Book Review
Lost Founder Finds Herself by Harriet Rossetto
154 pages │ Author Solutions Incorporated │ August 2025
LOS ANGELES — Harriet Rossetto, the social worker who founded the long-term Jewish recovery center Beit T’Shuvah, has published a memoir documenting her departure from the organization and the personal reinvention that followed. The book, titled Lost Founder Finds Herself, recounts Rossetto’s four decades of work with incarcerated and addicted individuals and her life after stepping down from leadership.
Rossetto built Beit T’Shuvah as a residential treatment center grounded in spiritual and therapeutic practice. The center grew from a small halfway house to a recognized program serving people in recovery while integrating Jewish ritual, counseling, and community supports. Rossetto’s approach emphasized spiritual healing alongside clinical care, and her work drew national attention and honors.
The memoir is candid about the personal toll of founding and running a mission-driven nonprofit. Rossetto describes the emotional and professional strains that accompanied long stewardship of a high-demand organization and addresses the circumstances that led to her departure after roughly 40 years. The book frames this transition as a process of rediscovery rather than a closing chapter.
Readers will find in the pages a mix of institutional history and personal reflection. Rossetto recounts formative early cases, the development of program practices, and the decisive moments that expanded Beit T’Shuvah’s reach. She also reflects on faith, rehabilitation, and the ethical responsibilities of caretakers to both beneficiaries and the institutions they build. The narrative situates Beit T’Shuvah within broader discussions about faith-based recovery models in the United States.
Community leaders and observers say the memoir fills a gap in public understanding about the intersections of philanthropy, faith, and correctional reentry work. Beit T’Shuvah has been notable in Jewish communal life for addressing addiction and criminal justice issues within a religiously informed framework. Rossetto’s account offers a first-person perspective on efforts to destigmatize addiction in Jewish communities and to create institutional responses tailored to spiritual needs.
The book also touches on Rossetto’s partnership with Rabbi Mark Borovitz, a former inmate who became a spiritual leader and co-founder at Beit T’Shuvah. Their partnership is depicted as central to the center’s evolution and to Rossetto’s personal journey. The relationship has been the focus of prior profiles and a documentary that traces the unusual origin story of the organization.
Lost Founder Finds Herself has begun to draw attention from Jewish cultural outlets and book councils. Early listings and descriptions emphasize the memoir as both an institutional history and an introspective account of what it means to lose and then reclaim a life mission. The work follows earlier Rossetto publications and public appearances that documented her clinical and spiritual philosophy.
Rossetto’s career has included public recognition and invitations to national policy conversations. Profiles of her work note awards and engagements that elevated Beit T’Shuvah’s model in conversations about addiction services and faith-based programming. In recent years, the organization established scholarship funds and other institutional mechanisms in her name to preserve access to treatment.
The memoir will be of particular interest to readers in the Jewish community and to professionals in social work and addiction services. It offers an inside look at the practical and ethical dilemmas faced by nonprofit founders, especially those who lead faith-informed programs that serve vulnerable and stigmatized populations. The text invites reflection about succession, institutional sustainability, and the personal renewal that can follow a lifetime of public service.
This article is based on verified information from Beit T’Shuvah, Harriet Rossetto’s official website, Jewish Book Council listings, publisher and retail descriptions, and recent press coverage, including a documentary feature.