About Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum

I was born and raised in New York, where I studied  modern dance and choreography.  The seed of my debut novel, A Day of Small Beginnings, was planted during the months I traveled alone in Europe at the age of eighteen. My shock at seeing a Paris street lined with plaques commemorating the World War II destruction of a Jewish community grew into a lifelong interest in Jewish history and theology, an interest completely at odds with my secular upbringing. It led me from Goddard College to New York University, where I majored in Religion and Philosophy, and to a graduate year of study in International Relations at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Upon returning to the United States, I moved to Los Angeles to work in the Press and Information Division of the Israeli Consulate.

In 1983, after graduating from Loyola Law School, I litigated a number of  constitutional cases related to church-state issues in California. Later, I left the practice of law to produce cultural programs for a cable television network. Two years after my first child was born, I took a creative writing class at UCLA and found that my sensibilities about writing fiction felt much like creating dance – a choreography with words.

In the mid-1990s I traveled to Poland with my in-laws, who are Holocaust survivors. Their experiences, particularly in the family’s hometown, inspired and informed much of A Day of Small Beginnings.

I live in Los Angeles with my husband Walt Lipsman. We have two daughters, Ariana and Maya. .

In addition to writing, I am the executive producer of the Genesis Arts Theatre, and have written a ten minute play produced by the Jewish Women's Theatre in Los Angeles

A Day of Small Beginnings was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection.