Esther Gerstenfeld Erman

Currently living in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area of California, Esther Gerstenfeld Erman was born in Stuttgart , Germany shortly after World War II and spent most of her formative years as a confirmed Easterner -- in New Jersey . Esther’s fascination with language probably has deep roots in her frustration at not being able to speak English when she began kindergarten in the Bronx. Deciding to abandon her first language, Yiddish, she immersed herself in English and learned with amazing speed. Learning English was only the beginning of her love of language. She went on to earn a BA and MA in French as well as an EdD in Language Education -- all at branches of Rutgers University. Esther’s passion for books, rooted in an accident that curtailed her freedom to read as much as she wanted during childhood, grew along with her love of language. She is blessed to be able to combine both loves in her writing.

Growing up in a refugee family with parents who were Holocaust survivors shaped Esther’s early life. A wife and mother at a very young age, Esther was further blessed to have two excellent children -- Gregory and Caryn, who are now grown and living, alas, far away. Greg, who teaches at a university in England, and his wife Lindsay have blessed Esther with a totally adorable grandson, Benjamin , born Dec. 5, 2002. Esther’s first book, based on her efforts to come to know her maternal grandmother who’d died before her birth, has come out when Esther herself is discovering the joy of being a grandmother.

After her divorce from her first husband Esther undertook doctoral studies, which included a study of the impact of the Holocaust on the Yiddish language. When she was in the last phase of her doctoral work, Esther had the extreme good luck to meet Lee Erman, now her husband since 1997, in the romantic setting of a retreat in upstate New York. Before meeting Lee, she’d never been west of Chicago -- and intended to keep things that way. Meeting him opened up a whole new world -- both geographically and artistically.

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© 2003 Esther Gerstenfeld Erman