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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Life When terror strikes in a modern-day shtetl
In Monsey, few slept on Saturday night. And the next morning, residents of the Forshay neighborhood walk around with wide, unbelieving eyes. Let me tell you something about this quiet, wooded town in Rockland County where a man attacked a Hanukkah party with a machete. It’s often called a “Hasidic enclave.” It’s not. It is,…
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Life Sheitels, Jewels, Stories: Orthodox Holocaust Survivor Women Speak Their Lives
In a sunlit space in Brooklyn’s Industry City — warehouse-style windows, exposed ceilings, Lucite fixtures — forty Orthodox women who survived the Holocaust gathered December 16 for a very chic Hanukkah party. The event was organized by Orthodox jewelry designer and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors Freida Rothman, in collaboration with Nachas Health and Family Network,…
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Opinion The Devastating Irony Of The Impeachment Hearings For Russian Jews
Two children of Jewish refugees testified in the Trump impeachment hearings in Washington this week. Today, Ambassador Gordon Sondland invoked his immigrant background in the opening statement of his testimony. “My parents fled Europe during the Holocaust,” he testified. “Escaping the atrocities of that time, my parents left Germany for Uruguay… Like so many immigrants,…
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News Orthodox Female EMTs Hit Setback In Fight For Their Own Ambulance
Update note: At 5:03 p.m. on November 20, this story was updated to show that Ezras Nashim’s ambulance permit application is in limbo due to an inconclusive vote. Ezras Nashim, the Orthodox all-female EMT corps, still doesn’t know if it will ever get permission to buy its own ambulance after opposition from an all-male EMT…
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Life Here’s Something New: We Called Out Ira Glass and He Thanked Us
The adrenaline rush that comes with calling someone out online is immediate. Yes! The writer thinks, rushing to share the link to their latest screed._ I’ve nailed them now!_ But what happens when the person you’re calling out responds kindly, apologizes, and offers to learn more about those he’s unintentionally offended? I recently edited a…
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Life I Didn’t Know What Eating Was Until I Went To A Kosher Michelin ‘Experience’
I do not know how to eat. This is what I learned at a recent event, held by Crown Heights’ kosher Alenbi restaurant in honor of its second year since opening its doors. A “kosher Michelin experience,” the flyer promised: A ten-course tasting with wine pairings , prepared by chefs Elior Balbul of Alenbi, Sheli…
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Life ‘Made in China’ finds the Orthodox wig industry
Rochel*, an educator and mother of three in Passaic, needed a new sheitel. The one she had bought over a year ago was already worn out, the hair was falling out, and she wanted something she could wear both to school and around her kitchen. But when Rochel went to a local Jewish sheitel shop,…
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Life ‘I’m Not Really Supposed To Be Here’: Orthodox Mothers On Nursing In Shul
When Yael Mandel nursed her baby girl during kiddush in her Orthodox synagogue’s sanctuary, no one seemed to mind. Even the rabbi walked over to her seat and said a warm gut Shabbos. But not everyone welcomed the image of a woman breastfeeding in a sacred space. One synagogue member posted anonymously in an Orthodox…
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