Sarah Maslin Nir, 32, got her start at The New York Times in 2009 after she stayed up for 24 hours straight to cold pitch one of the editors. She sent him almost a dozen stories in one night and the next morning received word that two had been accepted.

In May Nir published the shocking two-part investigative series “Unvarnished” in the Times, uncovering the poor working conditions and health dangers of nail salons throughout New York City. It resulted in swift actions from Governor Andrew Cuomo to conduct investigations and change the rules in salons.

In the intervening six years, she told the Forward, she worked her way up from freelancer to columnist (as “The Nocturnalist” she covered lavish parties and nightlife that included “being chased by Alec Baldwin around the Hamptons”). She now covers Queens as a staff writer on the Metro section.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Nir grew up in Manhattan, graduating from Columbia both as an undergraduate and from the journalism school. She attributes her audacity to her late father, Yehuda Nir. He was a Holocaust survivor who escaped persecution by posing as a Roman Catholic in Poland. He would tell Nir to erase the divide between “them and us,” which became one of the mantras she brings to her work.

“It’s dangerous when there’s us and them,” said Nir. “And there never really is, there’s humanity. As a journalist, I set out to make the world a smaller place.”

“It’s a daily chutzpah,” Nir said of journalism. “It’s a creed we follow and I love it.”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount