Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt
@avitalrachel
Followers
20K
Following
41K
Media
2K
Statuses
21K
news editor @trdny: money, power, politics | words in @theatlantic @nytimes @foreignpolicy @voguemagazine @thefp, etc | serving the altneu with rabbi @benzevg
Joined January 2009
"I stopped what I was doing out of respect for this 100 year old woman and put the cell on speakerphone and told him to talk. He started the prayer of the dead and he began to cry and could barely get the words out. And I saw she had numbers tattooed on her arm."
411
7K
25K
Jewish father met with the Muslim woman who confronted his children’s abuser on a full Tube carriage. They met for coffee in Manchester today, he bearing flowers and thanking her in person for her intervention:
213
3K
15K
Can finally share that my in-laws, Moscow Chief Rabbi @PinchasRabbi & Rebbetzin Dara Goldschmidt, have been put under pressure by authorities to publicly support the 'special operation' in Ukraine — and refused.
311
3K
14K
Passing on a request: Russian-speaking volunteers needed to help assist Holocaust survivors at vaccination site in Brooklyn (Coney Island) tomorrow from 9:30-12:30. DM's open 🙏.
59
1K
2K
Three Jews stabbed in a synagogue in Monsey tonight. An intruder came into Rabbi Rottenberg's shul with a machete. There are no words to describe the anxiety of this moment.
152
1K
2K
Friday night on the Upper East Side: My husband, a rabbi, was walking home from synagogue with our young son. He stopped to say Shabbat shalom to a congregant. A man accosted them, within arms length of our child, screaming profane accusations about “you Jews”, following them.
351
790
2K
They flew to Hungary two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are now in exile from the community they loved, built & raised their children in, over 33 years — though he was re-elected today by the МЕРО community.
17
225
2K
Astounding: @TheLancet is set to publish a letter from 2000 medical professionals —in which these doctors DEBATED whether to demand a release of hostages, and it “was removed” based on “feedback.”. I guess primum non nocere doesn’t apply to Jews.
138
799
2K
Can't stop thinking about the Upper East Side banker who recently told me, "My firm is progressive in that, like, we are encouraged to have pronouns in our signatures, but not progressive like 'We offer family leave.'".
38
260
2K
Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. This is someone who has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Paris Review. American enlightenment, clearly.
40
290
2K
After Shabbos dinner that night, my son told me: “I don’t want to go to shul tomorrow. I’m scared of the bad man.” I am still figuring out how to talk to him about what happened. I can’t believe his first interaction with Jew-hatred was before turning 4. In New York City.
140
213
1K
From fear. to joy. Here in Monsey, a Torah scroll dedication proceeds through the streets. A day of so many emotions here.
26
347
1K
The pain & fear in our family the last few months is beyond words. The sounds of the Moscow Choral Synagogue ring in our ears…I’ll never forget our engagement there in ‘14, & taking our children there, Shavuos ‘18….Grateful our parents are safe; worried sick over many others.
11
103
1K
*Drive-in vaccination* is being offered in Israel.
47
441
1K
They first traveled to Eastern Europe, fundraising for refugees through @europerabbis, and then Jerusalem, where his father was hospitalised at the time.
3
105
1K
Being visibly Jewish in midtown Manhattan means you just get used to constant casual antisemitism. I’m so tired of this.
135
101
1K
Shoshana Ovitz survived Auschwitz. Mengele separated her from her mother in front of her very eyes. After the war, she married and worked as a seamstress. For her 104th birthday, she asked that all of her descendants gather at the Western Wall. כן ירבו!.
"שלום סיון. סבתא שלי, שושנה אוביץ, שרדה את אושוויץ. מול עיניה ד"ר מנגלה לקח את אמא שלה. אחרי המלחמה פגשה את סבא דב, שאיבד במחנות את אשתו וילדיו. הם התחתנו ועלו לחיפה. היא עבדה כתופרת ועזרה לו בניהול החנות. כעת חגגה יומולדת 104 וביקשה מתנה: שכל הצאצאים יגיעו ביחד לכותל המערבי".
29
342
1K
על הניסים ועל הפורקן .For the miracles and the wonders… The .best early shalach manos ever. Grateful to the Almighty for this ray of light in this dark time. May we be blessed to share in many joyous occasions together 🤍🙏
147
23
1K
Harassed by three men tonight at the protest — twice for being a journalist, and once for being a woman in a male space (a protest). “Young lady, men are here, you can’t be here,” one guy kept following me with two sons. “*Men are here*!”. Me: Don’t worry, my face is *covered*😷.
43
134
888
Benjamin and the young man shielded our son, walking quickly away. The harasser eventually left. When they came home, Benjamin’s face was drained of color as he told me what happened. I could barely sing the Shabbos songs; I just stood there, frozen, holding my son.
14
106
815
Americans have devised the most efficient form of birth control: Exorbitant healthcare costs + no federal maternity leave + unaffordable childcare.
The U.S. birth rate fell again in 2018, reaching the lowest level in more than three decades
31
216
738
Daily reminder: Social media isn’t real life. @BenZevG and I are deeply moved by, and grateful for, all those who have been truly there for us during this painful chapter.
47
16
865
I sat down with @TaliFarhadian, who just announced she's running for the Manhattan DA's office. We talked about her immigration story, fleeing Iran as a young child with her family; domestic violence as a "pandemic," and anti-Semitism in NYC:
16
148
716
It was a special experience, taking part in the jubilant Torah scroll dedication today in Monsey. The dedication had been planned long before last night’s attack — but after the event, the sponsor decided to have the procession come to the Rottenberg home, the scene of the attack
10
107
582
My husband, as a small child in Moscow after the USSR's fall, would play loudly in the Choral Synagogue. Once, an adult shushed him. An elderly man stopped the shush-er: "Don't you dare silence this child. I've waited 70 years for children to make noise in synagogue again.".
This: Let our sanctuaries serve as playgrounds. Bring kids to shul -- let them feel at home there:.
10
76
574
That young father pushing a stroller with his toddler down Bnei Brak’s Herzl Street, those last moments…All I can think about tonight. Reeling.
14
67
556
Still can’t stop thinking about our Shabbos table, a group of young Manhattanite Jews gathered, inevitably discussing American antisemitism and the future— and the French couple who shook their heads and said, “This is the reason we left Paris.”.
19
81
546
The two children who were murdered yesterday by a Palestinian who rammed his car into a bus stop in Jerusalem. Asher Menahem Paley, 8. Yaakov Yisrael Paley, 6.
55
149
545
Someone on the scene: The perpetrator came into the rabbi’s house, started stabbing people. Someone took a small table, threw it at him & chased him out. He ran next door to the synagogue, but they blocked the door & he couldn’t get in. He turned around & ran, jumped into a car.
17
218
461
In all seriousness, this anguished letter is an example of real rabbinic leadership — having these uncomfortable conversations, giving mussar to one’s own, is never easy.
46
70
502
Rachel Posner, a rabbi's wife, captured this historic image in 1932 in Kiel, Germany, on the 8th night of Chanukah. On the back of the photograph, she wrote: ."Death to Judah," so the flag says. "Judah will live forever," so the light answers.
4
175
447
Someone went on a rampage against Upper East Side Jewish businesses and smashed their windows last night (Rothschild TLV and the Nuts Factory). I hope these are prosecuted as the hate crimes that they are. @ericadamsfornyc
26
142
500
“Looking for the Jews” in the airplane turbine at Mahachkala. The meme going around Russian Jewish chats right now. No matter the darkness, we laugh.
10
85
446
Make no mistake: When our community publications focus on telling public relations fairytales about ourselves to ourselves — we outsource the real investigative journalism to secular publications. Again and again.
20
60
453
*This* is Monsey. Hava Java brings hot coffee and donuts for the journalists stationed outside the Rottenberg home.
10
67
415
Thinking of every religious woman I know who has had to get an abortion, whose rights were trampled upon today — a decision advocated for by community lobbyists who purport to represent her.
23
79
433
And he shall be called in Israel: Tuvya Yosef. @BenZevG and I named our little boy Tobias Joseph last week, BH. I will leave the great history of this name to my other half to share on here; at the bris, I spoke about the meaning of it, to me, as his mother.
49
8
410
Our local kosher pizza shop on the UES this morning:
29
62
391
Last night, on stage in Columbus, someone asked me: “How do we raise our daughters [in the religious community] to both pursue careers & have families?”. I couldn’t hold back. “The question is, rather, how to raise our *sons* to want women who pursue careers & have families.”.
25
55
388
AG Jeff Sessions: The law that kept Jews out of the US on the eve of the Holocaust was “good for America.” Daily reminder to Jews who suffer from amnesia.
28
329
324
“Our secular brethren may walk in the street and have the luxury of blending into the crowd, as anonymous New Yorkers, but we wear our identities on our sleeves. And this puts us at the very front lines of anti-Semitism in the United States today.”
31
118
364
Recently a shul member caught me spacing out, unfocused & offguard, at kiddush. She asked me whats up, I babbled something about exhaustion. Today she showed up with Shabbat desserts & bagged lunch - “because I know you won’t take care of yourself”. Moms got each other’s backs💗.
2
5
352
“Even in supposedly enlightened liberal circles, you will find people making casual comments about Orthodox Jews. gross stereotyping, grouping them into one undifferentiated mass instead of individual human beings. it’s wrong.” Thank you @chrislhayes
11
77
353
"According to the Polish-American author Isaac Bashevis Singer. " Polish-American! .
69
43
370
Engrave this image on your mind:.Hannah, daughter of Lori Gilbert-Kaye z"l, staring at her mother's grave. #Poway
16
148
352
Muslim friends, I keep thinking of you and that sinking, helpless feeling you must have now, the very one that consumed the Jewish community on October 27. That fundamental terror for one's children. The incomprehensibility of a prayer space defiled. Know that we are with you.
2
71
336
"Out there, in the world, all the walls were covered with graffiti: 'Yids, go back to Palestine,' so we came back to Palestine, and now the worldatlarge shouts at us: 'Yids, get out of Palestine.'". ~ Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness
11
121
338
"I believe that imagining the other is a powerful antidote to fanaticism and hatred. I believe that books that make us imagine the other, may turn us more immune to the ploys of the devil, including the inner.devil. " .- Amos Oz upon receiving the Goethe Prize.
7
199
329
No filters now: I'm close to tears this evening about how many times I've snapped at or ignored my children in order to get work and Pesach done -- while my husband buries someone. This feels impossible.
57
14
343
"The image of millions of innocent people being concentrated against their will in camps and mistreated is one that a people characterized by the Talmud as 'merciful, modest and charitable' cannot ignore."
13
103
319
Something that struck me, in this year's Yom Kippur services: That miscarriages get such a spotlight in the High Priest's prayer for the new year: "A year in which no woman shall miscarry. " . The secret pain of infertility is as great as the public suffering of hunger or war.
13
39
329
Some personal news: After 3 incredible years at the Forward, I’ve decided it’s time for me to move on to something new.
34
8
350
Today, I received a package. This woman had found two tiny prayerbooks in her house, gifts from the Rosenbaums, from 60 years ago. Now, my little Yaakov and Amalia Sara have their own little siddurim - gifts from their great-great-grandparents and namesakes.
20
4
341
Today, Rockland County Republicans released a campaign video depicting a “storm brewing” locally, juxtaposing Orthodox Jewish developments versus images of “our families”. The *right* families, apparently. “Take back control,” they urge. Watch it:.
71
180
294
For @voguemagazine, I wrote about the power of hosting a Shabbos meal — and how while I had previously struggled with the expectations of a rebbetzin, a year of isolation changed the way I see things:.
24
42
345
Dangerous choice of words, Mayor — accusing the entire Jewish community of the misbehavior of a minority. Would you dare to say this about any other group in this city?.
My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups. This is about stopping this disease and saving lives. Period.
20
45
333
Among Orthodox Jewish women, it is common knowledge which rabbis rule sensitively on abortion. Their names are kept private, their phone numbers discreetly forwarded to a desperate woman. It happens here, too. And the stories are harrowing.
20
111
308
Since I’m on this topic. @Jezebel, why did you choose an image of an Orthodox Jewish family to illustrate a story about. a Christian anti-vaxx mother taking her kids out of school in Oswego — with not a single mention of Orthodox Jews? Be accurate.
8
62
329
Anyone following the recent direction of US 'high-brow' literati is not surprised by @GuernicaMag's recent losing its mind, with its 'pseudo-intellectuals' marching out over the magazine not being sufficiently judenrein. You should know by now that the *actual lived experience
19
56
318
Reports from Moscow that the Torat Chaim Yeshiva was attacked last night by what seems to be neo-Nazis. Swastikas painted on the doors and the storehouse entirely burned, the yeshiva community’s precious kosher meat/food for Passover gone.
38
278
279
This makes me want to cry: Women being able to work from home in their last trimester may have improved infants' *survival rates*.
3
74
295
. Not one frum woman quoted here about what it's like to be trapped in your home with babies for a whole day every week. Mothers being free to leave the house is given as much airtime as carrying "gefilte fish" to grandparents 🤔.
Talmudic law forbids observant Jews from carrying any object outside the home on the Sabbath. Carrying keys, books, prayer shawls, canes or even babies is forbidden. But now, nearly all of Brooklyn has become a zone that makes an exception for the rule.
16
23
277
Obituary for a man who was revealed (in a beis din, too) to have allegedly used his position of power to rape dozens, children & women: “Blessed memory,” not a mention of his alleged crimes. Shows you just how spineless sites like Bhadrei are.
46
33
282
"So I'm hearing a lot of complaints about Simchas Torah restrictions this year. I just want to remind everyone that sitting/standing in place while others dance with the Torah is what Simchas Torah is for many women every year." ~ Leslie-Ginsparg Klein saying it like it is!
21
45
275
German prosecutors: Hamas had long ago “set up underground weapons depots in various European countries", preparing for "attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe.” Sites were maintained by foreign operatives with European residence permits.
5
123
287
One trip to Israel and J-Lo already flipped out.
19
20
275
Jewish food world! Can someone please make a Shabbos day-specific cookbook? I don't need the easy sous vide meat recipes served 2 hours after searing! I need *dishes that will survive overnight in the fridge & a few hours on the blech*. cc @YeahThatsKosher @Laura_E_Adkins.
55
10
269
A drunk once walked over to @PinchasRabbi @benzevg on their way to shul in Moscow & asked: “I just read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Is it true you Jews really control the world?”. @PinchasRabbi: “Come with me to shul, you’ll see we can’t even control our own synagogues.”.
"A kehillah is not about passive observation of what is happening on the pulpit. An ideal community is one in which the members are active, interconnected, taking ownership of the destinies of their community." . My sermon from this past Shabbat:.
5
30
251
I am mindlessly scrolling through Twitter on my phone. Little one walks into the room: “Mama, are you learning Torah?”. Successfully shamed.
6
8
259
For those looking to support the Moscow yeshiva attacked by neo-Nazis on Passover eve -- please consider making a donation here:
Reports from Moscow that the Torat Chaim Yeshiva was attacked last night by what seems to be neo-Nazis. Swastikas painted on the doors and the storehouse entirely burned, the yeshiva community’s precious kosher meat/food for Passover gone.
9
135
246
Every day we say - אַתָּה חונֵן לְאָדָם דַּעַת. "You favor man with knowledge and teach mortals understanding. Favor us with knowledge. ". I have never cried saying those words until now-- now, I think of those medical researchers racing towards a vaccine. May God guide them.
7
39
254
More American Jews applied to immigrate to Israel or inquired about it in May 2020 than in any single month over the last two decades, according to Nefesh B’Nefesh: .
73
79
243
Oh the phone calls from worried (Russian) family members asking me to please be more careful about my little boy’s yarmulke and tzitzis in Manhattan. I listen quietly and say: ‘Da, da, ya ponemayu. ’.
12
14
246
Okay since most of the pictures from the #SiyumHashas you’ll see in the media will be of men. here’s a glimpse from the women’s section. Amazing to see so many frum women come out to celebrate this moment. 😍
19
37
250
“The debate over whether Zionists are human and deserving of human treatment will have to be held in the absence of Jews of conscience. In 2019, no Jew should be forced to debate their humanity, their right to exist independent of anti-Semitism.”.
@Arendt_Center Well, that didn't go as planned. In an ironic, devastating twist of fate, I was protested at a conference on racism and anti-Semitism - for being a Jew who talks about anti-Semitism. What dreadful times we live in.
26
59
229
ועבדתם אלהים אחרים והשתחויתם להם וכו׳.
“MAGA! MAGA! MAGA!” Guests at a Jewish wedding show their support for @realDonaldTrump. The media doesn’t want you to see this video!
46
20
246
“For [these words] are not a trifling thing for you: it is your very life.” A Torah scroll is finished here in Monsey.
1
34
222
Amen.
Whataboutism is always a sign of weakness.
7
18
214
Wow - Natan Sharansky spoke to Jewish kids and parents about remaining productive amid isolation. He emphasized the importance of a sense of humor and of finding intellectually stimulating things to do. This gave me strength. h/t @ZuckierShlomo
5
84
233
Please please pray for our holy tzaddik of a cantor, Chazzan Helfgot, who is hospitalized now with the virus. His voice and piety inspire our deepest prayers. Merciful One, please heal Yitzchak Meir ben Chaya Pesya.
7
24
242
Note the quotation marks. American Orthodoxy 2020, which questions your religious identity/observance if you do not follow party lines. Dangerous.
13
22
229
Trump refused to condemn white supremacists. There is no way to re-interpret this, to twist this into 'this being taken out of context.' This was just done on television in front of the entire American nation, the world -- clearly, bluntly. Consciously.
18
41
229
My husband’s photo was stolen by anti-Semites to create a fake @Twitter profile.
3. These are all fake profiles made with stolen photos of real Jews, pilfered to promote hatred of Jewish people and the Jewish state. Some more examples:
10
97
209
Your periodic reminder that religious women seek abortions, too. And that denying them that right can be a denial of their religious freedoms — because the decision to terminate can actually be *endorsed* by clergy.
Among Orthodox Jewish women, it is common knowledge which rabbis rule sensitively on abortion. Their names are kept private, their phone numbers discreetly forwarded to a desperate woman. It happens here, too. And the stories are harrowing.
9
99
214
The moment that lit up my day: Watching my 2-year old daughter teach her Soviet-born great-grandparents how to say the Shema prayer, over video chat.
10
9
237
Quite a few Israeli “human rights groups” and American Jewish “pro-peace” organizations who are silent, too. Take note.
A man was executed through the window of his car. A father shielded his toddler with his body and died to save them. An Arab police officer gave his life to stop the terrorist. And the director of Human Rights Watch can't muster a single word of upset or support for the victims.
5
31
230
“If a party is intrinsically racist, bigoted against large parts of society and intolerant of minorities, if Jews are not the target now, they will be in the near future.”. ~ My father-in-law, Rav Pinchas Goldschmidt. *This* is rabbinic leadership.
14
61
210
Love this so much. "Although. we possess the technical ability to make snow-days a thing of the past, the fact that we can do something does not man we should. Now is not the time to deprive them of the joy of a snow day and of carefree play." (from Yeshiva Ketana Ohr Reuven)
13
27
228
All poor Vladimir Vladimorovich wanted was to "ratify the status quo," that's "ALL HE WANTED," and thus rightly invaded a country, bombed its cities, murdered ~30k civilians, threw a continent into chaos. Shameful normalization of justifying an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign.
FP contributor @BUngarSargon on the real reason elites and the media villainize Putin:. “They became convinced that without Putin, Trump would not have won… There’s just a fundamental hatred of actual democracy in practice from the elites.”
14
37
238
American Jewish life, 2019. NYC synagogues surrounded by heightened security. Strolling with my daughter this morning, I walked over to the policemen on duty to say a simple “thank you”; he nodded somberly. I broke into tears. Thank you, @NYPDnews. And please stay.
8
32
218
Best WhatsApp-forwarded-video of the month — on erasing women. Watch this.
40
23
223
This is absurd. I staffed Birthright twice - with the OU’s (Orthodox-run, right-wing leaning) Israel Free Spirit. Not a single time were we staffers instructed to say “Judea and Samaria” instead of “West Bank.”
24
39
209
Something really rich about a frum publication weeping about cancel culture when they’ve canceled *images of an entire gender* in print, and overwhelmingly choose to represent only one political party in its pages.
22
36
222
“In dictatorships you need courage to fight evil; in the free world you need courage to see evil.” ~ Fear No Evil, @NatanSharansky. Thank you to Natan, Ambassador @SergiyKyslytsya, and Mark Levin @NCSEJ for this difficult, thought-provoking, even philosophical conversation.
2
25
212