Staff writer Waxman came to Milwaukee and Judaism from Japan
New Chronicle staff writer Andrea Waxman wasn’t always Jewish, but she had plenty of experience being a member of a minority group.
Waxman, who joined the staff as of the issue of March 26, is the daughter of a career army officer; and from ages 10 to 19 she lived and went to school primarily in Japan.
“It is such a homogeneous society,” Waxman said in a recent interview. Because so few Western foreigners live there, she found Japanese people gaping at her wherever she went.
That experience, Waxman said, “helps me fit into the Jewish community here because I’ve lived as a minority person” and “I’m happy living in a subculture.”
Still, spending so many years in Japan (and before that in Europe; she was born Andrea Roach in Germany) left her uninformed about much of U.S. life and culture. So when she went to Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., she majored in American studies, focusing on history and literature.
She ended up working for an airline in Chicago. There she met New York-native Michael Waxman, an attorney then working for the Federal Trade Commission and now teaching at Marquette University Law School. They married in 1981.
Waxman’s interest in Judaism grew and in 1983, she converted. In December 2002, she celebrated her bat mitzvah with a group of adults Moreover, she, her husband and their daughter, Naomi, now 14, visited Israel together for two weeks in April 2001.
“I fell completely in love with Israel; I couldn’t believe how at home I felt.”
She earned teaching certification in English and has been teaching part-time at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School for the past two years. As a writing teacher there, she wanted to find outlets for her own writing.
“I’m very committed to the Jewish community and really happy to be working here,” she said. “The mission of this paper and the stories really interest me. I always have loved reading The Chronicle and admired the work that it does.”
Chronicle editor Elana Kahn-Oren echoed Waxman’s enthusiasm. “We’re thrilled to have Andrea join our staff. Her broad world-view, creativity and curiosity will surely enrich the stories that fill our pages.”
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