Rachel Irwin may be just 25, but she already could be considered a “woman of the world.”
Irwin, who started last week as staff writer for The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, has studied in India, taught in South Korea, and worked in Jerusalem.
But all of these experiences, important as they were, are subordinate themes in her biography; for Milwaukee-native Irwin knew at least from the time she was 12 that reading and writing would be the most important activities in her life.
“I always was a huge reader,” Irwin said in an interview. “My mom would just give me books.”
She also recalled that when she took a creative writing class in fifth grade at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, the teachers praised her work. “It was something I was good at.”
After graduating from Whitefish Bay High School, Irwin, daughter of Jewish educator and psychotherapist Marilyn Kraar and videographer/photographer Jeff Irwin, studied English literature at Simmons College in Boston and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
It was during that time that she participated in a summer academic program in India, an experience that “changed my whole life,” she said. “It was an eye-opener to see how people live outside the United States. The color, the interactions … everything happens on the street in ways you don’t experience here.”
She also visited a synagogue of the Cochin Jewish community there, which, she said, was “the most beautiful synagogue I’ve ever seen.”
After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in May 2004, Irwin took advantage of “a great opportunity” to teach English in a South Korean middle school through a UW-Madison program. This both enabled her to save some money and got her thinking about journalism because she heard “all these stories,” particularly about the lives of women there.
After a year in South Korea, Irwin returned to Milwaukee, determined that she wanted to ‘try out journalism,” and discovered she had some Passport to Israel money that she needed to use. So she went to Israel to work as an intern for the Jerusalem Post for three months and obtain her “first real journalism experience.”
“I got to do a lot more than I thought I would,” Irwin said. She wrote feature articles for the paper’s arts and culture sections, edited copy and learned about doing page layouts.
She said she has learned that she particularly likes to write about “the intersection between art and politics.” In addition, “religion is a fascinating topic” that “infiltrates nearly every issue” in today’s world, she said.
At The Chronicle, “I hope to gain a lot of real world newspaper experience. And I hope I can add something positive to the paper,” said Irwin, who plans to attend graduate school in journalism next fall.
“Rachel is energetic, thoughtful and clearly takes a wide view,” said Chronicle editor Elana Kahn-Oren. “I’m looking forward to working with her and am certain that The Chronicle will be richer as a result of her contribution.”
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