Aliza Schwartz (she/her) is a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, expecting to graduate in 2024. She is an incoming Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York City.
Before rabbinical school, Aliza was based in Boston. Her spiritual and political home in Boston is Kavod, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial community led by young Jews that lives out its values through vibrant Jewish ritual, transformative social justice organizing, and collective responsibility. Aliza served on Kavod’s board for four years and as Board President for two. She worked for about 3.5 years at the New Israel Fund as Assistant Director for the New England Region. She has been a strategy coach and trainer for IfNotNow, mostly in the movement’s early years. Aliza is an alumna of AmeriCorps and JOIN for Justice’s Jewish Organizing Fellowship, and Aliza served as Community Organizer at Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Aliza has spent two years living in Israel/Palestine. The first was in 2011-2012, during which she most meaningfully worked with Sudanese and Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers in South Tel Aviv. The second was this past year, during which she was studying, doing solidarity work – working especially with Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills of the West Bank – and serving as a T’ruah Israel Fellow.
