About
Ted Merwin is a writer who has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of American culture and institutional leadership.
He is the author of Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli (NYU Press, 2015), winner of the National Jewish Book Award, and In Their Own Image: New York Jews in Jazz Age Popular Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2006).
He serves as Book Architect at Authority Company, the publishing imprint of Forbes Books, where he develops book plans and ghostwrites manuscripts for business executives, entrepreneurs, and senior leaders across industries.
From 2021 to 2026 he served as Senior Writer and Historian at Jewish Federations of North America, where he was the principal writer for the President and CEO and successive volunteer Board Chairs. He wrote speeches, op-eds, talking points, and institutional communications on the major issues facing Jewish life and U.S.-Israel relations. His ghostwritten op-eds appeared in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Haaretz, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, JNS, JTA, The Hill, and other major outlets.
Earlier in his career he spent seventeen years founding and directing the Hillel at Dickinson College. He also served as Synagogue Initiative Director for AIPAC in the Mid-Atlantic and as Interim Executive Director of Beth Am Synagogue in Baltimore. He has taught public speaking and communications for more than twenty-five years, training clergy, lay leaders, and students to speak with presence and confidence on significant occasions.
He holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from the City University of New York Graduate Center and a B.A. summa cum laude from Amherst College. He has published more than 750 freelance articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Haaretz, The Forward, and other publications.
He lives in Baltimore.
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