Toby Orlander was born in Furth, Germany after the Second World War, the child of Holocaust survivors.  She is the great-great-granddaughter of the Sambor Maggid, Reb. Mendel Fishel Treiber–a Maggid is a rabbi-storyteller, who educates by telling stories. While still in her infancy, her parents were fortunate enough to leave Europe and start anew in the USA. She spent her childhood in Pittsburgh, and in the 60s, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. There, Toby attended Bais Yaakov High School and Seminary, and after graduation, used her teaching skills at the Achi Ezer primary school in Flatbush.

Toby came almost full circle when she married her husband, Jacob Thaler, and moved back to Europe, residing in Antwerp, Belgium. She is a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and is a business entrepreneur, as the proprietress of the well-known Something Special gift shoppe in Antwerp, and in partnership with her daughter Esther, as co-owner of a dress shop TikoFallie.

She is the author Who by Fire Who by Sword-–available in bookstores worldwide.  Her feature stories and fiction have been published in the various magazines.