When she won a Tony for her musical “Suffs” in 2024, Shaina Taub, the creator and star of the show about the fight for women’s right to vote, quoted the Talmud.
“The epigraph on my script is a quote from the Talmud: You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it,” Taub, who also played suffragist Alice Paul in the show, said. “This is a hard year in our country, and I just hope that we can remember that when we organize and we come together we are capable of making real change and progress for this country for equality and justice. And so I hope we can all do that together.”
Last week, Taub, once again, showed us how much those words about the idea of tikkun olam inform everything she does, even in the hardest of moments.
On social media, Taub discussed taking a break from her role as Jewish writer and activist Emma Goldman in the Broadway play “Ragtime” for very personal reasons. She shared that she’ll be stepping off stage from Jan. 6 through March 29 of 2026, after three consecutive pregnancy losses.
“It’s been hell,” she wrote, sharing that after multiple stays in the hospital: “my body badly needs a break. And my mind could use it too.”
Taub knows that the subject is a vulnerable one, one that is “often kept in the shadows;” she said she wanted to share her truth in the “hopes that someone reading feels less alone.” Just that means so much — so many people who suffer through pregnancy loss do so in silence, without taking the adequate time to mourn or recover (either because they’re not afforded that time by outside sources or because our society has not provided a framework on how to do so), and the more people like Taub that speak about taking time and space to grieve and heal, the more others might feel empowered to do the same.
“One in four pregnancies end in loss. How does something so common feel so isolating? Hearing others’ stories has given me substantial solace, so by telling mine, I hope I can give some too. If you’re in this painful club, I’m so with you,” Taub shared.
She didn’t stop there. She went into the specific details of her losses, and she used this moment of vulnerability to raise money for reproductive healthcare, which she wrote: “I now see in a stark new light.”
Taub shared that the day before “Ragtime” opened, she began to miscarry, and a few days later, she was rushed to the ER. She was having contractions, hemorrhaging and losing a significant amount of blood. The only way to save her life was a procedure called a D&C, often performed after miscarriages to remove tissue from the uterus.
“Here’s what I didn’t understand before,” Taub wrote. “A D&C for miscarriage management is the exact same procedure used for abortions — and it’s illegal in over 20 states.”
“If this had happened elsewhere, I might not have made it,” Taub reflected. “Thousands of American women face this crisis daily. How many of them are bleeding out before they can travel across state lines? As we sing in ‘Ragtime’ — ‘what is wrong with this country?'”
Taub urged everyone made furious by this to donate to a special fundraiser she and her husband, Matt, started for future patients at Mt. Sinai Division of Complex Family planning. The hospital launched a care fund to help cover reproductive services for those fleeing bans after Roe v. Wade fell.
“The cost of one person’s full care is $2500. The best way to show us love right now is by paying it forward to women and families in situations like ours who don’t have the resources we do,” Taub wrote.
So far, Shaina and Matt have raised 99% of their $25,000 goal — quite an amazing feat!
Taub ended her post by quoting the Jewish revolutionary, Emma Goldman, who she is currently playing on Broadway: “Women need not always keep their mouths shut and their wombs open.”
Just like Goldman, Taub, who was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of 2024, is doing what she can to change the world. And we are so grateful.
