About Betsy Fuchs

Betsy Fuchs is Jewish by birth and is a spiritual seeker by nature. For many years, Betsy explored non-Jewish spiritual paths including meditation, feminist spirituality and Native American traditions and for an eight year period, Betsy was a member of the Second Unitarian Church in Chicago, Illinois.

Through her spiritual explorations, Betsy was drawn to the beauty and power of some prayers and meditations. In 1995, Betsy began writing prayers of her own creation in her journals, including quite a few kvetching-type prayers. And she has rewritten traditional Jewish prayers and a few biblical psalms to “make them her own.” She recorded her experiences in the book Pulling the Pieces into Prayer: And Bringing their Blessings into a Jewish Life (or Any Life) and in 2007, she self-published Bits and Pieces of Prayer, which contains excerpts from Pulling the Pieces into Prayer. To purchase her books, click here.

During Betsy’s prayer-journey, she rediscovered with a new sensibility the value and beauty of some traditional Jewish prayers and biblical psalms. For some years she tip-toed closer to Judaism by attending High Holiday services at different synagogues. In February 2000, Betsy took the big step of joining Beth Emet The Free Synagogue in Evanston, Illinois. Since then she has been a member of the Beth Emet Kahal community which joyfully worships and studies Torah together every Shabbat morning.

Through her membership in Beth Emet, Betsy felt the pull to visit Israel. During a 5-day Jewish tour there in 2001, she was exposed to the different and conflicting Israeli-Jewish narratives of the founding of the State and its history from the 1880’s to the present time. After the 2001 trip and continuing on, Betsy has been reading accounts from both sides, and listening to Israelis and Palestinians express their different views of Israeli-Palestinian history and the continuing conflict. In November 2008, she spent 12 days in Israel and the West Bank with a Compassionate Listening delegation. The delegation of 24 Jews, Christians, Buddhists and others met with more than twenty Israelis and Palestinians. It was the 26^th delegation to Israel and the West Bank lead by Leah Green founder of the Compassionate Listening Project (www.compassionatelistening.org). Based on Betsy’s experience and the experience of 24 delegates, she created a presentation (available to the public) titled “Learning to Listen to Israeli and Palestinian Stories (and to Each Other).” To learn more about this presentation, click here.

Professionally, Betsy is a Computer Support Analyst. She does project management for Electronic Medical Record systems, works with technical teams to resolve computer software and hardware problems, writes computer manuals and teaches/coaches computer users.

The prayers on this website are Betsy’s gift to you. You are invited to share them electronically and/or print them. For copyrighted prayers, please include the complete copyright line with the web address. Email Betsy Fuchs about her prayers, this website, purchasing books, the presentation “Learning to Listen to Israeli & Palestinian Stories (and to Each Other)” or just to say hello.