Jump to content

Esther Safran Foer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Early life

[edit]

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 committed suicide in 1954.[3][4][5]

Family

[edit]

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

[edit]

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

[edit]
  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. ^ a b "'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. ^ a b 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  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". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved May 26, 2020.