A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.
by Ira Stoll
September 8, 2019
Why be Jewish?
Nowadays, embracing Jewish identity and practice is optional, even for those who were born into it. Sarah Hurwitz’s own story is an example. By her own account, after dropping out of Hebrew school in sixth grade, she attended services on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur but otherwise wasn’t much Jewishly involved or engaged until, after a bad break-up at age 36, she enrolled in an introduction to Judaism class at the Washington, D.C., Jewish Community Center.
Hurwitz — who was a speechwriter for Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, and Barack Obama — was so impressed by what she discovered that she kept learning and doing. She has now written a book aimed at, as she puts it, showing others that “Judaism is worth choosing,” that it is full of “deep wisdom” and “can provide meaning, joy, and connection.”