David Weill is the author of the new memoir Tell Me I Belong: A Journey Across Faiths and Generations. His other books include the novel All That Really Matters. He is also a physician, and is the principal of the Weill Consulting Group. He lives in New Orleans.
Q: What inspired you to write Tell Me I Belong?
A: Until recently, my story could only be punched out in fragmented bursts. I am the son of an agnostic Holocaust survivor and a Baptist mother from Selma, Alabama.
As such, while growing up in New Orleans, I fit neither neatly into the well-established Jewish community or into the gentile, and genteel, aristocratic crowd. I had an identity problem that was manifested by insecurity, the feeling that I never quite belonged, masked for many years by the transplant doctor bravado I so carefully cultivated.
The gratitude from my patients that I yearned for—and earned—provided sustaining nourishment that drove me forward. And that strategy worked, until it didn’t.
This book is about what I did when the trail defining my own identity went cold—and what I decided to do when that cold trail I had been living on for the first six decades of my life would no longer do.
The search is why I wrote the pages you are about to read, the ones I have spent a lifetime contemplating, ruminating about, and agonizing over.
Although I am just now putting this story on the pages that follow, I have been writing it my entire life.
Q: How was the memoir’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: One of the hardest parts of writing a book is choosing a title! This book is about my yearning to belong. I especially want to feel like a align with a specific group, to feel at home with that group. Being told I belong is a strong desire of mine, thus the title.
Q: How would you describe your religious identity today?
A: After doing the research for this book, the discussions I had and the self-reflection, I identify now as Jewish. It is my heritage and is undeniable.
Q: What impact did writing this book have on you, and what do you hope readers take away from it?
A: The book has had a huge impact on me. I have finally realized my true identity and am satisfied that I finally understand it. I couldn’t have come to this understanding unless I had written this book. It would not have been possible.
I hope readers can see themselves in this story, whether they are searching for their own religious identity or just identity in general.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am working on a sequel (as yet untitled) to my novel All That Really Matters, which was published in June of 2024. I’m busy writing the sequel now and am enjoying going on another journey with these characters, who I came to know and love. I can’t wait to see what happens to them!
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Find Tell Me I Belong: A Journey Across Faiths and Generations wherever you buy books. But please consider supporting your local independent bookstores.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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