Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt was the Life/Features editor at the Forward. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, and Tablet, among others.
Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt
By Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt
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Breaking News Voters in Borough Park hope for Trump
On 18th Avenue, in the heart of Borough Park, the P.S. 192 building was wide open for voting — but by the afternoon, there were hardly any voters standing in line. In a nearby cafe, a Haredi Israeli man stood next to the baked goods counter, asking locals about their voting preferences. “We have to…
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Life Portraits of the healers: Orthodox doctors and nurses in their own words
They stumble as they speak, hitting verbal walls as they struggle to balance emotion and expertise. They are exhausted after months of fighting COVID-19 as medical professionals — and of facing misinformation and mistrust when they return home to Orthodox communities, where skepticism about the coronavirus runs high. “It’s hard, it’s very hard,” one Orthodox…
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Life ‘Power of prayer:’ Rabbis reflect on Amy Coney Barrett’s statement of faith
“I believe in the power of prayer,” Judge Amy Coney Barrett said during her Senate confirmation hearings this week, “and it has been uplifting to hear that so many people are praying for me.” Barrett is a passionate Catholic whose faith has been the subject of much debate since President Trump nominated her to replace…
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Life Here’s the text of Gal Gadot’s favorite prayer, and why you might love it, too
Gal Gadot enjoys many of the world’s blessings, to be sure — but everyone knows that the most beautiful and wealthiest aren’t always happy. The Israeli actress and model, most known for starring in “Wonder Woman,” most definitely is, however, and she told a Vanity Fair journalist why in a Vanity Fair cover story. It’s…
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News In Borough Park, an anti-shutdown protest turns into a pro-Trump rally — and a journalist is assaulted
The religious Jews of Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood often pour into the streets during the harvest holiday of Sukkot to dance with Torahs in a celebration called “Simchat Beit HaShoeva,” a ritual having to do with rainfall. On Wednesday night, they danced along Borough Parks’s 13th Avenue holding Trump flags. Heshy Tischler, a community agitator…
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News ‘They’re out to get us’: Social media campaigns reflect tensions between Orthodox and local authorities
Heshy Tischler, a Borough Park-based activist and radio host, posted a picture of himself on Instagram wearing a mask with a picture of a yellow Jude star pasted over it. “I am wearing my mask with the Jewish star that our leaders and city officials really want us to wear,” he said. The post is…
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News Alarmed by COVID spike, Orthodox move to make the sukkah safer
A sukkah is something of a paradox. It’s a symbol of safety. In prayer, the word is literally translated as shelter — often, a shelter of God’s peace, spread over the supplicant. Yet its occupants are also not supposed to feel too safe. The roof of a sukkah must be sparse enough to see the…
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News As Yom Kippur gets closer, Orthodox doctors’ calls for more caution trigger tension
Orthodox Jewish doctors are triggering a debate about safety and freedom as they sound increasingly loud alarms about the need for more caution heading into the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, citing an increase in COVID-19 cases in their communities. “Do we all have such a short collective memory of what happened…
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