Helen Chernikoff is the Forward’s News Editor. She came to the Forward from The Jewish Week, where she served as the first web director and created both a blog dedicated to disability issues and a food and wine website. Before that, she covered the housing, lodging and logistics industries for Reuters, where she could sit at her desk and watch her stories move the stock market. Helen has a Master’s of Public Administration from Columbia University and a BA in History and French from Amherst College. She is also a rabbinical school dropout. Contact her at chernikoff@forward.com and follow her on Twitter at @thesimplechild.
Helen Chernikoff
By Helen Chernikoff
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News A Latina Jew pushes for re-election, Holocaust education and mandatory vaccination
Of the 600 laws passed by the Arizona governor in the past two years, only six came from Democrats, said Democrat State Rep. Alma Hernandez. That means the odds are against her — the youngest lawmaker in the state, and a Mexican-American Jew — getting any bills through. Yet her track record in the 2018…
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News ZOA fires back at critics with official Conference of Presidents grievance
The Zionist Organization of America has filed a grievance against fellow members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, pushing back against its critics at a time when discord is testing the conference’s self-appointed role of representing the breadth of the Jewish community. The right-wing ZOA, which is financed by the casino…
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News Is the ZOA’s pugilistic style getting meaningful pushback from progressives?
Mort Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America, has long been one of American Jewry’s most pugnacious leaders. But lately, his attacks have been provoking more backlash. After Klein challenged the Jewishness of HIAS, the century-old refugee resettlement group, its leaders filed an official complaint with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish…
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News A call for a board quota for Jews of color is inspiring talk but not action — so far
Four national organizations and three prominent synagogues have signed onto a letter that seized on a national debate about racism to push for change in the Jewish community. The letter commits them to increasing their representation of Jews of color by reserving 20% of board seats for them, among other things. However, the biggest, most…
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News More than 1,500 sign letter calling for investment in ‘re-imagined’ covenant with Jews of color
More than 1,500 people have signed an open letter published Friday that uses the religious language of “obligation” to demand that Jewish groups reserve 20% of board seats for Jews of color and take other steps to increase their representation at a time of national soul-searching about systemic racism. “Judaism is predicated on a covenant…
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News Meet the Jewish woman who helped land a major LGBTQ victory
A Jewish lawyer who said her upbringing played a big role in her public-interest career was on the team that scored a big victory for gay rights on Monday when the Supreme Court ruled that federal laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace also protect gay and transgender employees. “This case, and I feel like a…
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News Conference of Presidents’ liberal wing coalesces against Adelson’s ZOA
Sixteen of the 51 members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations have signed onto a letter condemning a fellow member, the Zionist Organization of America, seizing on a moment of national outrage over racism to try to change the tone of the conversation at the umbrella group, which bills itself as…
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Fast Forward Trump abbreviates Secret Service as S.S. — although he knows the right way to do it
In a tweet Thursday morning, President Trump abbreviated “Secret Service” to “S.S.” — also the abbreviation for the Schutzstaffel, a paramilitary organization created by Adolf Hitler. One of its units was responsible for enforcing Nazi racial policy. Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe…
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