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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Aliza Keddem (1930-2012)

With great sadness I am reporting that my mother, Aliza Mizrachi Keddem, passed away on July 19, 2012.  My brother Dan, his wife Rachel, my wife Gretchen, and myself are tending to the affairs that arise in such events, including making arrangements for a memorial/celebration gathering in Aliza's honor.  The celebration is on August 11, 2012, at 1 pm, in the Old Library at Marylhurst University in Lake Oswego, Oregon.  For driving directions, please visit http://www.marylhurst.edu/about-marylhurst/contact/driving-directions.html. If you knew Aliza, and would like to join others in celebrating her life, please join us. I'm now posting an extended version of the obituary Dan and I wrote that will be published in the Sunday (8/5/12) edition of the Oregonian.

  Aliza Mizrachi Keddem (born April 29, 1930), a Portland resident, long-time educator, and social activist, passed away in her home on July 19, 2012.
  Aliza was born in Jerusalem to Sarina Laniado-Perera and Isaac Mizrachi, the second of their four daughters who include Rachel, Adina, and Vicky (Nizhia). As a teenager, Aliza was active in the Gadna – the Hagannah’s youth corps. Later in New York City she helped obtain needed supplies for pre-independent Israel under the direction of Teddy Kollek, who later became Jerusalem's Mayor. Following Israel's independence, she worked in the Israeli Consulate in New York City. She later worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C.
  Aliza attended Columbia University in New York, and graduated in 1957 with a B.S. in Mathematics. In New York, she met and married Stan Shively, and they later had two sons David and Daniel. During her years with Stan, they lived in New York City, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Santa Monica California, Norman Oklahoma, Corvallis Oregon, and Hong Kong. She taught mathematics at Midland Park High School in New Jersey, and assisted in social sciences research at Columbia University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
  Aliza commenced her graduate studies at the University of Oregon in 1973. She earned a M.A. in Political Science in 1975, and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1984. Her doctoral research was on "The Integration of Wives into Wage-work and the Working-class' Struggle to Maintain
Its Standard of Living." She next moved to Portland, Oregon, where she taught mathematics at Roosevelt High School from 1984 to 2000.
  Before her retirement from Portland Public Schools, Aliza began teaching night courses in Sociology at Marylhurst University. Her course subjects included critical postmodern theory, gender, family, and inequality. She continued teaching at Marylhurst until last spring. Her “third career” was her most rewarding, and she reveled in engaging her students in thought, analysis, and discussion.
Aliza will be long remembered by family and friends for her strong determination and passion for social justice and equality, the environment, and progressive politics. She is survived by her son David and his children Rio and Ari; her son Dan and his children Matt, Amber, Travis, Ashley, and Matthew; and her sisters Rachel, Adina, and Vicky.