Comments (0)Mayim Bialik
Mayim, Not Maxim
August 14, 2009
In a recent issue of Tablet magazine, Mayim Bialik, former star of the early ‘90s TV sitcom “Blossom,” wrote a column about how spirituality and faith have changed her life and outlook.
“I was raised in a traditional Reform household, the granddaughter of poor Orthodox immigrants from Eastern Europe. For them, success in America came at the seemingly small price of relative assimilation,” she wrote.
But after getting married in 2003, Mayim, now 33, said she and her husband, Michael Stone started exploring Judaism.
“At first, my lessons with an Orthodox instructor were almost anthropological—I was curious as to how Judaism viewed marriage and sexuality, but I did not really intend to increase my level of observance. The more I learned, however, the more my previous distance from traditional Judaism disappeared.”
She eventually became what she calls a “Conservadox” Jew, which is no easy feat in Hollywood, a place where sexiness and lewd behavior rules. In other words, don’t expect to see Mayim anytime soon in a former child starlet Maxim photo spread wearing practically nothing.
“As my life progressed, tzniut [modesty] became a bigger part and I started appreciating what it means to keep your sexual appeal for yourself and your partner,” Mayim wrote. “I came to see that not everything that makes me beautiful, sexy or desirable needs to be on display.
This fall, Mayim, a mother of two sons, will have a recurring role on ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”