(Jewish Group) Why Jewish Women Should March

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

Should progressive Jewish women and their allies attend the 2019 Women’s March, scheduled for January? The Women’s March Unity Principles notably omit Jewish women as a group for which the movement seeks justice. Furthermore, two of its leaders — Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory — are at best tone deaf when it comes to antisemitism, and at worst antisemites themselves.

The slights and insults are numerous. Both Sarsour and Mallory refuse to distance themselves from the notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan, who recently called Jews “termites” and has, in the past, called Hitler “a great man.” What’s more, Sarsour herself has spread antisemitic conspiracy theories, accused Jews of dual loyalty, and said that Zionists cannot be true feminists.

And when Jews have objected, she and Mallory have trivialized their concerns. Even when Sarsour decried the massacre of Jews at prayer in a Pittsburgh synagogue, her words rang hollow because she gives comfort to antisemites. For many, it appears that she is cynically using Jews in her fight against the political right-wing — including, but not limited to, those elements of the right that embrace white supremacy.

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That is a false choice. Jewish women should not have to leave our values and our self-worth at the door. The Women’s March doesn’t make that demand of any other minority group. Jews can and should demand more from the leaders of a movement that claims to champion equality. Bobkoff — and, I can only assume, Sarsour and Mallory — believe that because many Jewish women are “white-presenting,” we should look past the March’s dismissal of our concerns; acknowledge our “privilege”; lump ourselves in with non-Jewish white women; and sit down and shut up.

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