About Deborah Levine

Summary

Deborah Levine is a writer and humanitarian whose work is deeply influenced by her family's legacy of activism and her diverse experiences in various communities and fields, leading her to become a prolific author, speaker, and advocate for diversity and community building.

Abstract

Deborah Levine's passion for writing and humanitarian work began early in her life, as evidenced by a childhood photo of her with a pencil and paper. Her family's history of social activism, including her great great grandfather's political activism and her grandfather's inclusive hiring practices, has significantly shaped her values. Levine's parents further instilled in her the importance of education, history, and the fight against prejudice. Her own experiences, from working with civil rights groups to teaching dance in diverse communities, have contributed to her understanding of cultural expressions and community building. Professionally, Levine has held significant roles, such as interfaith director and executive director of Jewish Federations, where she fostered intercultural dialogue and relations. Despite facing health challenges, she has continued to be a creative force, writing opinion columns, editing the American Diversity Report, and authoring 18 books.

Opinions

Levine views writing as a tool to inspire positive change in society.
She values the importance of family legacy in shaping one's commitment to social justice.
Levine believes in the power of storytelling and cultural expressions as means of connecting communities.
She advocates for inclusivity and equality, as seen in her family's history of hiring practices that defied discriminatory norms.
Levine sees creativity and intercultural exchange as key to personal and community growth.
Her experiences in Chicago politics have given her a fierce and enlightened perspective on community relations.
She is grateful for the opportunities and challenges that have shaped her career, particularly her time in Tulsa and Chattanooga.
Despite health setbacks, Levine considers her current phase of life to be her most creative.
She embraces the labels "prolific" and "compulsive" in regards to her writing and output.

About Deborah Levine

Deborah Levine

I’m a humanitarian by nature and a writer since I was in diapers. Really. I have a picture of me in diapers holding a number 2 pencil and a pad of paper, smiling at the camera. I use my writing to inspire the passion, humanity, and generosity in us to make a difference. Born in Brooklyn and brought up in Bermuda, I draw on my family’s legacy. My great great grandfather Simon Swig, who immigrated from Lithuania in 1875, demonstrated activism as the first Jew in the Massachusetts legislature. A banker, he lost everything when the local bankers guild forced him out business because he hired Jews, African Americans and women. Grandpa Myer Malloy, one of Bermuda’s Founding 400, hired the first black woman in a front office on the island. He had the humanity to built the segregated island’s first shopping mall where the black and white communities bordered so both could benefit.

In the next generation, mom passionately pioneered special education and storytelling as a teaching tool. Dad, who’d been a US military officer assigned to interrogate Nazi prisoners of war, became CFO of the American Jewish Archives. They taught us kids about history and prejudice and I started carrying the lessons forward even as a teen, working with SNCC, Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, and picketing Chemical Bank for supporting apartheid South Africa.

I published my first short story at age sixteen, but dance was my real dream and I choreographed for the high school dance troupe. Fortunately, a friend saw my deeper self and had me volunteer as a dance teacher at a mostly African American school nearby. I taught them ballet. They taught me break dancing and I experienced how creativity opens doors into new worlds. My bachelors degree in anthropology focused on storytelling and cultural expressions. My Urban Planning masters degree focused on the intersection of culture, religion, economics, and community building.

After graduation, I become the interfaith director of Chicago’s American Jewish Committee, and coordinated the National Workshop on Christian Jewish Relations. Given the wild environment of Chicago politics, the experience was both fierce and enlightening. Given the family’s love of archives, I documented it all and began publishing books. So thank you, Chicago.

And additional thanks to Tulsa’s Jewish Federation where I joined a commemoration of the Black Wall Street massacre. And to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I became the Executive Director of the Jewish Federation and arranged for Jewish and African American students to share traditional music and dance on stage. While I had to resign my job because I became deathly ill on a mission to Uzbekistan, this next phase of my life has been the most creative yet. I’m a newspaper opinion columnist, speaker, editor of the American Diversity Report, and an award-winning author of 18 books. Some folks call me prolific. Others call me compulsive. Yes, to both.