Rabbis demand apology from WaPo for putting Jewish woman ‘at risk’

The victim says she won’t be intimidated, however, another woman by the same name is suffering the consequences.

By World Israel News Staff

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), a U.S.-based organization representing over 2,000 traditional, Orthodox rabbis in matters of public policy, slammed a journalist for “placing an Orthodox Jewish woman at heightened risk.”

Washington Post (WaPo) reporter Taylor Lorenz, who quite recently described doxxing [revealing personal information about a subject] as “not ok in any situation,” doxxed the writer behind the LibsofTikTok Twitter account, who appears to be an Orthodox Jewish woman, CJV noted.

In fact, Lorenz claims to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of having been victimized.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) March 9, 2021

WaPo rejects criticism

“Taylor Lorenz is an accomplished and diligent journalist whose reporting methods comport entirely with The Washington Post‘s professional standards,” WaPo Managing Editor Cameron Barr stated in her defense.

“We do not publish or link to any details about [LibsofTikTok’s] personal life,” he claimed.

“To the contrary, the WaPo article highlighted that the subject had, under a previous anonymous Twitter handle, identified herself as an Orthodox Jew, a fact entirely unrelated to the larger story,” the Coalition for Jewish Values stated in a press release.

“The original version of the article also linked to the subject’s real estate license, complete with address,” CJV said, adding that “WaPo removed that link as social media criticism of the piece intensified.”

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, CJV managing director, issued the following statement on the issue:

“The Washington Post’s behavior here is simply unacceptable. Jews constitute a small minority, yet are disproportionally targeted by hate crimes. An individual Jew, especially a visibly Orthodox Jew, is thus most likely per capita to be the victim of a hate crime in America today, by far.

“Given this context, identifying the Twitter user as an Orthodox Jewish woman placed her at heightened risk of physical harm. The Post not only did this, but then defended itself by insisting that her membership in our community was not a personal detail.

“That ludicrous denial is extremely offensive, bordering on antisemitic, especially at a time when media outlets routinely mask ethnicity details regarding members of every other minority group,” CJV said. If this is what the Washington Post describes as its ‘professional standards,’ we call upon the paper to upgrade those standards immediately.”

Noting the humor

Meanwhile, another Orthodox Jewish woman by the same name — Chaya Raichik, a stay-at-home mother who resides in the U.K. — is being harassed and threatened as a result of what he said was “cyber-bullying” on the part of Lorenz, the New York Post reported.

“I tried to make light of this ridiculous situation as best as I could, but it’s become terrifying for me and my family,” she wrote on Instagram.

However, Brooklyn-based realtor Chaya Raichik — the real person behind LibsofTikTok — is not intimidated.

“They wanted to intimidate me into silence, but that won’t happen,” she said on Fox News’ ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight,’ noting the “humor” in the “fact that it was Lorenz, who is a known hypocrite and who is known to dox people,” who revealed her identity.