Sarah Hurwitz is an American speechwriter. A senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2010, and head speechwriter for

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

from 2010 to 2017, she was appointed to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council by

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

shortly before he left the White House.

Biography

Hurwitz is from Wayland, Massachusetts. She attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

, and began her career as an intern in Al Gore's speechwriting office in 1998. She was chief speechwriter for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and deputy chief speechwriter for the presidential campaigns of Senator

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...

and General Wesley Clark. She was offered a job as a senior speechwriter for then-Senator Barack Obama in his presidential campaign days after Clinton conceded. Her first assignment for

was to work with her on her address to the

2008 Democratic National Convention The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform an ...

. She also wrote her speeches at the

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

2016 Democratic National Convention The 2016 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention, held at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from July 25 to 28, 2016. The convention gathered delegates of the Democratic Party, the maj ...

s. After a couple of years as a senior speechwriter for President Obama, Hurwitz became chief speechwriter for Michelle Obama and also worked on policy issues affecting young women and girls as a senior advisor to the White House Council on Women and Girls. After leaving the White House in 2017, she served as a Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' (), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ''The New York Times'' reported that Set ...

'' included Hurwitz in their Forward 50 list as one of 2016's fifty most influential

Jewish-Americans American Jews (; ) or Jewish Americans are Americans, American citizens who are Jews, Jewish, whether by Jewish culture, culture, ethnicity, or Judaism, religion. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Pew Research, approximately two thirds of Am ...

. She was also named to the 2019 Forward 50 List. Hurwitz's book, ''Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life -- in Judaism (After Finally Choosing to Look There)'', about her rediscovery of Judaism, was published by Spiegel & Grau on 3 September 2019. It debuted as the number 1 new release overall in the Jewish Life category on Amazon. Its Kindle edition, which sold less than its hardcover edition, was also the second highest new Kindle seller in the Amazon Jewish Life category as well. The book was a finalist for the 2019 National Jewish Book Award in two categories: "Contemporary Jewish Life and Practice" and "Education and Jewish Identity," as well as a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurwitz, Sarah Speechwriters for presidents of the United States People from Wayland, Massachusetts Harvard Law School alumni Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish women writers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women non-fiction writers Obama administration personnel 21st-century American women civil servants