of legacy and the myths, and truths, we cling to in order to protect our identities. While the play is a period piece decidedly set in 1993, the timeliness of the conversations in the play (about facing hard truths about power, and about the issues surrounding homeland and safety) carry over into productions of the play today. It’s wonderful to hear Palestinian voices written with a deep respect for their perspective, and this play is a loving tribute to that respect.

This remarkable play tells of Abraham Abramowitz’s two families, one from Queens NY, one living in a refugee camp in Nablus. The coming together of Abraham’s daughter, Maxine and her daughter Racie with his Palestinian daughter, Huda and daughter Amel, unfolds in the universe of the first Intifada. Their struggles are full of need, desire, contradiction. Abraham’s identification with the biblical Patriarch and promise to be father of Nations, leads to the play’s heart-wrenching climax. Challenging and deeply human, ABRAHAM's DAUGHTERS does what good theater must - - touch, illuminate, change its audience. Highly recommended.