Alex Rif, at The Blogs

Oct 30, 2020, 5:00 PM

Can one be an Oleh without making Aliyah?

Happy Aliyah day! When we celebrated National Aliya Day in Israel, I got a call from a primary school principal from a large Israeli city. For the past few years, her school has been welcoming a growing number of children...

Jul 1, 2020, 1:36 PM

Nationality (temporarily): Jewish

This week I discovered that Jewish, for me, could be a temporary status. That one day, it could be denied my Israeli-born son or me. I’ve found out that some people have permanent religions and nationalities they are born...

Jun 11, 2020, 7:19 AM

Land of the Free (haha)

My partner and I spent our honeymoon in the US. We traveled on the East and West Coast, including a visit to New Orleans. We were told that the nightlife and the jazz were not to be missed. I...

May 1, 2020, 9:14 AM

The Unlit Independence Day Torch

I, Alex Rif, am not lighting an Independence Day torch but were I to light one, it would be in deep gratitude to you, my parents. Mom and Dad, you came to Israel in 1991 from Ukraine, to start...

Apr 8, 2020, 4:09 PM

A New Addition to Your Haggadah

This night is different because we cannot join together with our extended family, friends and community in celebration. This night is different because, as we tell the story of our people from slavery to freedom from Egypt to the...

Mar 29, 2020, 11:54 AM

Contract workers at the forefront of fighting Corona

My parents, who have been working for more than 20 years as contract workers in cleaning and electricity, continue working throughout the coronavirus attack without change. Both of them passed their retirement age and are in a risk group....

Mar 10, 2020, 11:57 AM

Featured Post

When Gantz told a joke and Liberman made me cry

No party has yet discarded the politics of mutual hatred in favor of the multicultural, cooperation that is relevant to me and my young Russian-speaking Israeli peers

Feb 19, 2020, 1:16 PM

The hardest thing in late circumcision is not the surgery

“You’ve got to cut it off,” blurted Dad, without raising his head from the mathematical formulas that he was continually scratching on recycled sheets of paper. You have to “Go through Obrezania” to become a real Israeli. I was...

Feb 4, 2020, 10:07 PM

The day Evgeny arrived in kindergarten

I was five when I walked into a noisy Israeli kindergarten as a new immigrant from the former Soviet Union, nervously holding my mother’s hand. I remember looking at the children playing and feeling excited about my new life....

About Me

Alex Rif synthesizes storytelling and cultural-hacking with her public policy experience to amplify unheard voices in Israeli society – in particular, Russian-speaking immigrants, women, and Arabs. Founder and CEO of The Cultural Brigade, she helped rebrand Russian-Israeli culture and made the Russian-speaking immigrants feel at home. Alex was recognized by ‘Lady Globes’ as one of the 20 most influential Israeli female activists. She is the author of the award-winning poetry book, ‘Silly Girl of the Regime'.

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