Podcast: Sarah Hurwitz

Rabbi Rami talks with Sarah Hurwitz, author of the new book Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There).

Hurwitz is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. From 2009 to 2017, she worked in the White House, serving as head speechwriter for First Lady Michelle Obama and as a senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama. Prior to working in government, Hurwitz was the chief speechwriter for Hillary Clinton on her 2008 campaign for president and a speechwriter for Senator John Kerry and General Wesley Clark during the 2004 presidential election.

Her book explores what being Jewish means to her, and how she was energized by diving deeper into its many facets after reconnecting with her faith in her late 30s. In the book, she shares what she learned about “the wisdom and beauty and meaning Judaism offers.”

In her book, she reflected that, “My ancestry stretches back through a tenement on the Lower East Side, the shtetls of Eastern Europe, and presumably all the way to the ancient Near East.” Yet, after her bat mitzvah, she was fairly detached from her faith. “I was just kind of done with Judaism.”

How did she come back to Judaism? And why spend thousands of hours in search of deeper insights in the faith in order to write this book? These and other interesting topics take place during this podcast conversation.

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