Esther Safran Foer was born in Łódź, Poland to Louis and Ethel Safran, Holocaust survivors who met in 1945. She spent her early childhood in a displaced person camp before moving with her family to the United States in 1949 who later settled in Washington, DC.

Safran Foer worked as press secretary for presidential candidate George McGovern. She founded public-relations firm FM Strategic Communications in 2002 and served as Executive Director of Sixth & I Synagogue from 2007 to 2016. In 2008, Safran Foer was recognized by The Forward as one of its Forward 50. Washingtonian included Safran Foer in their 2015 list of “The Most Powerful Women in Washington.”

Her memoir, I Want You To Know We’re Still Here, was published in 2020 and details the story of how she discovered and explored her father’s first wife and daughter who perished in the Holocaust. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Bert. They are the parents of Franklin, Jonathan, and Joshua, and grandparents of six.