Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman, a name now synonymous with youthful brilliance, burst onto the national scene with a poem that made half the country weep and the other half wonder if they, too, could rhyme 'unity' with 'community' and get a book deal.

Born in Los Angeles, Gorman was raised by a single mother alongside her twin sister. Despite a speech impediment that could have silenced lesser mortals, she found her voice in poetry, eventually graduating cum laude from Harvard. Her path to literary stardom was paved with talent, hard work, and a rather fortuitous presidential election.

While her Jewish bona fides are, shall we say, negligible (unless Harvard now offers a minor in honorary kvetching, which, knowing Harvard, is entirely possible), her ability to captivate a nation with verse is undeniable. She brought a much-needed jolt of eloquence to a ceremony usually reserved for interminable speeches and sartorial scrutiny.

So, while we can't claim her as one of our own in the traditional sense, we can certainly appreciate the sheer chutzpah of a young woman who looked at a deeply divided nation and decided, 'I got this. In iambic pentameter, no less.'