Elissa Strauss

About

For the past decade and a half, I have written extensively about the politics and culture of parenting and caregiving, covering both the stressors and the pleasures of care. My work has appeared in publications like the Atlantic, Glamour, Elle, the New York Times, and elsewhere. I have worked as a contributing writer to CNN.com and Slate, where I covered the intersection of motherhood and feminism.In 2024, I published "When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others" (Gallery Books/ Simon & Schuster). In it, I pull the care crisis up by its roots, answering the questions: What would it mean to vale care in our lives, communities and countries? And, how has care been left out of the human story for so long? In it, I move us beyond the fairy tale/ nightmare paradigm, and dive into the rich, messy, challenging and transcendent terrain that is caring for another human being. In addition to my writing work, I have been a Jewish cultural creator for over a decade. I am the artistic director of LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture, a non-theological house of study for culture-makers in which ancient texts are used to inspire art, ideas and communities. I direct the LABA hub in the Bay Area, and help oversee the five other LABA hubs around the world. I also lead workshops for Jewish cultural organizations using LABA-style text study, and produce large-scale events with the goal of expanding notions of what Jewish engagement can look like. In 2024, I curated the California Jewish Open at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, choosing 53 pieces from over 500 submissions to tell the story of what Jewish-identifying artists in California think about the connection. In all of this work, I try to create a new future with a close and curious look at the past.