opinion
Why the ‘Libs of TikTok’ Founder’s
Jewish Identity Was Fair Game
BY ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
I n the autumn of 1965, a New York Times reporter
met in a Queens luncheonette with Daniel Burros,
a chief organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in New York
state. The reporter, McCandlish Phillips, had a difficult
subject to bring up with his racist and deeply
antisemitic interviewee: He found out that Burros’
parents were married by a rabbi, and that Burros
himself appeared to have been raised and bar
mitzvahed in an Orthodox Jewish home in the
Richmond Hill neighborhood of Queens.

“Are you going to print that?” Burros asked.

When Phillips said he would, Burros threatened
to kill him.

Burros did not carry out that threat, but the story
ends in violence: After reading the article that ran
on Oct. 31, “State Klan Leader Hides Secret of
Jewish Origin,” Burros shot and killed himself.

The story of the Orthodox Jew turned self-hat-
ing Klansman is often brought up in journalism
classes as a case study in disclosing what a
subject would prefer to keep hidden. Burros had
put himself out there as a public figure, and his
biography – and his secret – were considered fair
game. Neither of the top Times editors at the time
— A.M. Rosenthal and Arthur Gelb, who co-wrote
a book about Burros — expressed any qualms.

“He was who he was, he did what he did, and I
no more would feel guilty of saying that a certain
person robbed a bank,” Rosenthal once told an
interviewer. “Was I happy that he killed himself?
Of course not. I did not feel that we had done
anything but the appropriate thing. It was he who
was misappropriating his life, both in what he was
doing and how he chose to end it. There were
other ways he could have ended it — he could
have quit!”
I thought about the Burros case last week, after
The Washington Post ran an article about the
far-right Twitter account “Libs of TikTok,” in which
reporter Taylor Lorenz named the woman who had
been running the account anonymously. Among
other things, she noted that the woman, Chaya
Raichik, is an Orthodox Jew. Lorenz gleaned the
information from one of Raichik’s own previous
Twitter bios, mentioned it once, and moved on.

Critics of the article, mostly on the right, accused
Lorenz of harassing and “doxxing” Raichik — that
is, revealing personal information about some-
one who appeared to prefer anonymity online.

Lorenz’s defenders — mostly on the left — said the
18 MAY 5, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
reporter was just doing journalism, and noted that
Raichik herself was in the business of posting vid-
eos by obscure LGBTQ activists and gay-friendly
teachers, who were then held up for ridicule and
harassment in the right-wing ecosphere.

Lorenz’s editor defended her reporting methods,
saying they “comport entirely with the Washington
Post’s professional standards.” Raichik, the state-
ment added, “in her management of the Libs of
TikTok Twitter account and in media interviews,
has had significant impact on public discourse
and her identity had become public knowledge
on social media.”
The Post’s statement itself comports with how
most mainstream journalists would have handled
the story: With her 700,000-plus followers and
demonstrable impact on the right-wing media and
even pending GOP legislation, Raichik’s identity
and background were ripe for disclosure.

Jewish Twitter had a separate beef with
Lorenz, however, with many asking how Raichik’s
Orthodox background was relevant to the story.

“Why was it crucial for @TaylorLorenz to mention
the creator of ‘Libs of TikTok’ was an Orthodox
Jew?” the group Stop Antisemitism tweeted.

“Violent antisemitic attacks, especially in NYC,
are skyrocketing. This does nothing but give an
already bias lunatic more ammo to attack Jews!”
The Coalition for Jewish Values, an organization
of right-wing Orthodox rabbis, said that “iden-
tifying the Twitter user as an Orthodox Jewish
woman placed her at heightened risk of physical
harm.” But if identifying someone as Jewish subjects
them to antisemitism, that seems to be a bigger
and more insurmountable problem than any
one journalist can address or avoid. It assumes,
without evidence, that antisemitism has become
so pervasive that living and identifying publicly
as a Jew has become an existential risk. And
it clashes with an ethos of Jewish pride and
self-confidence that educators are trying to instill
in Jewish schools and camps, and no doubt in
the synagogues to which many of the Post’s
critics belong.

Jews are visible and assertive in public life,
and in almost every occupation you can think
of. Jews are overrepresented in activist spaces
where the arguments are impassioned and some-
times unhinged. They don’t live as marranos. It’s
not clear why Raishik deserves special handling,
especially when she has willingly placed herself
at the white-hot center of our national argument.

Of course, I work for a Jewish media company
whose job it is to report on Jewish accomplish-
ments, scandals and curiosities. It is no surprise
that I always find the fact of someone’s Jewish
background interesting and relevant. And I can
understand why Lorenz thought so too: Religious
beliefs are a major element driving politics these
days, no more so than on the right, where faith
and policy align when it comes to activism around
abortion, LGBTQ issues and pandemic restric-
tions. As the New York Times noted in a recent
article about religious fervor within the pro-Trump
right, “[M]any believers are importing their wor-
ship of God, with all its intensity, emotion and
ambitions, to their political life.”
The Times was talking about charismatic
Christianity, but other observers have been not-
ing how Orthodox Jews, unlike the largely liberal,
non-Orthodox Jewish majority, have increasingly
embraced the Republican Party and Donald Trump
in recent years. This is great news for groups like
the Republican Jewish Coalition, and community
leaders in Brooklyn and other Orthodox enclaves
have hardly been shy about their turn to the right.

The same trend also alarms some within and
outside Orthodoxy. “The fact that Chaya Raichik
is a orthodox Jewish woman is 100% relevant to
the Libs Of Tiktok story,” said a writer who tweets
as @EvelKneidel. “The rapid radicalization of
orthodox communities in recent years is dark and
twisted.” Welcome or dark, the Orthodox connection
between faith and right-wing politics is a subject
worth exploring. And that is exactly how my col-
leagues at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency treated
the information that “Libs of TikTok” was run by an
activist who identified herself as Orthodox. In a
thoughtful article, Ron Kampeas reported on pol-
itics in the Orthodox community, and discussed
whether Raichik is representative or an outlier.

Putting Raichik’s religious background in that
context gave me, and I hope the article’s readers,
a window into how to understand the present
political moment and the roles all sorts of Jews
are playing.

The fact that a right-wing Twitter activist is
Jewish is hardly as juicy as the oxymoronic tale
of the Jewish Klansman. Still, I see why Lorenz
included the fact. And I only wish, instead of the
brief mention, she had offered a fuller exploration
of its relevance to the story at hand. JE
Andrew Silow-Carroll is the editor-in-chief of The
New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency.




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Jewish Denominations Support Infertility Awareness
All four major streams of Judaism are among an array of Jewish groups backing
a bipartisan congressional resolution calling for the U.S. government to raise
awareness about infertility, JTA reported.

Organizations affiliated with Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and
Reconstructionist movements signed a letter spearheaded by Hadassah sent on
April 27 to members of Congress asking them to back a bipartisan resolution
sponsored by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish Democrat from Florida, and
Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican.

The nonbinding resolution declares “that the United States Government has a
responsibility to help examine, create, and implement solutions to address and
alleviate the problems associated with the disease.”
The resolution notes that Ashkenazi Jews and people of Middle Eastern ances-
try are among groups that “suffer from disproportionately higher rates of certain
diseases and gynecological, endocrine, and autoimmune disorders, that may
contribute to higher rates of infertility among these populations.”
Hadassah has been lobbying for years to classify infertility as a disease and to
raise awareness. “For too long, infertility and the struggle toward parenthood
have been topics of quiet suffering, particularly in the Jewish community,” Rhoda
Smolow, Hadassah’s president, said in a release.

All smiles
this summer
17 %
Russian Jewish Billionaire Pledges $100M for Ukrainian Refugee Relief
Russian Jewish philanthropist Yuri Milner, who made billions in Silicon Valley
with early Kremlin support, pledged $100 million to aid Ukrainian refugees.

Unlike other billionaires whose wealth is linked to Russian President Vladimir
Putin, Milner has avoided Western sanctions meant to punish Russia for waging
war. The donation further distances him from the Kremlin.

A dual Russian and Israeli citizen who lives in California, Milner, and his wife
Julia, are known in the philanthropy world for establishing the Breakthrough
Prize to recognize and promote scientific achievement. But they have also become
significant donors to various causes in Israel.

The new Ukrainian relief efforts, called Tech for Refugees, involve a partnership
between the Milner’s Breakthrough Prize Foundation and private companies,
including short-term housing from Airbnb, hospital beds and emergency medical
equipment from Flexport and audio from music streaming service Spotify.

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Antisemitic Harassment Reported at Rutgers Jewish Fraternity
AEPi fraternity at Rutgers University was the target of multiple cases of antise-
mitic harassment in April, prompting the school to announce it would be increas-
ing campus security, JTA reported.

Authorities said AEPi was first targeted on April 22 when protesters exiting a
rally for Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian university activist group,
went to the house and shouted antisemitic rhetoric and spat at the brothers.

Rutgers Hillel Interim Executive Director Rabbi Esther Reed said the group
yelled phrases including “terrorist” and “baby killers.” The rally was called “Defend
Al-Aqsa, Defend Palestine,” referring to the Muslim worship site in Jerusalem that
has been the site of violent clashes between Israelis and Arabs in recent weeks.

Another incident occurred on April 24, when unidentified assailants threw
eggs at the frat house as the brothers were commemorating Yom Hashoah. A
similar incident occurred during the 2021 name-reading event, Reed said.

US Tourists Bring Unexploded Bomb Shell to Israeli Airport
An American family set off a bomb scare at Ben-Gurion Airport on April 28
when they brought to security inspectors an unexploded shell found while visit-
ing the Golan Heights, Reuters and The Jerusalem Post reported.

Video circulated on social media showed panicked passengers scattering at the
airport’s departure hall. A man was hospitalized with injuries sustained as he
tried to flee over a baggage carousel, the Israel Airports Authority said.

The authority said the family was allowed to board their flight after being interrogated
by security staff. Israel clashed with Syria over the Golan Heights during the wars of
1967 and 1973, leading to speculation that the bombs were from that period. JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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