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Sara Ehrman

April 24, 1919–June 3, 2017

by JWA Staff
Our work to expand the Encyclopedia is ongoing. We are providing this brief biography for Sara Ehrman until we are able to commission a full entry.

A political operative who served as deputy director of issues and research for George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, Sara Teitelbaum Ehrman had an inadvertent brush with history when she drove Hillary Rodham to Arkansas while urging her not to marry Bill Clinton. At age fifteen, Ehrman joined Young Poale Zion Alliance, a Labor Zionist group. She began working as a legislative assistant for Senator Joseph S. Clark in 1965, and while on the McGovern campaign, befriended young Hillary Rodham, for whom she became a mentor. Years later, Ehrman would serve as director of Jewish outreach on Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign and deputy political director of the Democratic National Committee from 1993–1996. In 2008 she renewed her lifelong relationship with Hillary Clinton, going door to door for her 2008 presidential campaign. Meanwhile, Ehrman continued her lifelong activism for Israel: in 1981 she founded Americans for Peace Now to support the Israeli group Peace Now, and from 1980–1985 served with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), rising to become National Political Director. She also served on the founding board of J Street, helping shape the organization. In 1996 she became a Senior Policy Advisor to the Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, where she served until her death.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "Sara Ehrman." (Viewed on December 25, 2024) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ehrman-sara>.