Yaacov Peterseil

Yaacov Peterseil created JewishStoryWriting.com as an Internet site where talented writers of Jewish prose and poetry can get the exposure they deserve.

Yaacov received his B.A. in English from Yeshiva University and his M.A. in Journalism from the University of Michigan, where he also earned a Cognate Degree from the Center for Far Eastern Studies. He received rabbinic ordination (Smicha) from Shor Yoshuv Institute for Jewish Studies.

One of his first forays into the world of publishing and writing led to the creation of Enjoy-A-Book Club, a Scholastic-type book club which distributed brochures featuring Jewish children’s titles to over 400 Jewish schools throughout the United States. In order to meet the demand for new children’s titles, Enjoy-A-Book Club began publishing its own titles. The success of these titles prompted Yaacov to enter the Jewish book fair market and open K’Tonton Bookstore, the largest children’s party and book store on Long Island.

Eventually, Yaacov realized his longtime dream of making aliyah to Israel. It was here that Yaacov helped create Pitspopany Press which soon became the leading publisher of Jewish children’s books. Thanks to some remarkable authors and illustrators, Pitspopany titles won many  awards, including The National Jewish Book Award, The Storytelling World Award,The Children’s Book Council Award, and The Judaica Librarians’ Choice Award.

Yaacov has written three chapter books and numerous short stories for ages 8-12 . His Tweens “Gang of Four” series sold over 40,000 copies and his young children’s title, “Princess Alopecia”, won the coveted Gold Triangle Award. 

Currently, Yaacov is completing an M.A. degree in Creative Writing at Bar Ilan University.

As for his newest venture, Yaacov says, “I think my years as a publisher, distributor, and writer of books have served as a kind of smorgasbord before the main event, JewishStoryWriting.com. Maybe it just took technology a while to catch up to my vision, or maybe I just needed to find the right venue for my dream of a holistic writing site for writers of Jewish prose and poetry to become a reality.” 

Sarah Vonnegut

Sarah Vonnegut is our social media maven. Many of you coming to our site found it, or it found you, because of Sarah’s ability to get JewishStoryWriting.com out there. Thanks to her research and production experience with NBC5, Deep Dish, and Chicago Tonight, Sarah is constantly coming up with ways to help authors get their story published.  She’s also a new face in Israel, which she now calls (permanent) home, and enjoys reading, writing, blogging, everything pop culture, Chinese food and absorbing news stories from all over the world.

Tiferet Peterseil

Tiferet Peterseil is the project manager at JewishStoryWriting.com, where she comes up with out-of-the-box ideas designed to help writers find new outlets for their works. With a keen eye for what’s new and exciting on the Web, Tiferet makes sure our site has meaningful content for both emerging and experienced writers. 

Tiferet is also an award-winning book designer and a writer. Her satirical story, “Group Labor” was published in Jewish Love Stories for Children. Her humorous blog, “Hollywood East” makes waves in the L.A. Jewish Journal, and her stand-up comic routines break the tension, even in Jerusalem.

“Too many writers spend valuable time searching for an audience for their story,” Tiferet says. “JewishStoryWriting.com is determined to become the forum for every good writer’s story.”

Sarah Tvizer

Sarah Tvizer graduated from Bezalel, the Jerusalem Academy of Arts and Design, and has worked developing graphic and animation projects for a number of companies in Israel before joining JewishStoryWriting.com. Sarah oversees the technical aspects of our site and contributes a valuable voice in the design of each page, as well as its content. But Sarah’s not only a designer and technician; she has a humorous side to her as well, as you can see from the cartoons scattered throughout JewishStoryWriting.com.

When she isn’t busy upkeeping the site, Sarah teaches a range of different animation classes in a special program for gifted children, enriching their learning experience and computer skills.

TreeHouse Illuatrations

There were once two childhood friends, Shahar and Sarah, who loved to draw and paint. They would spend hours hidden in their tree house creating make-believe adventures.                                                                                       As they matured, their passion for art and design intensified.

Shahar graduated Musrara School of the Arts and received a BA in Art History from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She illustrated children's books and developed an expertise in video editing, Shahar also taught comics and animation in high school and even had her movie shown in a prestigious art gallery.

Sarah graduated from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design with a BA in Screen Based Arts. She then worked as a freelancer for various companies, designing interactive graphic presentations, Bar/Bat Mitzvah and wedding invitations, brochures and business cards.                                                                                                                 Sarah also teaches animation classes in a special program for gifted children.

Creating TreeHouse was the next natural step for the creative dynamic duo. Still good friends today they might not hang out in trees (at least not as often) but they still love to dream and draw.