Yair Rosenberg is an American journalist and a staff writer at
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
, where he launched his ''Deep Shtetl'' newsletter. He was formerly a senior writer at ''
Tablet'' magazine, and is a regular speaker and commentator on
antisemitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
in the modern era and on strategies to combat abuse on online platforms.
Career
Rosenberg covered the U.S. elections beginning in 2012, as well as the Israeli elections from 2014 onward, and his work on these and other subjects has appeared in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'', ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', and the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', among other outlets. He has interviewed and profiled multiple
White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...
chiefs of staff and cabinet members. He also elicited a correction from the
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
on a point of Jewish history.
Until 2021, he was a senior writer at ''
Tablet'' magazine, where he covered politics, culture, and religion, tackling topics ranging from American Jewish responses to modern critical scholarship of the Bible, to contemporary Islamophobia to the forgotten history of Mormon-Jewish relations. In particular, he has chronicled the resurgence of antisemitism in Europe and in America. He is also known for his parodies of antisemites on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, and more serious efforts to combat abuse on online platforms, including a video series aimed at educating the uninitiated about the history, nuances, and dangers of modern-day antisemitism.
In November 2021, he moved to
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
, and began a newsletter called ''Deep Shtetl,'' where he continued his coverage of politics, culture, antisemitism, and social media dynamics, including an exploration of how a Jewish character came to be on the cult classic sci-fi show ''
Firefly,'' the story behind the Hanukkah menorah used by Vice President
Kamala Harris
Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who is the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, as well ...
, an interview with celebrated Jewish author
Dara Horn
Dara Horn (born 1977) is a Jewish American novelist, essayist, and professor of literature. She has written five novels and in 2021, released a nonfiction essay collection titled ''People Love Dead Jews'', which was a finalist for the 2021 Kirku ...
, and a deep dive into
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
's little-known 20-year friendship with an Orthodox rabbi named Chaim Tchernowitz.
A frequent speaker and commentator on these topics, he has addressed audiences in New York, Seattle, Austin's
South By Southwest, Jerusalem's Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism, and the
Limmud conference in
Melbourne, Australia. Rosenberg has been interviewed and cited by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'',
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
,
CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...
,
Fast Company
''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year.
History
''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...
,
CBC News
CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca ...
, and ''
The Rachel Maddow Show
''The Rachel Maddow Show'' (also abbreviated ''TRMS'') is an American liberal news and opinion television program that airs on MSNBC, running in the 9:00 pm ET timeslot Monday evenings. It is hosted by Rachel Maddow, who gained a public p ...
'', among others.
Rosenberg's writings have received awards from the Harvard Center for Jewish Studies and the
Religion Newswriters Association
The Religion News Association (RNA) is an American non-profit professional association which seeks to promote better reporting on religion in the news media and to provide help and support to journalists who cover religion. It was founded in 1949 a ...
. In 2017, he was named as one of "36 Under 36" by New York's ''
Jewish Week
''The Jewish Week'' is a weekly independent community newspaper targeted towards the Jewish community of the metropolitan New York City area. ''The Jewish Week'' covers news relating to the Jewish community in NYC. In March 2016, ''The Jewish W ...
'' newspaper.
Target of Antisemitism
In 2016, a report by the
Anti-Defamation League's Task Force on Journalism and Harassment identified Rosenberg as the second-most targeted Jewish journalist receiving online antisemitic abuse due to his critical reporting on
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
's candidacy, following conservative writer
Ben Shapiro
Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American attorney, businessman, columnist, conservative political commentator, and media personality. At age 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States. ...
, and ahead of journalists
Jeffrey Goldberg
Jeffrey Mark Goldberg (born September 22, 1965) is an American journalist and editor-in-chief of ''The Atlantic'' magazine. During his nine years at ''The Atlantic'' prior to becoming editor, Goldberg became known for his coverage of foreign affa ...
,
Sally Kohn
Sally Rebecca Kohn (born March 27, 1977) is an American liberal political commentator, community organizer, and founder and chief executive officer of the Movement Vision Lab, a grassroots think tank that focuses on liberal and progressive i ...
and
Jake Tapper
Jacob Paul Tapper (born March 12, 1969) is an American journalist, author, and cartoonist. He is the lead Washington anchor for CNN, hosts the weekday television news show '' The Lead with Jake Tapper'', and co-hosts the Sunday morning public a ...
. "My parents didn't raise me to be number 2," he later wrote in ''The New York Times''. "Fortunately, there's always 2020."
Since the report's publication, Rosenberg has focused extensively on the issue of online harassment and antisemitism, including through the creation of the "Impostor Buster" Twitter bot that exposed neo-Nazi trolls masquerading as minorities on the platform, which received coverage from ''The New York Times'' and other global news outlets. Rosenberg also wrote about his experience and efforts to combat online abuse in the ''Times''.
Music
Rosenberg is a singer and composer of original Jewish music. In March 2020, he released his first two singles, ''Shalom Aleichem'' and ''Lecha Dodi'', and announced a forthcoming album. His collaborators include singers Arun Viswanath and Abbaleh Savitt, as well as producer Charles Newman. "Rosenberg is not the only musically inclined member of his family," reported ''Jewish Insider'',
"his grandfather was a Hasidic composer who, as a young man, escaped Nazi Europe with the assistance of Japanese diplomat
Chiune Sugihara
was a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas, Lithuania. During the Second World War, Sugihara helped thousands of Jews flee Europe by issuing transit visas to them so that they could travel through ...
, who issued him a visa. In time, Rosenberg’s grandfather ended up in China, eventually making his way to the United States."
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, Yair
Living people
Jewish American writers
Writers from New York (state)
American magazine journalists
Harvard University alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Jewish activists
21st-century American Jews