About Debra

An armful of books is one of the most delicious feelings I can imagine. Adventure, wisdom, mystery, all nestled in the crook of one arm, the crease in my elbow grins in anticipation. I was one of those luckynerdy kids who was happiest tucked away in my room, stomach to the mattress, a book propped against my pillow. The world fell away, leaving me free to enter the world of whatever author I was traipsing after.

Little surprise that I went from reading words to writing them. First journals and troves of letters, then essays, then books (two published; one in a drawer; one making the rounds), a blog and more essays. Book number one, This Jewish Life: Stories of Discovery, Connection and Joy, out of print for a few years, has just been brought out by the wonderful and dedicated folks at Read the Spirit Books. Book number two, I love Jewish faces, celebrates Jewish diversity.

My essays and feature stories have appeared in dozens of mainstream and Jewish presses including Good Housekeeping, Newsweek, Moment, Hadassah and the Forward. A riff on my cowboy boots (seal grey leather with wonderful turquoise tooling) a year or two back, got me selected as Real Simple’s Reader of the Month. In the not too distant future, Read the Spirit will be publishing Walking by the Way, Universal Wisdom from a Real Jewish Mother, a collection of my parenting essays written over the years.

For the last eight years, the practice of yoga has been my second passion. Can’t say enough about it: the physical challenge, the emotional transformation, the spiritual revelations. I aim to be one of those spry adventurers who continues to practice well into her nineties. Find a studio where you feel safe and skilled teachers to guide you. There’s nothing better.

Except maybe hiking out west, a communion I am grateful to be able to share with my husband. Red rocks, big sky, wind whispering through the canyons. They don’t call it God’s country for nothing. A human being can feel downright puny and insignificant out there, yet part of a whole as great as time and the mountains. Nowhere I’d rather be.

Unless it’s with my two kids, Elliot and Emma, the sun and moon by which I chart my days. Never imagined I’d have a child on each coast but I guess that’s how God manifests Divine humor. They are each involved in their own creative endeavors, delighting all who encounter them but most of all their proud mom, who loves them to the farthest galaxies and beyond. And now, Elliot has brought us his beshert, Elizabeth, whom we love and cannot wait to have as our daughter-in-law.

So that’s me at the moment: wordsmith, yogini, hiker, wife and mom. The order changes with the sun and the seasons. Thank you for visiting. Don’t be strange, as they say in the South. By which is meant, please come back and visit again.

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