Meet Aliza.
You may not yet recognize her face, but you’d certainly recognize her influence in branding, marketing, and publicity. There is no question that Aliza hails from New York. She is a walking embodiment of her years in the fashion industry, she speaks directly and to the point in a way that only New Yorkers do. While she has spent years curating brand’s voices and helping businesses communicate effectively with their customers, she is now putting that expertise into practice to stand in defense of Israel and against the rising tide of antisemitism worldwide.
Aliza is the founder of Leave Your Mark, a brand strategy consultancy for businesses and individuals. She is a nearly 30-year veteran of the competitive and often ruthless fashion industry. She is a published author of Leave Your Mark and On Brand, and the host of the Leave Your Mark podcast.
Aliza was born in Brooklyn, raised on Long Island, and has been in Manhattan since graduating from college. Being a Jew in New York before October 7th was an entirely different experience to today. “I never thought about it – it was just who you were, that’s it.”
She is the descendant of four grandparents who survived the Holocaust. “They were in a bunch of different camps; Auschwitz was the main one.” On one side, her grandparents were Austrian, on the other, Polish. They all came to Brooklyn after the war and established new lives in New York. “Growing up, I always knew about their history and what they had gone through. It was like a data point. It was not this forward, front-and-center thing that I spoke about often. But it was always part of my heritage.”
Aliza and her sister attended Jewish day schools and maintained the traditions of Judaism throughout their lives. The legacy of Jewish education continued on to the next generation, “me’dor le’dor,” as Aliza’s children also attended Jewish day schools and are proud members of the Jewish nation.
Before October 7th, Judaism was a core part of Aliza’s life, but it wasn’t everything. She would go to temple, attend Jewish charity events from time to time. She had friends and family in Israel and had traveled to Israel several times. She had spoken up against antisemitism when she felt the need to, but she hadn’t considered herself an activist for the Jewish community.
Her Jewish activism began after Kanye West’s first antisemitic rant. “It was the first time that I had ever made a video speaking directly about antisemitism. A few months after that, End Jew Hatred sent me a message asking if I was willing to make another video as to why it’s important for me to stand up against antisemitism.” It was during a time of general quiet for the Jewish community. Aliza was receptive to the request but thought it was a random time to be putting out content like that, especially as a branding expert. “I remember thinking that I would absolutely speak out against antisemitism, but I wanted to wait for a time that felt right.”
On October 6th, Aliza and her sister took their mother to Las Vegas to celebrate her birthday. On October 7th, End Jew Hatred send Aliza a DM. “I was not paying attention to the news. They sent me a message alerting me to what was happening in Israel, asking if I would be willing to make a video.” Aliza, her sister, and mother returned to their room and turned on the news. In an instant, everything changed. “It was horrendous. We had not seen anything like this, ever.”
Of course, she knew what she had to do. She made her first video. “I thought I was going to do this one video, the ‘I’m the granddaughter of holocaust survivors’ video and that was going to be it. I never realized how bad it would get, and how the gravity of the situation compelled me to keep on speaking.”
A Jewish activist was born. For six straight months, Aliza went all-in on combating disinformation and antisemitism. She stopped promoting her book, she stopped her podcast. “I stopped everything and just focused on Jewish activism.”
From a social media perspective, she was not creating any other content. “I became a news source for people, which was not necessarily my intention. If I was consuming it 24/7 then I felt like I should share what I am learning and hearing. It has now become very much part of who I am. I wrote a piece on LinkedIn called ‘Being a Jewish Activist Wasn’t On Brand For Me’, which is relevant now more than ever.”
The feedback inspired Aliza to continue speaking out. “People thank me for my advocacy and for what I am doing for the Jewish people. I love when people call me a Jewish warrior – that makes me feel good.” Overarchingly, the responses Aliza received were positive. However, the hate came in fast and furious as well. “I don’t really read any of it. It’s the same, repetitive bot comments.”
Because of the content that is being shared, Instagram has restricted Aliza’s account for a while. A blessing and a curse, as it turns out, because her account stopped being shown to non-followers, and all of the bot accounts that had previously been posting hateful comments all fell away. “The hate stopped. My account is now fine again, but for some reason, the hateful commenters have forgotten about me. When I look into the analytics, a lot of non-followers are seeing my posts but the bots are not.”
Being “On Brand” means identifying your belief system and messaging and staying consistent to the message. It is a concept that extends from the individual to the collective. Initially, the fear of speaking up for Aliza was rooted in the inconsistency between her usual content and Jewish advocacy. She had some followers express their displeasure in her new content, but her conviction in doing what was right compelled her to continue to raise her voice, not only for the memory of her grandparents, but for her children’s future.
The antisemitism that she has seen emerge across New York City, across college campuses, and sweep America as a whole has given her yet another reason to continue to speak up. “I have recognized how organized and orchestrated this is. The campus protests were not organic. They are being funded. It’s a strategy that is bigger than Israel, and it’s really, really scary.”
The face of New York has changed for the Jewish community. While still an integral, bright, and vibrant thread in the tapestry that makes New York one of the most incredible cities on earth, the Jewish community now has had to dim its light slightly. That is not to say that the Jewish community is any less proud, in fact it’s the opposite, but now they must always be aware of their surroundings for merely existing and expressing their identity.
“I normally wear my hostage tag, and a Magen David ring. I feel it when people are staring at it. I wear it proudly, but I am conscious of other people’s perceptions of me – when I am getting into an Uber, or walking around, or paying for something – because I am wearing Jewish symbols, and if their behavior is going to change based on that.”
As a branding expert, Aliza can easily identify what the Israel advocacy movement got wrong, especially as the ‘Free Palestine’ movement was making incredible strides in the social justice space. “It’s not just branding, it’s also PR. They just never cared. Optics matter, and they never cared about the optics. Even if Israel had the most perfect PR strategy and the best PR teams in the world, the people who hate us would still hate us, and still twist the narrative.”
Beyond being a vocal presence online, a businesswoman, an author, and a podcaster, Aliza is first and foremost a mother. A mother of a son in college, and a daughter who is a junior in high school. “It’s scary. A lot of the protesters on campus are not students. Last year it was super uncomfortable to walk through campus, on the main thoroughfare, and to see the encampments. To walk through and know that people literally hate you. I think my son was able to mostly avoid the protests on campus.”
Aliza is grateful for the Jewish organizations on campus for keeping her kids engaged and with a sense of purpose. “They have been really important for kids to feel connected.” It gives the next generation community on campus, strength and safety in numbers.
In December 2023, Aliza attended a private event in New York City. To say this event was a harrowing experience would be an understatement. “The invitation didn’t say anything. It was a talk, and it didn’t say who was speaking. I parked my car, and as I walked up to the studio, someone approached me and asked, ‘are you going to the genocide fundraiser?’ When you hear something like that it doesn’t really register. I just looked at him and didn’t say anything. Security grabbed me and ushered me into the space. Mosab Hassan Yousef was speaking, as was Naama Levy’s mother, and Shahar Peled. The studio had two entrances, but the doors opened directly into the space. It started getting really loud, to the point that it was disruptive. We couldn’t really hear the speakers. We were alerted to the fact that there were about 1000 protesters outside and that the police were on site. You could hear the protesters trying to kick down the doors on both sides. At one point the doors did open – and security slammed them shut. They opened one or two more times after that. We were freaking out.”
“I know that one person did get arrested that night. When it came time to leave, the police wouldn’t let us leave on foot. We had to go in groups of ten into a police van. We were instructed not to look at the protesters, not to film them, not to talk to them, just to get into the van. They climbed onto the van and held on for several blocks until we lost them. The police drove around to confuse everybody as to where we were going. Maybe ten minutes later we were dropped off on some random corner, and each called Ubers to take us home.”
I think many of us often ask ourselves “what are the police doing to keep us safe?” After an experience like the one Aliza endured, she reflects on the role of police during these times. “I think the police have a very hard time in New York, I think their hands are very much tied. There are a lot of restrictions on what they can and can’t do.”
The future is scary and uncertain for American Jews. To watch a city and a nation that Jewish immigration helped shape into the multicultural, tolerant place it has become turn against its Jews is a new experience for American Jews, but not for their ancestors. While what we are facing may seem new to us, our genes scream to us that we have been here before and have survived it and will do so again.
Aliza’s hope for the Jewish American future lays in each and every Jewish person and ally who believes in Jewish safety to exercise their right to vote and to cast their vote for people whose actions -not only words- align with these values. “I will support anyone who is a pro-Israel advocate. I don’t think about right or left, I think about who is for Israel and Jewish safety.”
She laments in the failure of all levels of government up until this point. “The fact that the national guard has not yet been sent in across the country to shut the pro-Hamas (pro-Terror) protests down is a failure. The boundary keeps getting pushed to see how far things can go, and we are getting to a point where people are going to end up dead.” Unfortunately, we have seen that happen in America, and it has still not been enough to mobilize governments to do better.
As the war continued, Aliza slowly began to reincorporate her previous content into her social media rotation. The time came to talk about fashion, and branding, and media -topics that early followers were rather displeased to see replaced with pro-Israel advocacy. Ironically enough, the thousands of new followers that she gained from speaking out for Israel were not excited to see this content. However, when it comes to being on-brand, maintaining authenticity is key, and these facets are what make Aliza, Aliza.
Aliza’s words to future generations are simple. We, as Jews, need to be loud and proud because that is the only way. “Someone posted that we should all move to Israel. No. We should be loud, and proud, and fight.”
As someone who found her voice and her purpose during this time, Aliza encourages others to do the same. While it may be difficult to begin, “start sharing content from others who do speak up. That’s why I post, to give people a voice. You may not yet have the courage to say it, or want to say it, but if you share my voice, you are doing your part.”
Empowerment, mobilization, speaking for truth, and sharing everything with the world with a sense of grace and strength.
How very On Brand.
You can read the LinkedIn article here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/being-jewish-activist-wasnt-brand-me-aliza-licht-jjpse/
Comments