How to be an Orthodox rabbi's wife and a feminist writer at the same time
"What's a good religious girl like you doing working as a journalist?"
It's a question Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt has heard more than once. Avital is an Orthodox Jew living in New York City. As a journalist, she writes fairly critically about her religion. She married an Orthodox rabbi, Benjamin Goldschmidt, and now has certain responsibilities. As she put it in an interview with Tapestry host Mary Hynes: "I stand out as a strange, misfit creature in a world of rules."
She's known for writing pointed critiques of her religious tradition, including an essay on eating disorders among Jewish brides who feel pressure to be skinny and beautiful in order to "marry well." Here is Avital reading excerpts from some of her articles:
The 'Shidduch Crisis' has led to an Orthodox obsession with female beauty (Originally published in Haaretz, September 2015)
Confessions of a rabbi's wife: "I wanted to hide behind a husband and a wig" (Salon, December 2015)
Behind the lace partition: The voice of the Orthodox woman (Haaretz, September 2013)
The story of her courtship with husband Benjamin, and more photos of their wedding, were featured in the New York Times Vows Section.