Biography

Dr. Aliza Lavie

Dr. Aliza Lavie in the
Department of Political Studies
at Bar-Ilan University

Jewish Woman’s Prayer
Explored at AFBIU
Event in NYC

Dr. Aliza Lavie to Receive National Jewish
Book Award

On wings of prayer
By Tamar Rotem, Haaretz

Aliza Lavie's TV show
"Ve-ha-Reshut Netuna"
 channel 10



Watch TV show Promo

Israel's Channel 10 broadcast an interview with CTVP Director Rabbi Menachem Kutner about the work of Chabad's Terror Victims Project.
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About the Book

Book's Reviews

Questions and Comments
 

To Be a Jewish Woman
By Lavie, A., & Cohen, T.
(Eds.). (2005).
Jerusalem: Kolech

Dr. Aliza Lavie (was born in September 1964) is a lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University. In addition to her academic activity, Lavie is also a writer, publicist, media personality and social activist. Her areas of research include communications, multi-culturalism in Israel, and the role of women in Judaism. Her public activities focus on gender and Jewish culture. Aliza is one of the foremost personalities in Israel concerning the cultural-Jewish sphere. She aims to draw on past history to provide answers to contemporary issues and bring them to the fore of public discussion.

Her book A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book Tefilat Nashim is winner of 2008 National Jewish Book Award and a best-seller, and she is a sought-after speaker in Israel and overseas, on subjects relating to women’s prayers, Jewish culture and identity, Israeli society, and Israel-Diaspora relations.

As a social activist, she is a member of The Second Authority for Television and Radio, chairperson of Matan (a women’s Torah-study center) in Netanya, a member of “Your Voice - Kolech" – Religious Women’s Forum where she previously served on the Executive Board; she sits on the directorate of Izun village, Israeli Center for Treatment of Traveling Young Israeli Hallucinogenic Drug Victims and is one of the founding members of the Public Committee for Conversion to Judaism.

Aliza served as an officer in the IDF as a teacher of Land of Israel Studies. Following her discharge, she worked as a guide for the Society for the Protection of Nature. After her marriage to a lawyer, Tzuriel Lavie, the couple spent a year (1985) backpacking in the Far East. They later spent a year working as emissaries on behalf of the Bnei Akiva youth movement in Durban, South Africa. They have four children.

Aliza embarked on her public career in 1988, as advisor to the (then) political secretary of the Religious-Zionist Party (Mafdal), Shaul Yahalom. During the years 1990-1996, she served as Executive Director of the Public Council for Youth Exchange, initiating joint programs with other countries and international bodies. She studied at Bar Ilan University. Her doctoral dissertation on the subject of “Radio and Gender in Israel: Men and Women on News and Current Events Programs at the “Voice of Israel” and Army Radio”. This was one of the first attempts at an integrated analysis – both qualitative and quantitative – of the issue of gender, the products of the Israeli media, and their organizational aspect.

During the 2008-2009 academic year, Aliza was a Research Associate at Brandeis University. The connection between gender and the media continues to interest her and she is active in academic, social and public initiatives to further the status of women in Israel in general, and in the media in particular. She is a former deputy editor of “Patuah”, a journal published by the Department of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University, and is a Content Advisor to the Second Broadcasting Authority.

Her career as a media personality started in 1990 in the Department of Jewish Heritage on Channel One where she was a presenter on current affairs programs. She then became a news anchorwoman on Channel One's breakfast show. She co-hosted a radio show "From A Women's Point of View with Aliza and Ronit" with Ronit Lev-Ari. Since 2004, she edits and moderates a weekly show on Israeli and Jewish culture. She also authors frequent opinion pieces on current events for the press.

Aliza wrote the best-seller A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book Tefilat Nashim a collection of women’s prayers, was published by Yedioth Aharonoth in 2005 and has sold more than 110,000 copies, earning "Gold Book" & “Platinum Book” award. An English edition - A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book, was published in New York by the prestigious publishing company, Random House. The book will shortly be published in additional languages – Italian, Spanish and Russian.

She is the co-editor (with Prof. Tova Cohen) of the book To Be a Jewish Woman. Her new book, "The Jewish Backpack – a Bar Mitzva trek in Jewish Communities " is a multi-faceted exploration of the Bar-Mitzva ceremony among Jewish communities around the world which will appear in English and Hebrew, published by Koren.

Social Activities:

• Member of The Second Authority for Television and Radio

• (Former) Member of Executive Board of“Your Voice - Kolech" – Religious Women’s Forum

• Winner of Medal for Citizen's Rights – Kolech

• Chairperson of Matan (a women’s Torah-study center) in Netanya

• Advisor for Tenders for Regional Radio (2008)

• Content Advisor for The Second Authority for Television and Radio (2005)

• Member of Directorate of Izun village, Israeli Center for Treatment of Traveling Young Israeli Hallucinogenic Drug Victims

• Member of the executive committee and education committee of the Israeli Youth Hostels Association

• (Former) PTA Chairperson of Yavneh Religious Elemantary School in Netanya

▪ Tamar Rotem, Haaretz, solves 'A Jewish Woman's Prayer Book' secret of success
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