Esther Safran Foer

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Esther Safran Foer (born 1946) is a writer and the former executive director of Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.

Contents

Early life

Esther Safran was born in Łódź, Poland to Louis and Ethel Safran, Holocaust survivors who met in 1945. She spent her early childhood in a displaced persons camp before moving with her family to the United States in 1949. [1] [2] The family later settled in Washington, DC. Esther's father died by suicide in 1954. [3] [4] [5]

Family

Safran Foer is married to Bert Foer, a lawyer and president of the American Antitrust Institute. They have three sons; novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, and journalists Franklin and Joshua Foer. [4] [6]

Career

Foer worked as press secretary for presidential candidate George McGovern. She founded public-relations firm FM Strategic Communications in 2002 and served as executive director of Sixth & I Synagogue from 2007 to 2016. [7]

In 2008, The Forward recognized Foer as one of its Forward 50. Washingtonian included Foer in their 2015 list of The Most Powerful Women in Washington. [8]

In 2020, Foer published her memoir I Want You To Know We’re Still Here . [9] [3] In it she describes how she discovered and explored the existence of her father's first wife and daughter, who were murdered in the Holocaust. [10]

References

  1. Foer, Esther Safran (2020). I Want You to Know We're Still Here. Crown Publishing Group. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-525-57600-6.
  2. "I Want You To Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir: Publishers Weekly". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  3. 1 2 "'I Want You to Know We're Still Here' is a memoir of heartbreak and horror - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  4. 1 2 Weiss, Melissa (March 31, 2020). "Esther Safran Foer wants you to know she's still here". Jewish Insider. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  5. "Author Discusses Her 'Post-Holocaust Memoir'". NPR.org. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  6. "The Foer Family". Observer. December 18, 2006. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  7. "Esther Foer Is Stepping Down From Sixth & I in September". Washingtonian. July 7, 2016. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  8. "Board of Directors | Jewish Women's Archive". jwa.org. Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
  9. Foer, Esther Safran (2020). I Want You to Know We're Still Here. Crown Publishing Group. ISBN   978-0-525-57600-6.
  10. Joseph, Anne. "Safran Foer matriarch joins author kids with her first book, on Holocaust roots". The Times of Israel . ISSN   0040-7909 . Retrieved May 26, 2020.