About Esther
Esther D. Kustanowitz is a full-time freelancer who writes, edits and consults in varied areas of expertise including dating and relationships, Jewish life, pop culture and online social media.
She has been quoted as a dating-issues and pop culture expert for articles on MSN’s Dating and Relationships page, as well as in the New York Sun, Salon.com, NYMetro, New Voices, and Ad Age, and served as media relations director for 2007’s Jewlicious Festival. She was the PR and Media Consultant for ROI Summit 2007, a conference of young Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, and will repeat that role in 2008.
Esther has recently emerged as one of the up-and-coming voices in the world of Jewish blogging. Her two blogs, My Urban Kvetch and Jdaters Anonymous, have attracted a loyal following, and she regularly contributes to Jewlicious, and Beliefnet’s Idol Chatter blog.
From 2004-2008, Esther wrote “First Person Singular,” a biweekly singles column in the New York Jewish Week, where she has also published articles about Jewish standup comedy, Orthodox egalitarian wedding rituals, body image issues for teenage girls, and special needs Jewish education. From 2006-2008, Esther served as senior editor for PresenTense Magazine, a magazine for Jews in their 20s and 30s. She also wrote “Sole Searching,” a monthly column on Jewish spirituality for GenerationJ.com, a webzine for Jews in their 20s and 30s.
Publications
Esther is the author of The Hidden Children of the Holocaust: Teens Who Hid From the Nazis (Rosen Publishing, 1999), and has contributed to and edited several other books.
Esther’s articles have also appeared in The London Jewish Chronicle, Contact Magazine, PresenTense Magazine, The Reporter, World Jewish Digest, Lilith Magazine, J: The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, JTS Magazine, The Jewish Week and United Synagogue Review, and in several webzines, including JBooks.com, GenerationJ.com, MzVibe.com, and Jewznewz.com.
Performance and Public Appearance
In 2008, Esther has presided over panels on topics ranging from new Jewish media to Jewish dating ethics, conducted workshops on blogging and online social media/networking, and MC’d concerts and special events.
In 2006, Esther launched her introductory improv class for singles, and since has conducted five classes in two cities. During the Jewlicious @ the Beach conference in Long Beach, CA over President’s Day Weekend, Esther presided over and participated in a panel of Jewish writers talking about how their Jewish identity impacts their writing.
In April 2005, at a Federation young leadership event in Chicago, Esther performed an original improvised show based on her experiences as a singles columnist. She was a featured presenter at the Jewlicious/Beach Hillel student leadership conferences in Long Beach, CA (April 2005 and February 2006), where she spoke on “Being a Jewish Writer,” “Love and Relationships” and “On Being a Jewish Woman.” She also coordinated and facilitated an April singles workshop at the JCC of Manhattan titled “Rants & Raves: J-Dating in NYC.”
In 2004 and 2005, Esther performed with New York-area actors and comedians in an original Purim show scripted by writers from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Chris Rock Show. In 2005, she also wrote an original sketch for the show, “Desperate Matriarchs,” a biblically-themed rendering of current TV mega-hit “Desperate Housewives.” In 2006, she co-scripted a short film, “King Khash,” which blended the Purim story with the tale of King Kong with a side of “You’ve Got Mail.” In 2007, she provided a comical take on the Purim story that was distributed to all of the audience members at the Purim event.
Esther has taken numerous classes in sketch-comedy writing and improv, and performed in class improv jams at Chicago City Limits. In February 2003, she performed an original comic monologue at the JCC of Manhattan. She has also served as karaoke hostess/emcee for singles-oriented karaoke events and conducted Intro to Improv classes for Camp Ramah in the Berkshires Labor Day Alumni Weekend.
In September 2004, she appeared on FOX-5’s GOOD DAY NEW YORK to talk about the meaning of Rosh Hashanah, and in March 2005, her cheekbones were featured in an on-camera makeover given by soap opera actress Catherine Hickland on LIFE&STYLE. At the Salute to Israel Parade in June 2005, the cameras of NYCTV’s PARADETOWN USA interviewed Esther about her Jewlicious t-shirt. (Clips available on request.)
An interview with Esther appears here.
Professional Experience
Esther’s decade-plus years of experience working with the Jewish community includes stints at the Jewish Theological Seminary, as Director of Publications and editor of JTS Magazine, and at Hadassah, in two departments over six years. In 2003, she freelanced for the Hadassah Women’s Health Department, creating a script for an original video about health and body image for teenagers.
(revised 05/2008)