Divine Corners, a hamlet within the town of Fallsburg, New York, no longer exists. Michelle Friedman ’74 P'12'15 writes to keep its memory alive.
The hamlet is also the name of Friedman’s first memoir, set to release in May 2026. In its pages, she revisits her childhood on a chicken farm in the Catskills, while interspersing stories from her parents’ lived experiences in the Holocaust.
“It’s a story about family tragedy, resilience, immigration, coming into America, and landing in a place that you really have no belonging to,” said Friedman.
Friedman experienced a “chasm” between her family’s culture and the surrounding world during her childhood. Growing up in a very rural and sparsely populated area, she didn’t have many other children she could relate to as her parents were likely the only Holocaust survivors in the vicinity. As a child, Friedman always had a keen interest in her family history and psychology — an interest that would inevitably evolve into her career as a psychiatrist.
Born out of her own personal and familial history, she began writing the memoir during the pandemic in 2020. With a little bit more free time, Friedman signed up for a memoir writing class. Every week, she and her peers submitted five new pages.
“COVID was a profound time…it made all of us much more aware of mortality and time,” said Friedman. “I just kept on writing, and I didn’t really know what form it would take.”
Friedman graduated from Barnard with a degree in religion. She went on to attend medical school at New York University to become a psychiatrist. Her current work focuses on the Jewish community and, more specifically, the rabbinate and pastoral counseling.
“I was trained as a psychiatrist — we’re not usually in the business of revealing that much of ourselves,” said Friedman of making the foray into the autobiographical.
And while this may be Friedman’s first memoir, she is no stranger to writing. She co-authored a guide to working with congregants in 2016, The Art of Jewish Pastoral Counseling alongside Rachel Yehuda.
In August 2022, she penned a moving piece for the beloved New York Times weekly column, “Modern Love.” The piece, “A Last Act of Intimate Kindness,” was a poignant story detailing her brother’s death and their final moments. It eventually evolved into the last chapter of Divine Corners.
The memoir features a blurb, written by Elaine Pagels, a former Barnard professor and chair of the religion department, and Friedman’s former mentor during her undergraduate tenure.
Friedman’s ties to her alma mater run deep, not just in the pages of her memoir. Two of her three daughters are also Barnard alumnae. And one of her daughters’ Barnard peers helped edit Divine Corners, an intergenerational effort.
“It felt cozy and supportive,” said Friedman of her undergraduate experience at a women’s institution. “It felt right.”
And her Barnard journey didn’t end at her graduation. Friedman has stayed connected to Barnard in many ways over the years — as a member of The Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being Advisory Board, the President’s Advisory Council, the Science Advisory Council, the Parents Annual Fund Council, and Columbia/Barnard Hillel board. She and her husband also endowed the Friedman/Belfer Family Writing Fellows Fund.
As for Divine Corners, Friedman hopes her memoir preserves a piece of history for modern readers. Her writing is a monument to all of the lives included, and to the bygone world of small family farms. “Personal stories and real history that people connect to matter now more than ever,” she said.
“I want [Divine Corners] to awaken readers to their own experiences.”