Tal Lavin

Lavin faced national controversy for a 2018 Twitter post in which Lavin accused a disabled Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent of having a tattoo that suggested he was a white supremacist or extremist. The tattoo in question was later identified as a symbol of the agent’s former Marine Corps platoon. ^{1 2} After widespread public criticism and criticism from an ICE spokesperson, Lavin formally apologized to the agent in a subsequent post. ⁵

Background

After completing an undergraduate degree, Tal Lavin, then known as Talia Lavin, spent a year in 2012 as a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine. ² Afterward, in 2013 Lavin interned for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA),  ⁶ where he wrote for the organization’s website.  ^{7 2}

Following the internship, in 2014 Lavin became a Malkin editorial fellow at Lillith Magazine, and later in 2015 an international fellow at the Huffington Post. ^{8 9 10 11}

Writing Career

The New Yorker

Starting in 2015, Lavin worked as a fact checker for the New Yorker magazine while writing about allegations of antisemitic behavior in American politics. In 2018, the magazine published a story about the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, and its commentary on the 2017 Unite the Right Rally and subsequent rioting in Charlottesville, Virginia. ²

In June 2018, Lavin released a post on Twitter (known as X as of 2026) accusing disabled Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Justin Gaertner of having a tattoo of the German Iron Cross symbol on his body, indicating he might have white supremacist or neo-Nazi views. The tattoo in question was later identified as a symbol of the agent’s former Marine Corps platoon.  ^{1 2} Lavin later apologized for the post and to agent Gaertner, and later resigned from the magazine and claimed to have been unfairly targeted by ICE and to have been used as “a weapon used to discredit my colleagues and the vital work they do holding power to account.”  ^{1  2}

Media Matters for America

In July 2018, Lavin was hired by Media Matters for America (MMFA) to work as a researcher on “far-right extremism.” ⁵ However, by January 2019 Lavin had left the organization. She claimed her departure was due to MMFA’s finances. ^{12 3}

New York University

Following his departure from Media Matters, Lavin was scheduled to begin teaching undergraduate journalism at New York University (NYU) in fall 2019. However, in May 2019, Adam Penenerg, director of undergraduate studies at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, announced the course would be cancelled due to the low number of students that signed up to take the course. Penenerg also alleged the school would not rehire Lavin do the latter’s shifting focus on the “far-right.”  ³

Independent Writer

Lavin later worked as an independent writer of short-form content for the New Republic, Vice, and a personal blog, The Sword and the Sandwich. ^{13 12}

As of May 2026, Lavin has written two books published by the Hatchette Book Group: Culture Warlords, published in 2020, and Wild Faith, published in 2024. ^{14 15}

Personal Life

By November 2025, Lavin began to identify as a transgender man instead of a woman and took the name Tal instead of Talia. Lavin began publishing work using that forename in a personal essay that month, “Flaming Hydra.”  ⁴