{"id":194,"date":"2024-02-17T11:26:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T11:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/?page_id=194"},"modified":"2024-03-06T14:51:04","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T14:51:04","slug":"vanessahidary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/vanessahidary\/","title":{"rendered":"VanessaHidary"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"194\" class=\"elementor elementor-194\" data-elementor-post-type=\"page\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c9854cc e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"c9854cc\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7036def e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"7036def\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;full&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-59b770d elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"59b770d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 28-02-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/L1110081-1-768x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-44\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/L1110081-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/L1110081-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/L1110081-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/L1110081-1-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/L1110081-1.jpg 1525w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-45c13b8 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"45c13b8\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;full&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3132d73 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"3132d73\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 28-02-2024 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Vanessa Hidary<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8f698cc elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8f698cc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 28-02-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>I am a half Sephardic (Syrian) Jew, and a half Ashkenazi Russian Jew,<br \/>born and raised, and still living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.<br \/>I grew up with liberal parents, who taught public school in The Bronx for<br \/>over 26 years. They didn\u2019t believe in private schools, carried Channel 13<br \/>(PBS) tote bags, and turned their noses up at poor-quality rye bread that<br \/>lacked a decent crust.<br \/>I listened to Michael Jackson, The Sugarhill Gang, who had the first hip hop<br \/>single to become a Top 40 hit, and \u201cFree to Be You and Me\u201d, the classic<br \/>album whose basic concept was to encourage post-1960s gender<br \/>neutrality, saluting values such as individuality, tolerance, and comfort with<br \/>one&#8217;s identity. A major thematic message was that anyone\u2014(of any<br \/>gender) whether a boy or a girl\u2014can (could) achieve anything.<br \/>My best friend was Puerto Rican; her father owned the corner bodega<br \/>where I tasted my very first ham and cheese hero with mayo. And yes, I<br \/>loved it. I celebrated Christmas in her apartment with her big loving family<br \/>and danced salsa next to the tree.<br \/>I went to a Reconstructionist Hebrew School, three times a week after<br \/>school, where I was one of two students who didn\u2019t attend private school. I<br \/>wore the knock-off, budget version of the fancy Izod shirts with the classic<br \/>alligator emblem. They were called Le Tigre, and instead, had a tiger<br \/>emblem on them.<br \/>I went to a Jewish Y sleepaway camp, where I was a chubby roller disco<br \/>queen surrounded by Long Island girls with eating disorders and lavish<br \/>bat-mitzvahs.<br \/>On Sundays, I went with my family to Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn and ate<br \/>exotic Syrian treats like Sambussak. During the week, I ate bagels, lox, and<br \/>cream cheese or pollo guisado with Dominicans on 88<\/p><p>th Street.<\/p><p>Basically, I was, I am, a cultural ticking bomb. Armed with a half-fare bus<br \/>pass and a number 2 pencil, my upbringing was extremely beautiful,<br \/>complicated, unique, and challenging for myself and my poor mother who<br \/>watched me crash into ceilings and situations head-on.<br \/>In high school, I wanted to wear vintage clothes and a cross around my<br \/>neck just like Madonna did. I became an avid hip-hop fan, listened to<br \/>Nationalistic Politicized groups, like Public Enemy, attended police brutality<br \/>marches, and danced in $5 nightclubs with a fake ID.<br \/>My first boyfriend wore a four-knuckle gold ring, and yes there was a period<br \/>of time where I deemed it not cool to be Jewish. To be white was one thing,<br \/>but if you were one of the Italian or Albanian white girls from Queens, you<br \/>could celebrate Christmas with your boyfriend and wear a cool Madonna<br \/>cross. In my search for modern Jewish female role models, I came up<br \/>empty. My Latino and Black friends joined student unions and celebrated<br \/>their heritages that I was not a part of, raised their fists in the air, and I felt<br \/>lost along the way.<br \/>I wrote my college essay about the problem of segregation on campuses,<br \/>ended up staying in New York and going to Hunter College. I wasn\u2019t ready<br \/>to leave my beloved city. I dated men who thought they were selling out by<br \/>being with a white girl and dated a Jewish guy who was an overzealous<br \/>vegan, belonged to the anti-tax league, and banned me from wearing<br \/>lipstick with carnauba wax in it.<br \/>One summer I went to Israel with my sister, met Jews from Morocco and<br \/>Yemen, and went to my first nightclub where everyone wore big stars of<br \/>David around their tanned necks. They were hot and cool and proud to be<br \/>Jewish. I was enchanted, excited, overwhelmed.<\/p><p>I discovered I liked acting and went to a tiny MFA program in Providence<br \/>Rhode Island, met my first White Anglo-Saxon Protestant and suddenly felt<br \/>very Jewish. It took me moving out of one of the most Jewish cities in the<\/p><p>world to have being Jewish become, and to this day remain, a core part of<br \/>my identity.<br \/>I moved back to New York wanting to be Meryl Streep but ended up writing<br \/>quirky performance poetry about all this noise inside me.<br \/>\u201cBaruch atah Adonai, Viva Puerto Rico Haolam<br \/>Hamotzee Lechem Min Haaretz Amen.<br \/>I am The Culture Bandit, I eat matzoh in Harlem, thrown out of Hebrew<br \/>School because I spent Rosh Hashanah at the Puerto Rican Day Parade.\u201d<br \/>My mother askede me to mention that I didn\u2019t REALLY get thrown out of<br \/>Hebrew School. It\u2019s Just a metaphor, and besides, anyone who knows<br \/>anything knows the Puerto Rican Day Parade is in June.<br \/>I discovered there was a voice missing for urban, proud, hip-hop-loving<br \/>Jewish girls from New York. I intended to fill it, and it finally became crystal<br \/>clear: I could fully honor my Jewish identity along with all the other cultures<br \/>I had let in.<br \/>I began performing at small, packed poetry venues on the Lower East Side,<br \/>and years later was brought in as a keynote speaker for Jewish Women\u2019s<br \/>Federations. Yes, you heard that right. After this whole story, Jews, real live<br \/>Jews in Federations wanted to listen to ME! To this life.<br \/>I began to realize I was not alone in my identity wranglings. Many Jews and<br \/>non-Jews alike have had similar journeys. My particular path, my mission,<br \/>was to share it, and I did.<br \/>And then I thought about how in every social scene I\u2019d been in since a<br \/>child, I could spot what I called the rebel Jews. I just hadn\u2019t been paying<br \/>close enough attention.<br \/>I suddenly remembered on my block of 88<\/p><p>th street in Manhattan, a plaque<br \/>stood in honor of native upper west sider, Andrew Goodman, who was one<\/p><p>of three American civil rights activists murdered near Mississippi during<br \/>Freedom Summer in 1964 by members of the Ku Klux Klan.<br \/>In the arts, there were the Jewish hip-hop legends the Beastie Boys,<br \/>Barbra Streisand who wouldn\u2019t change her nose, and the outrageous Bette<br \/>Midler. There were the humorists who pushed buttons like Lenny Bruce,<br \/>Jon Stewart, and in every liberal campaign and march I saw names like the<br \/>Goldsteins, the Rothsteins, and the Silvers. Jews were loud and proud.<br \/>But maybe rebel Jews is an inaccurate term. Maybe I just need to think of<br \/>the Jews as the historical questioners, wanderers, rabble-rousers, and<br \/>chameleons that we have always been. Maybe I was always living a very<br \/>Jewish life after all. Maybe tackling Talmud was not the only way a good<br \/>Jew could question.<br \/>Yes, there are many Jews that follow the straight and narrow path. I know<br \/>because I dated most of them on JDate. But there are many who were<br \/>freedom fighters, creators, critics, and thinkers. With frizzy hair, brown skin,<br \/>white skin, big boobs, short and zaftig, tall and awkward, all over the world.<br \/>I am constantly asked by educators and parents, what we as Jews can do<br \/>to help keep \u201cour\u201d youth involved in Judaism and be proud of who they are.<br \/>Parents wringing their hands, because they have a child who is just like I<br \/>was but they don\u2019t know if things will turn around for them, or maybe more<br \/>often they are terrified that their children will turn out like me.<br \/>If I may make things even more complicated for a minute, I\u2019d like to admit<br \/>that sometimes after all of this, I still question my own wandering. Though<br \/>tougher in my resolve, I am sometimes still sensitive to the critics,<br \/>especially in the Jewish community who love my sense of pride in being<br \/>Jewish, but are then dismayed when I perform pieces in which I swear,<br \/>exude sexuality, discuss my past interfaith and interracial relationships.<br \/>Yes, there are times, through all this that I\u2019ve shared with you, as ridiculous<br \/>as it sounds that with all this rabble-rousing, I still want to be seen as \u201cA<br \/>Good Jewish Girl.\u201d<\/p><p>Because you see folks, there is no other way. There is no other way for me<br \/>to the proud Jewish woman I am today,, without the Upper West Side, the<br \/>Sugarhill Gang, the bodega, the boyfriends, the ham and cheese heroes,<br \/>The trips to Israel, the Andrew Goodmans, the Jon Stewarts the Bette<br \/>Midlers, the Madonna cross, the Latinos who loved me like family, the<br \/>hip-hop, the heartbreak, the guilt, and the humor.<br \/>I am far from a Psychologist or a rabbi, but I do know that this path, this life,<br \/>this mission, in all its beauty and complexity, has been bestowed and<br \/>blessed upon me. And maybe, just maybe&#8230; I truly am that Good Jewish<br \/>Girl, I never thought I was.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vanessa Hidary I am a half Sephardic (Syrian) Jew, and a half Ashkenazi Russian Jew,born and raised, and still living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.I grew up with liberal parents, who taught public school in The Bronx forover 26 years. They didn\u2019t believe in private schools, carried Channel 13(PBS) tote bags, and turned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-194","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":721,"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/194\/revisions\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourimage.pro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}