Meet Aliza Bulow
(click Meet Aliza for the short version, or click here for a 5 min video, click here for an hour long recording)
Aliza Bulow is the Founder and Director of WICK, a network that connects and supports women who work in Jewish Adult Education and Outreach across the globe. She mentors women in their roles as Jewish outreach professionals, and provides consulting for Jewish organizations across the country. In addition, she teaches classes, develops programs and offers individual spiritual guidance that helps fuel the spark of Jewish pride and involvement in people from across the spectrum of Jewish association. She lectures in a multitude of venues throughout Colorado, across the country and around the world.
Aliza’s intriguing background and diverse experiences allow her to relate genuinely and effectively to people from many walks of life. A thirteenth generation American, her family came to Massachusetts from England in 1634, seeking freedom of religious expression. The generations who followed were pioneers, explorers, and people of faith, who upset the status quo and endeavored to change the world for the better. Many of them were clergy, seeking deeper connections to the biblical origins of their faith, but none of them were Jewish.
Aliza’s parents had a strong faith of their own, which was expressed more in their vision of the goodness and potential of humankind than in the power of G-d. Indelibly influenced by an experience with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they were immersed in the civil rights movement, and worked tirelessly for equal opportunity for all races and the recognition of the dignity of every human being. As a little girl, Aliza marched in the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington D.C., as a kindergartner, she picketed the schools in Rochester, NY, as a sixth grader she participated in a year long, nation-wide “Family Field Study of Integrated Neighborhoods and Desegregated Housing”, and as a ninth grader, she helped integrate a predominantly black high school in Portland, OR. She was raised with the knowledge of both what her ancestors achieved, and of what her parents were working toward -- with the expectation that she too would assess the world around her, and work on improving it.
She began that assessment process at an early age. As a result, she rejected G-d and the attendant house-church based Protestantism of her family by the time she was eleven. She investigated many non-god-based spiritual systems before coming to the realization that G-d actually does exist, and at age 14, she began actively seeking a religious system that had a “G-d concept” with which she felt comfortable. When she discovered the book To Be A Jew by Rabbi Chaim Halevy Donin, it whetted an appetite for Jewish knowledge that has still not been sated.
Aliza Bulow is the Founder and Director of WICK, a network that connects and supports women who work in Jewish Adult Education and Outreach across the globe. She mentors women in their roles as Jewish outreach professionals, and provides consulting for Jewish organizations across the country. In addition, she teaches classes, develops programs and offers individual spiritual guidance that helps fuel the spark of Jewish pride and involvement in people from across the spectrum of Jewish association. She lectures in a multitude of venues throughout Colorado, across the country and around the world.
Aliza’s intriguing background and diverse experiences allow her to relate genuinely and effectively to people from many walks of life. A thirteenth generation American, her family came to Massachusetts from England in 1634, seeking freedom of religious expression. The generations who followed were pioneers, explorers, and people of faith, who upset the status quo and endeavored to change the world for the better. Many of them were clergy, seeking deeper connections to the biblical origins of their faith, but none of them were Jewish.
Aliza’s parents had a strong faith of their own, which was expressed more in their vision of the goodness and potential of humankind than in the power of G-d. Indelibly influenced by an experience with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., they were immersed in the civil rights movement, and worked tirelessly for equal opportunity for all races and the recognition of the dignity of every human being. As a little girl, Aliza marched in the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington D.C., as a kindergartner, she picketed the schools in Rochester, NY, as a sixth grader she participated in a year long, nation-wide “Family Field Study of Integrated Neighborhoods and Desegregated Housing”, and as a ninth grader, she helped integrate a predominantly black high school in Portland, OR. She was raised with the knowledge of both what her ancestors achieved, and of what her parents were working toward -- with the expectation that she too would assess the world around her, and work on improving it.
She began that assessment process at an early age. As a result, she rejected G-d and the attendant house-church based Protestantism of her family by the time she was eleven. She investigated many non-god-based spiritual systems before coming to the realization that G-d actually does exist, and at age 14, she began actively seeking a religious system that had a “G-d concept” with which she felt comfortable. When she discovered the book To Be A Jew by Rabbi Chaim Halevy Donin, it whetted an appetite for Jewish knowledge that has still not been sated.
Shortly after her 16th birthday, Aliza converted to Judaism. Six months later, having completed only two years of high school, she went to Israel for a year of study at Michlelet Bruria, where she converted again under Orthodox auspices. One year stretched into two, two turned into Aliyah and study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and year three found her serving in a religious Nachal unit of the Israeli Defence Forces. While in the army, she met Ephraim Bulow, who had come to Israel to study in yeshiva for the summer. The two were married in New York after he completed his studies at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in 1985.
Attending Hunter College in Manhattan, Aliza was president of the Jewish Student Union and was active in the campus Hillel, creating Jewish educational opportunities and reaching out to other Jewish students. She crusaded on behalf of Soviet Jewry, organizing letter writing campaigns, demonstrations, and meetings with members of Congress. Following their wedding, the new Bulows traveled to the Soviet Union to bring supplies and lend moral support to the refusnicks living there. In 1986, Aliza graduated Hunter College, Summa Cum Laude, with a degree in Hebrew and Jewish Social Studies.
Attending Hunter College in Manhattan, Aliza was president of the Jewish Student Union and was active in the campus Hillel, creating Jewish educational opportunities and reaching out to other Jewish students. She crusaded on behalf of Soviet Jewry, organizing letter writing campaigns, demonstrations, and meetings with members of Congress. Following their wedding, the new Bulows traveled to the Soviet Union to bring supplies and lend moral support to the refusnicks living there. In 1986, Aliza graduated Hunter College, Summa Cum Laude, with a degree in Hebrew and Jewish Social Studies.
The Bulows settled in Long Beach, New York where they began their family and became actively involved in the local Jewish community. A full time mother and community volunteer for 13 years, Aliza was heavily involved in her children’s education and schools. During this time, Aliza began teaching a weekly class on “Jewish Philosophy and its Practical Applications” to women of mixed levels of Jewish education and observance that continued for over seven years. Additionally, she worked for several years at the national head quarters of Partners in Torah in Manhattan, as their Study Coordinator, mentoring outreach mentors. She actively continued her own Jewish education through private tutors, shiurim, seminars and outreach training programs in the U.S. and Israel, summers in Shor Yoshuv Bungalow colony, and hundreds of books and tapes.
In 2001, Aliza and her family moved to Denver, Colorado. She is currently the mother, mother-in-law and foster mother of ten wonderful adults, aged 25-33, the grandmother of many and hoping for many more, b'ezrat Hashem.
Aliza Bulow can be reached at [email protected] or (720) 732-3636
In 2001, Aliza and her family moved to Denver, Colorado. She is currently the mother, mother-in-law and foster mother of ten wonderful adults, aged 25-33, the grandmother of many and hoping for many more, b'ezrat Hashem.
Aliza Bulow can be reached at [email protected] or (720) 732-3636