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Abigail Pogrebin

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Abigail Pogrebin
Born (1965-05-17) May 17, 1965 (age 59)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Parent(s)Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Bert Pogrebin
FamilyRobin Pogrebin (sister)

Abigail Pogrebin (born May 17, 1965) is an American writer, journalist, podcast host[1] for Tablet magazine, and former Director of Jewish Outreach for the Michael Bloomberg 2020 presidential campaign.[2]

Family and early life

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Pogrebin was born in New York to a Jewish family, the daughter of an author and feminist activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin, the co-founder of Ms. magazine, and Bert Pogrebin, a management-side labor lawyer, and is the identical twin sister of New York Times journalist Robin Pogrebin.[citation needed] At 16, she was the youngest member of the original Broadway cast of Hal Prince’s production of Stephen Sondheim's musical Merrily We Roll Along, which closed in November 1981 after 44 previews and only 16 performances.[3] She graduated summa cum laude from Yale University.[4][5]

Pogrebin married David Shapiro in 1993, and they have two children.[6][7]

Pogrebin's sister-in-law, Alina Arenal (married to brother David Pogrebin in 1998) also had a career at a Times-related entity, the New York Times Foundation.[8]

Career

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After graduating from Yale in 1987, Pogrebin became a broadcast producer for Mike Wallace, Charlie Rose and associate producer for Ed Bradley at 60 Minutes and Bill Moyers at PBS and before that for The MacNeil/Lehrer Report and Fred W. Friendly.[6][9] Afterwards she turned to freelance journalism and published articles in magazines and newspapers like Newsweek, New York Magazine, The Forward, Tablet, and The Daily Beast.[10][11][12]

She has moderated conversations for The Jewish Community Center in Manhattan (JCC), the Streicker Center, UJA Federation, and the Shalom Hartman Institute.[4]

Pogrebin is the author of My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew, published in 2017,[13][14] which was a finalist for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award, and the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish, for which she interviewed 62 famous American Jews, — from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Steven Spielberg — about their religious identity.[15] Her second book, One and the Same: My Life As an Identical Twin and What I’ve Learned About Everyone’s Struggle to Be Singular,[16] was published in October 2009. Her 2011 book Showstopper documents her time in the cast of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” and Pogrebin is featured in the 2016 Netflix documentary film by director Lonny Price, Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened.[17]

She served as the president of New York's Central Synagogue from 2015-2018, and in November 2019 she joined former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign as the Director of Jewish Outreach.[18][19]

Tablet Magazine’s podcast, “Parsha in Progress” features a regular Torah discussion with Pogrebin and Rabbi Dov Linzer, who is the president of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah.[20] Pogrebin moderated and wrote the Tablet Magazine series, “The Minyan,” which zeroes in on one aspect of Jewish life through the voices of those who live it. She has written about antisemitism in The Atlantic and the Jewish New Year in Vogue.[21][22]

Awards

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Pogrebin received the “Impact Award”[23] from the JCC in Manhattan, and the “Community Leader Award” from The Jewish Week in 2017.[24] Her 2017 book My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew was a finalist for the 2018 National Jewish Book Award.[citation needed]

She received the second place award for the 2021 Excellence in Enterprise Religion Reporting from The Religion News Association and received an honorable mention in the category of for Excellence in Special Sections or Supplements from The Jewish Press Association’s Rockower Awards in 2021 for her series in The Forward, “Still Small Voice: 18 Questions about God,” which asked 18 clergy and scholars about their own faith.[25][26][27]

Notes

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  1. ^ "Parsha in Progress on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. 21 September 2020. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  2. ^ Hanau, Shira. "Abigail Pogrebin Joining Bloomberg Campaign As Jewish Liaison". jewishweek.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2020-04-03.
  3. ^ "Merrily We Roll Along". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  4. ^ a b "Abigail Pogrebin". Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council. Archived from the original on 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  5. ^ Bolton-Fasman, Judy. "The Spiritual Adventures of Abigail Pogrebin". JewishBoston. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  6. ^ a b "Weddings – Abigail Pogrebin and David Shapiro". The New York Times. 1993-12-12. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  7. ^ Brawarsky, Sandee. "Discovering A Sense Of Belonging". jewishweek.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  8. ^ "WEDDINGS; Alina Arenal and David Pogrebin". The New York Times. 1998-05-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-16.
  9. ^ "Central Synagogue - Abigail Pogrebin - Honorary President". www.centralsynagogue.org. Archived from the original on 2012-12-07. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  10. ^ "Abigail Pogrebin". PearlCo Literary Agency. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  11. ^ Pogrebin, Abigail (2015-11-19). "30 Days, 30 Authors: Abigail Pogrebin". www.jewishbookcouncil.org. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  12. ^ "Abigail Pogrebin". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  13. ^ Gregory, David (2017-04-07). "You Shall Tell Your Child: In Time for Passover, a Journalist Celebrates a Year of Jewish Holidays". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  14. ^ Pogrebin, Abigail (7 October 2020). "The Feminist Passover: A (Third) Seder of Her Own". JWI. Archived from the original on 2021-01-24. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  15. ^ "Excerpt: 'Stars of David : Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish' by Abigail Pogrebin". ABC News. December 21, 2005. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  16. ^ "One and the Same", Google Books
  17. ^ Eve, Best Worst Thing That (16 November 2016). "How Being Part of A Rare Sondheim Flop Taught Me Lessons for Life". The Forward. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  18. ^ Abigail Pogrebin Joining Bloomberg Campaign As Jewish Liaison article in Times of Israel
  19. ^ "Abigail Pogrebin". Algemeiner.com. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  20. ^ "Parsha In Progress". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved 2021-03-01.
  21. ^ Pogrebin, Abigail (2020-09-24). "The Unexpected Power of a Virtual Jewish New Year". Vogue. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  22. ^ Pogrebin, Abigail (2022-04-12). "Why Is This Year Different From All Other Years?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  23. ^ JCC 2019 Annual Benefit JCC Official site
  24. ^ Highlights From The Jewish Week Gala 2017 Photo coverage at Times of Israel
  25. ^ "2021 winners". Archived from the original on 2022-03-02.
  26. ^ "AJPA - 2021 Competition". www.ajpa.org. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  27. ^ "Still Small Voice Archives". The Forward. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
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