Randi Abramson

Dr. Randi Abramson has devoted her medical career to caring for the poor of Washington, D.C. A primary care physician, she is the medical director of Bread for the City, a clinic providing services to the underserved of the nation’s capital city. Randi is married to Michael Lieberman, an attorney for the Anti-Defamation League, and mother of three grown children.

Scope and Content Note

Randi Abramson grew up in Toledo, Ohio, where she felt like a minority as a Jew. Her family had a mix of Jewish observance, with her mother being raised reform and her father Orthodox. She chose to become a doctor because she wanted to make a difference in people's lives and have a hands-on impact. In medical school, she faced challenges as a woman in a male-dominated field and had few female role models. She decided to work in a community setting, specifically serving the poor. Randi has been working at a clinic called Bread for the City in Washington, D.C. since 1991. She finds great fulfillment in her work and appreciates the strong sense of community and mutual respect she experiences with her patients. She believes that education is crucial for empowering individuals to make informed decisions about their health and lives. Randi and her husband, who also works in the non-profit sector, have chosen to educate their children at a Jewish day school to provide them with a strong Jewish knowledge base. Despite the challenges of balancing work and family life, Randi is committed to being present for her children and finds support from her husband and a supportive work environment. She sees herself as a role model for her children and strives to instill in them the values of community involvement and making a positive impact on the world. Randi also reads Torah and feels a deep connection to her Jewish identity. She explains that working with the poor has taught her the importance of recognizing each individual's strengths and the power of community.

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How to cite this page

Oral History of Randi Abramson. Interviewed by Deborah Ross. 22 January 2011. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on November 21, 2024) <https://jwa.org/oralhistories/abramson-randi>.

Oral History of Randi Abramson by the Jewish Women's Archive is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://jwa.org/contact/OralHistory.