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 Tiny liberal group targets Sheldon Adelson’s ZOA over tweets criticizing Black Lives Matter
A member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called Tuesday for his colleagues in the group to condemn the tweets of another member, seizing on the national outrage over racism and police brutality to spotlight a longstanding concern. Ken Bob, president of the progressive pro-Israel group Ameinu, started the campaign against…
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Fast Forward WATCH: Protesters sing in Hebrew after National Guardsmen at White House request a prayer
At the request of a National Guardsman from Utah, protestors sang a canonical Jewish plea for peace at protests outside the White House on Tuesday night, according to video from the scene. “Shalom rav al Yisrael amcha, tasim l’olam,” sing multiple voices out of the frame, as three Guardsmen watch and one in particular grins…
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News New fund offers financial grants to Jews of color in dire need due to pandemic
An organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for Jews of color has opened a COVID-19 emergency relief fund, citing the ways in which racism amplifies the impact of the coronavirus on people of color. A project of the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, the fund will provide grants of between $250 and $2,500 to…
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Fast Forward Etsy vendor’s misspelled Yiddish ‘NYC crotch’ mask is selling out, so she’s making one for L.A.
The Etsy vendor who accidentally created a face mask reading “NYC Crotch” in Yiddish is now doing so on purpose, and ramping up production to meet rising demand on both coasts. “We are all laughing again!! I love that!! The sales have gone through the roof!!! I quit counting!! LOL! (Hurray!! I’m able to pay…
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Fast Forward Cries of racism, profuse apologies and a petition: A debate about Jews of color heats up
The publication of an article by two professors about how to count American Jews of color has spurred a passionate outcry in the latest flare-up of longstanding tension around the subject of how to count Jews of color, and discrimination against them. On May 17, eJewish Philanthropy, a web-based publication serving Jewish non-profits and donors,…
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News Devout Jewish town rejects rabbis’ plan to use wedding hall amid pandemic
Lakewood, N.J., is a famously devout and rapidly growing town centered around the biggest yeshiva outside Israel — Beth Medrash Govoha. Its citizens devote their lives to fulfilling the Torah’s dictates, including the one many consider to be the first: be fruitful and multiply. When the onset of New Jersey’s strict social-distancing rules meant to…
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News Orthodox family ‘fallen through cracks’ in fight to get experimental drug
Michael Goldsmith, 34, is the person everyone always called to shlep something heavy, like a piece of furniture. An IT consultant, he’s always been robustly healthy, but on March 11, he started showing symptoms of the novel coronavirus. He had no underlying conditions, and his family has no idea how he caught it. Yet he’s…
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Life Diary of a Day-School Mom: Even isolation is relative
Last week, I experimented with isolating myself further. We are fortunate to have ample space in our Brooklyn apartment in this time of quarantine, and I decided to take advantage of it. I hauled my computer and my personal hotspot into our back room, which has in it only a folding table, a single chair…
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