Aayisha Ruby Gold (She, Her, Hers)

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One of Aayisha's many humanitarian missions is normalizing the visibility of Jews from all backgrounds. As an inaugural member of the Jews of Color Philanthropy Cohort, she explores the issues of motherhood, food, culture, and justice in a series of articles that she regularly publishes in Hadassah, Kveller, Lilith, and other Jewish magazines and websites. Her articles often inspire dialogue with readers and encourage unity in the Jewish community as well as visibility of Jews of color.

In her career, she is a trained theater therapist who leads drama and literacy programs for children who have survived trauma, are on the autism spectrum, have parents in the military, and come from low-income neighborhoods, as well as incarcerated women. Aayisha also supports TOV, solicits donations from local grocery stores, bakes homemade challah for homeless people, and regularly attends Anshe Emet Synagogue with her husband and son.

AGE:
34

PRIMARY GIG:
Published Author, Actor

ON THE SIDE:
Philanthropist, Theatre Therapy Artist, Director

A JEW WHO INSPIRES YOU:
Joyce and Byrne Piven—as a young woman, Joyce was both my theatrical mentor and “art-bubbie”; this power couple reinvented Chicago theater and improv as we know it, and they did so not only as a Jewish couple, but as the parents of a Jewish home that produced Shira and Jeremy Piven...

WHAT IS YOUR PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT IN THE LAST 10 YEARS:
My biggest and most recent accomplishment is raising my 2-year-old son, Asher, through a Jewish lens. In the past two years I have learned so much about myself as an individual, a wife, and as a Jewish mother. My son has helped bring me closer to Judaism in many ways I never thought possible. Which in retrospect deepened my abilities in cultivating an enriched Jewish lifestyle; learning and teaching him the aleph-bet and other Hebrew words, the meaning of Shabbat dinner where he places his hand on top of mine while reciting the prayer over hamotzi, participating in Jewish events and festivals and learning his history from and multicultural and multiracial point of view.