Currently senior staff writer with the Jewish Journal, Shani began her journalism career in 1969 as a reporter for the East Side News, a venerable Jewish newspaper on the Lower East Side of New York. Located in the mostly Hassidic community since 1914, the paper's new addition of a young, blue-eyed blond reporter in a micro-mini skirt and white go-go boots and - oy vey! Irish-Catholic, already - raised more than a few eyebrows in the close-knit, ethnic neighborhood. But her Bronx, "Jewish-by-osmosis" background, and fondness of knishes and chopped liver sandwiches, eventually won her neighborhood acceptance, and it wasn't too long before, "Hello, Shain-a-la," became a familiar greeting.