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Sarah Hurwitz
53 quotes
“thumb|Slik skrev hun Michelle Obamas taler med Sarah Hurwitz moderator Hans Olav BrennerI wrote (Obama’s) first college graduation speech, which was at Arizona State University,” Hurwitz said. “In 2009, our economy was crashing … and he was kind of busy. We could get a meeting with him, but he was really distracted.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Michelle Obama had “high technical standards” for her work and frequently adjusted her speeches to insert her own voice,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every transition had to be perfect,” she said of her experience working with the former First Lady. “A lot of the flow with a brilliant lawyer in mind had to be asking her, because she would just hone in on whatever was weak.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s really a pleasure to come here and to be able to share that mission, that volume (and) to share what it is that is so meaningful about those 4,000 years of wisdom in the Jewish tradition and how it’s affected my career and my life,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Former White House speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz speaks on Jewish identity at Northwestern Hillel The Daily Northwestern (October 13, 2023)
“Being a really proud, open Jew at a time like this is incredibly important,” Hurwitz told The Daily Cardinal. “I'm really grateful to have the chance to be a proud, open public Jew on campuses and to hopefully inspire Jewish students and all students to really appreciate [their] Jewish classmates and to appreciate [the] Jewish tradition.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Everyone's like, ‘Oh, you're on a spiritual journey.’ I was not. It could have been a karate class or ceramics class,” “This was 4,000 years of wisdom on the human condition. What it means to be a good person, what it means to live a worthy life, what it means to find profound spiritual connection. I just felt like, ‘where has this been all my life?’”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So many Jews in America have so many friends and family members in Israel, and it is really devastating and wrenching,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“it’s been “devastating” having to repeat throughout the day “that kidnapping toddlers and killing babies and raping women is not resistance" and to have to "again and again" condemn "the celebration of the death of civilians on any side of any conflict.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[The] kind that says, ‘Look, we're not going to hurt Jews. We're not going to kill Jews. We just ask that Jews kind of change themselves to fit whatever we find acceptable,'”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Former White House speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz speaks about finding her Judaism, writing her novelThe Daily Cardinal (October 12, 2023)
“It’s just been a tremendously hard week,” Hurwitz said. “I think [of] so many Jews in America, so many friends and family members in Israel, and it’s just … really devastating and wrenching.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And then I got hired on the Obama campaign and he won, which was a mind blowing new experience for me … And I got to go to the White House,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You’re [the First Lady] there really to have a conversation with America, and to focus on issues being paramount,” Hurwtiz said. “I think Mrs. Obama’s [style] was also just much more operational, much more emotional. And that’s the kind of speaker and writer I am.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There were lots of intro ‘nuts and bolts books,’ which were fine,” Hurwitz said. “There were lots of very boring, esoteric academic books, which were less fine, and there was just nothing that spoke to someone like me who was like, ‘alright, I want the deepest, most transformational, most life changing wisdom, and I also need the basics’ and so I just thought maybe I can write a book like that.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was writing speeches for [Michelle] Obama, we were writing partners, right? It wasn’t me alone,” Hurwitz said. “She was giving me pretty much all the ideas … and suddenly writing a book — I was like, ‘Wow, just me’… It was very lonely.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So when you have a Jewish law that says, if you loaned money to someone who was financially struggling, and you happen to see them coming down the street toward you, you should actually try not to run into them,” Hurwitz said. “Because you know what, if you know they’re still struggling, if they can’t pay you back? You’re gonna embarrass them, right?”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And so I think just getting used to beginning to understand how being a minority in a majority culture affects how they see themselves,” Hurwitz said about the purpose of her next book. “And how they see the traditions, and how we can begin to kind of peel away those layers and really engage authentically with our tradition in Jewish terms.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Obama administration speechwriter speaks at UW Hillel The Badger Herald (October 11, 2023)
“Speech writing is kind of a weird job,” Hurwitz said. “Right? You want to be a lawyer, you go to law school. You want to be a doctor, you go to med school. How do you get to be a speech writer? The answer for me was actually a lot of failure.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I made kind of an unusual White House career move: I went from the West Wing –– writing for the President –– to the East Wing –– writing for the first lady,” Hurwitz said. “I knew that I was a better fit for her voice. I just had a better feel for her. I was more interested in the subject she was talking about.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think you can make arguments on all sides of the political spectrum using Jewish texts,” Hurwitz said. “I don’t think there is any one authentic Jewish position on immigration, poverty or healthcare. Conservatives can use the Torah and Jewish law, liberals can use Torah and Jewish law.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So often when people are preparing something they want to speak about, they want to know, ‘what can make me sound smart, or powerful, or funny? What does my audience want to hear?’” Hurwitz said. “These are all fine questions, but they should be your second or third question. Your first question should really be, ‘what is the deepest, most important, most helpful truth that I can tell?’”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Former Obama Speech Writer Sarah Hurwitz Grapples With Faith and Politics The Cornell Daily Sun (March 30, 2022)
“I don’t think I’m the only Jew who has viewed Judaism as if it were a distant relative whom I loved in a vague familial way and was required to see a few times a year but had no desire to get to know further,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In new book, Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz goes on a Jewish journey Jewish Telegraphic Agency (September 11, 2019)
“What never fails to move and inspire me is her unshakable sense of right and wrong,” speechwriter Hurwitz says of her boss. “She has such a strong moral core and such a clear set of values, and she’s expressed that in pretty much every speech she’s given.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She was a proud Roosevelt Democrat, and as a young woman, she dreamed of going to law school and having a career in politics – but women didn’t really have those kinds of opportunities back then,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It never ceases to amaze me that just two generations later, I have walked through the Northwest Gate of the White House every day for the past eight years to get to work.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I start by talking with her, and she’ll lay out the points she wants to make. We work together during the editing process until it’s precisely what she wants to say,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The speechwriter plagiarised by Team Trump The Guardian (20 December 2016)
“Everyone there seemed to know each other from Jewish summer camp and be in on some inside joke to which I was not privy, and I couldn’t follow any of the prayers or rituals,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I signed up less to fulfill some existential longing and more to fill a couple of hours on a Wednesday night that would otherwise have been spent feeling lonely in my apartment,” she notes in “Here All Along.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I fell in love with the texts,” Hurwitz told J. in a recent interview, explaining how a spark had been ignited. Her days of “pediatric Judaism”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If someone has something of value” to add to her understanding, Hurwitz said, their religious or political affiliation matters little to her. She references scores of Jewish thought leaders throughout “Here All Along” as she charts her religious and spiritual journey.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is very much a spiritual practice for me. A lot of joy has come from the basics,” she said. When she understands what a prayer means,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The belief that every single one of us is created in the image of God has been cited as the defining Jewish idea,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Former White House speechwriter charts her Jewish journey The Jewish News of Northern California (September 19, 2019)
“The defining truth about working with the first lady is this,”“She always knows what she wants to say—period.”“She has an unwavering sense of who she is and exactly what points she wants to make.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But I sat back and really started to think about it and realized that if … my real passion was government and politics, then I’d better do this,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For me, speechwriting is about telling the stories that too often just don’t get told,” Hurwitz said. “There’s a lot of quiet daily heroism in this country—people who get up every day and build lives driven by love, courage, and self-sacrifice.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m not sure what comes next,” she said. “For now, I’m just trying to enjoy every minute of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sarah Hurwitz has quietly helped craft some of the first lady’s most memorable speeches Harvard Law School (November 1, 2016)
“There isn't really a university major in speech writing,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lot of the time you are spending alone in your office, sitting at a computer, just trying to come up with the right words for the moment,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The line, 'When they go low, we go high.' That was her line. That was not my line. That was Mrs. Obama's line entirely,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I just typed it into the speech. That's one I'm very proud of.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you wouldn't say something to one person don't say it to many people.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A good rule of thumb is if you wouldn't say something to one person don't say it to many people. It actually doesn't get better,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the political world it's all these slogans like, 'We need to put hard-working, middle-class-family values first,' or in business you get a lot of, 'We need to catalyze our platform to leverage transformational change.' You know, you never speak to your friend, your spouse, like this. That's not how normal people speak.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tips from one of the 21st century's most accomplished speech writers CBC (May 28, 2018)
“Mrs. Obama is … a fundamentally authentic, honest person. She doesn’t say something unless she truly believes it, and people respond to that,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I knew I wanted to work in politics somehow, but I had no idea where,” she said. “It’s hard to know what these jobs actually entail when you’re just a student.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Writing for Harkin — I just didn’t really know how to write a speech. I was sort of freelancing, just doing my best. But by the end of the year, I think they were really happy that I decided to go to law school,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He really helped me understand what makes a good speech,” said Hurwitz. “He really taught me the art of writing to be heard, as opposed to read, which I don’t think I quite understood.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was so incredibly proud to work for Hillary. I love her. She’s been one of my heroes since I was a kid. But I also came to really respect and admire Obama, and so when she conceded I was really thrilled to be able to go work for him.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The speech always starts with her — sitting down with her and having her articulate what she wants to say, how she wants to say it, what her tone will be, what her message will be,” said Hurwitz. “That’s the heart of the speech.”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think a great speech is something that says something profoundly true, period. So often, people ask the wrong questions when they’re thinking about delivering a speech. They ask, ‘What will make me sound smart,’ ‘What will make me sound powerful,’ ‘What will make me sound funny,’ ‘What will make the audience like me?’”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want them to understand that success in politics is not about a well-ordered, linear series of successes … Nobody succeeds in politics that way,”
Sarah Hurwitz (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source