Loretta "Letty" Cottin Pogrebin is an American author, journalist, lecturer, and social activist. She is a founding editor of Ms. magazine, the author of eleven books, and was an editorial consultant for the TV special Free to Be... You and Me for which she earned an Emmy.
Early life and education
Pogrebin was born to a Conservative Jewish family in Queens, the daughter of Cyral and Jacob Cottin. Her father was a lawyer who was active in the Jewish community and her mother was a designer. She attended the Yeshiva of Central Queens and the Jamaica Jewish Center Hebrew High School. After graduating from Jamaica High School in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, she earned a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in English and American literature in 1959.
Career
She was a founding editor of Ms. Magazine and a cofounder of Ms. Foundation for Women and the National Women's Political Caucus. From 1960 to 1970, she worked for the publishing company Bernard Geis Associates as their director of publicity and later their vice president. From 1970 to 1980, she wrote a column for Ladies Home Journal called "The Working Woman." In 1976, the first women-only Passover seder was held in Esther M. Broner's New York City apartment and led by Broner, with 13 women attending, including Pogrebin. in 1977, Pogrebin became an associate of the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press. WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media. In 1979, the Supersisterstrading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Pogrebin's name and picture. She authored How to Be a Friend to a Friend Who's Sick, a guide, after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009. She was featured in the 2013 documentary film . Pogrebin is a life member of Hadassah, and in 2013 was awarded that year's Myrtle Wreath Award from Hadassah's Southern New Jersey Region. She is a board member of the Director's Council of the Women in Religion Program at the Harvard Divinity School, the Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication, and the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Brandeis University.
Personal life
With management-side labor lawyer Bert Pogrebin, a partner at Littler Mendelson, she is the mother of identical twin daughters, Robin Pogrebin and Abigail Pogrebin, and a son, David. She is the grandmother of six.
