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Psychic Connection

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Real-life phone psychic Rochelle Jewel Shapiro
pens first novel.

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SAN DEE B RAWARS KY
Special to the Jewish News

don't know how many Jewish
psychics there are in Great Neck,
N.Y., but Rochelle Jewel Shapiro
is easy to spot in the lunchtime crowd
at Bruce's, a restaurant and bakery in
the heart of the Long Island town.
On a recent bright day, Shapiro,
who has just written a first novel
about a Jewish psychic in Great Neck,
Miriam the Medium (Simon &
Schuster; $23), is carrying a colorful
parasol. She's dressed in a suit of flow-
ing blue silk, with a pink top, and a
tie-dyed scarf that pulls together the
colors and adds purple; her jewelry is
in the same color scheme. As much as
her clothing, her very clear and pale
aqua blue eyes stand out.
Shapiro has lived in Great Neck for
the past 27 years, but it is only recent-
ly, with the publication of this novel,
that her psychic powers are becoming
widely known. A couple of articles
have appeared in a Great Neck news-
paper, and she penned a "My Turn"
column in Newsweek about the psy-
chic gift she inherited from her
Russian-born grandmother, who
called herself a healer. And, at her
synagogue, the Reform congregation
Temple Beth El, she recently "came
out" to her fellow congregants and
rabbi.
At the back of Bruce's, where a sig-
nificant scene in the novel takes place,
a framed cover of the book jacket is
hanging along with the page that
mentions the popular eatery. We meet
the eponymous Bruce.
A woman approaches the table and
introduces herself and clearly wants to
ask Shapiro's opinion on something
that doesn't seem to have to do with
the Danish she is eating. Shapiro
reminds the woman that she doesn't
do impromptu readings.
This scene occurs again and again
for Shapiro, as she explains, whether
she's at a party or at the supermarket
and, even when she's speaking casual-
ly, people can attach purpose to her
words.
Shapiro is a phone psychic. She

used to run ads for her services, but
now her business is word of mouth,
or therapists recommend her.
In fact, she has never met most of
the people she works with, as she
looks ahead — at their urging — at
the intimate details of their lives.
She explains that when she would
do readings in person, she was always
having visions. "I was breaking for
accidents that would happen the next
day. I was losing things."
In working over the phone, she
finds that she can "channel" her gift.
"Otherwise my life was distressing
with the gift. It wasn't a gift to me
when I didn't know how to control
it," she says.

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'Miriam the Medium" contains many
parallels to the life of its author.

Her self-description mirrors her
character Miriam's lament. She writes,
"For most of my life, I'd walked
around like a big antenna, picking up
private hopes and future secrets from
passersby, indiscriminately. I suffered
from sensory overload."
Shapiro seems to have much in
common with Miriam, but the author
denies that the novel is autobiographi-