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As a Black Jew and former @jdforward writer I must publicly condemn the publication's choice to publish Ariel Sobel, a white writer who targeted Black Jews through a racist Blackface sock puppet account & smeared those who called them out, including a Black Jewish Forward writer
I was part of a stable of young Black Jewish writers who helped @JDforward maintain a "balanced" reputation from our voices, while behind the scenes failing us repeatedly. This is a slap in the face to every single one of us who placed our trust in the editors. I am livid.
I have repeatedly asked the Forward to adopt editorial standards to address structural racism in their publication, this was rebuffed and we are seeing the consequences of that today. It's not just the Forward tho, Jewish Press has a racism issue, and harms Black Jews especially
Why is @jdforward publishing someone w/ a documented history of racist harm against Black Jews? Why did @TOIOpsBlogs & @tabletmag publish hit pieces attacking JOC identities? Because many Jewish publications sees us as racial clickbait & refuse to apply basic editorial standards
Despite my move away from the Forward I tried very hard not to make that public out of respect for my former working relationships with the editors. I am heartbroken that this respect was not returned. Worse this directly harms their writers who Sobel smeared and targeted.
I wasn't even planning on logging onto twitter today but this demanded a response. Sobel's hateful actions have cause a tremendous amount of trauma and disruption for the Black Jews impacted, we are never getting that time or emotional well being back.
