About Esther
Esther D. Kustanowitz is a Los Angeles-based writer and consultant specializing in social media, pop culture, Jewish community and innovation. Esther’s blogs, My Urban Kvetch and Jdaters Anonymous, have attracted a loyal following, and she regularly contributes to Beliefnet’s Idol Chatter, a blog about the intersection of spirituality and popular culture.
She has been involved in staffing, content creation, and online media promotion for the ROI Community of Young Jewish Innovators since its founding in 2006, and served as founding senior editor for PresenTense Magazine from 2006-2008. She wrote “First Person Singular,” a biweekly singles column for the New York Jewish Week, from 2004-2008. She also wrote “Sole Searching,” a monthly column on Jewish spirituality for GenerationJ.com, one of the first webzines for Jews in their 20s and 30s.
Esther was a featured plenary speaker on “Next Generation Jews”at the UJC General Assembly in 2007, where she spoke in front of 3,000 people from all over the US and Canada. In 2009, Esther - or @EstherK as she’s known in the Twittersphere - was named #10 to JTA’s list of 50 most influential Jewish Twitterers. Her list of freelance clients includes MTV Networks, JewishTVNetwork.com, DarimOnline, JCRC-NY, Yeshiva University, Professional Leaders Project, Jewlicious Festivals, Birthright Israel-NEXT, and the Berman Jewish Policy Archive.
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.
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 and 2009 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, led sessions on Jewish aspects of writing and improv comedy, and MC’d concerts and special events.
In 2006, Esther launched an introductory improv class for singles in New York, and since has conducted five classes in two cities. 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.
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, King Kong and “You’ve Got Mail.” In 2007 and 2008, 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.
TV & RADIO APPEARANCES
To see some of my TV appearances, see this post.
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.)
Transcript of interview on Kol Yisrael news (2008).
An interview with Esther appears here.
Professional Experience
Esther’s decade-plus years of experience working with the Jewish community includes full-time 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 01/2010)