Trudi Chamoff Hauptman was born in Brooklyn, NY, to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who began their experience in America as sweatshop seamstress and tailor. After earning her BA from Hunter College (CCNY) with a special focus in social work, she spent 7 years as a medical caseworker in New York City hospitals, including NYC’s Bellevue Hospital. In the 1970s, she began a search for self-fulfillment that saw her experiment with positions as a professional baker, deli manager, and administrator.
When she moved from New York to California, Trudi again felt a desire to work in a field that would give back to society and thus began a 25-year career in nonprofit administration. Since settling in San Francisco, she has worked primarily with Jewish communal organizations. She has also been involved with a scientific group, a foster children’s advocacy program, and 6 years with a veterans’ rights organization.
Trudi has been involved with fiber crafts and wearable art all her life. She learned to crochet and knit at age 6 and graduated to sewing her own clothing. As a teen, she taught herself needlepoint and embroidery.
Although raised as a cultural Jew, she became part of the lay leadership of the progressive Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, the first openly gay congregation to be accepted by the Reform Movement’s Central Council of American Rabbis. This led to a part-time business making Judaic ritual items. In the last few years her work has more often involved creating art pieces that express her vision of a feminist Judaism. Trudi and her husband recently retired, and her hope is to be able to focus more on expressing this perspective.
Trudi is an active volunteer with the national organization Women’s Caucus for The Art and helps manage the local chapter Membership .
Trudi Chamoff Hauptman is also a member of:
Studio Art Quilt Association (SAQA)
Peninsula Wearable Art Guild (PenWAG)
Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Artists (CQFA)
Surface Design Association (SDA)
Textile Art Council (TAC)
