She found meaning where she least expected it — her childhood faith

Sarah Hurwitz grew up in what she would describe as a culturally Jewish home. But it wasn’t until she reached her 30s that she really connected with the spiritual identity she was raised with.

Sarah Hurwitz

I was set up on a friend date recently with a woman named Sarah Hurwitz. Mutual friends had been telling me about Sarah for years. She was one of the few women to serve as a speechwriter for President Barack Obama in the West Wing before she transitioned to lead speechwriter for first lady Michelle Obama. So she’s this accomplished person with some good anecdotes for a dinner party, for sure. But people kept saying we should meet because she’s interested in all the spiritual stuff that I’m leaning into these days.

So we met at a Lebanese restaurant in downtown Washington, D.C., and proceeded to talk about the meaning of life over stuffed grape leaves, hummus and way too many other side dishes.

Hurwitz grew up in what she would describe as a culturally Jewish home. Her parents weren’t religious, but they sent her to Hebrew school because that’s sort of what was expected. And they genuinely wanted her to understand her heritage and to feel part of a Jewish community. But it didn’t really take, and by the time she was 13 and had gone through the rituals of her bat mitzvah, she was like, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Religion wasn’t for her, and if she was going to get spiritual nourishment, it would have to come from somewhere else. But that somewhere else never materialized.

Then, in her 30s, after reaching the pinnacle of her career writing for the president of the United States, Hurwitz was craving a deeper sense of meaning in her own life, and she found it right back where she started.

I wanted to…