Aish rules! One of the best things about living in Los Angeles is that Aish is only a couple of blocks away. Because I’ve been taking classes at Santa Monica College though, I haven’t had a chance to take advantage of this little miracle. In New York, going to Aish means a long subway ride… Continue reading Learning & the Rabbi’s wife
A coworker of mine was planning her wedding. She was telling us about it when she went a little off topic and started discussing her relationship with her mother. All I could think was, “WHOA, this sounds like an abusive relationship.” And I tried as kindly as possible to point that out as the conversation… Continue reading Honoring My Parents
Newsworthy Item from Consumerist.com: Delta Makes Woman With Muscular Dystrophy Crawl Off Plane Traveling is difficult when you’re disabled and according to the article above, Delta made it much, much worst for one handicapped passenger. Though my travel experiences have been nowhere near as arduous, my first and only flight to Israel was so upsetting… Continue reading The not so friendly skies
Monica Almeida/The New York Times The Pacific Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue, on the colorful Venice Beach boardwalk. One of my favorite places in California is the synagogue on Venice Beach. I’ve only been inside once but it strikes me as truly awesome that there’s an Orthodox synagogue in the middle of the chaos and… Continue reading Davening @ Venice Beach
The bed started shaking while I was lying leisurely in bed reading yet another book on writing. My first thought was to wonder what the hell those people downstairs were doing that could make my bed shake. Then I realized there were no people downstairs. There was no “downstairs,” I was on a first floor!… Continue reading Registering a 5.4 in Magnitude
Los platanos maduros (the ripe, fried plantains). My latest article, Gefilte Fish Con Maduros: A Multicultural Jewish Family, is currently at Interfaithfamily.com. Like the subheader notes, it’s about my multicultural Jewish family. The ups, the downs and everything in-between. I wonder if my husband realizes that in this scenario, he’s the gefilte fish. Hmm. Best… Continue reading Gefilte Fish Con Maduros
Hi, my name is Aliza. I’m an Orthodox Jew. Sorry, but that doesn’t mean I’m a crazy religious fanatic. A reader emailed me an article from the Forward, “Invoking Rosa Parks, Haredi Women Move to Back of the Bus” The article details a situation that has Haredi women in Israel showing their modesty by choosing… Continue reading Fun with Labels
The New York magazine feature, “Escape from the Holy Shtetel” chronicles the sad story of an American Jewish Family. The would-be heroine of the tale is Gitty. Gitty escaped from her Satmar town only to have her daughter kidnapped and taken back to the town by her ex-husband. The tale paints a picture of two… Continue reading Escape from the Holy Shtetel
Harrison Ford is Jewish. I found this out on Shabbat. This, of course, led to an obsessive search for other Jewish actors on Wikipedia. I wish I could say this was my first search. But, alas, it wasn’t. Back when I found out Sammy Davis, Jr. converted to Judaism, I put in a good amount… Continue reading Driven to Distraction
I made a decision that was tough for me last week. And so, of course, G-d in G-d’s infinite wisdom decided to test me on it this week. I was on the phone when a friend when I brought up davening (praying) in a synagogue. Davening in a synagogue has been a tough issue for… Continue reading Disabled people should be neither seen or heard
Memoirs of a Jewminicana 