About Ari

I’m a veteran journalist with a decade of experience writing award-winning stories in New York City and Chicago. My specialty has been explanatory reporting on complex subjects in politics, public safety, climate change, economics, antisemitism and more, and I’ve conducted investigations into sexual abuse and nonprofits. My experience in live TV broadcasts, podcasts, longform and breaking news has given me a unique range of writing skills to draw from.

I’ve now hung up my press credentials and gone back to school to study filmmaking. In 2023 I joined the directing track at Brooklyn College’s Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema. You can watch my first short, “Onion Guy,” below. More to come.

As a lifelong wordsmith, I also take on copywriting, branding and speechwriting work. You can find examples from my last project below, and I am available for freelance contracts across a wide range of subjects, industries and formats.

Shorts

This zero-budget short, “Onion Guy,” was something of a proof-of-concept for my dream of telling stories through films, television and experimental video art. We shot over two days, partly in my apartment, with a skeleton crew and a lot of onions.

The short was screened at the 2022 New York Short Film Festival, where it earned second-place in comedies.

Good copy

For this project, I worked with the firm’s principal to write all the copy and taglines for its redesigned website, distilling its core brand values and areas of expertise as well as crafting the principal’s bio from three decades of industry experience.

Client: Amie Gross Architects
Industry: Affordable and supportive architecture

As a reporter for NY1, New York City’s premiere TV news station, I covered a range of subjects for live broadcast, in digital articles and on podcasts.

For my final project at NY1, I managed a collaboration with the nonprofit newsroom The City to create a custom guide with election information, demographics and voter history for all 51 City Council districts in the city.

Reporting

Selected clips

At The Forward, the foremost chronicle of the American Jewish world, I got a valuable crash course in all kinds of reporting and writing. My work earned awards across formats, from breaking news to investigations.

Of course, we still had some fun with it.

Brandeis U. Press and historian split on how to talk about Jews and white supremacy

Selected clips

Winner of the 2021 American Jewish Press Association Award for Excellence in News Stories

Winner of the 2020 Deadline Club Award for Breaking News Reporting

Winner of the 2019 New York Press Club’s Nellie Bly Cub Reporter Award for emerging reporters