If I can’t get it right this time, I will stop trying. This is my third try to write a Letter about the Women’s March, about the schism in the Women’s March.
Maybe I have no business commenting. Perhaps this is women’s business, and I am a man.
Maybe I have no business commenting. Perhaps I see this through the perspective of being Jewish.
Maybe I have no business commenting. Perhaps we have heard enough about this.
Maybe I have no business commenting. Perhaps anything said will only exacerbate the situation.
The Women’s March is important. A large number of women ran for office in 2018. Most were Democrats. Many attribute their decision to run for office to the inspiration of the 2016 Women’s March.
A group of four women gained control of the Women’s March, women who had been invited to join the leadership of the 2016 Women’s March to ensure diversity in the leadership.
One result of the dispute is that there were two Marches in New York. (Two in Philadelphia, too, but the dispute was not as contentious.) In New York, the dispute was intense during the period leading up to the marches.
Two Women’s March leaders drew particular attention, drew accusations of anti-Semitism.
Linda Sarsour is a Palestinian-American. She is a critic of Israel. She supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. That gained her accusations of anti-Semitism. Is the BDS movement anti-Semitic? Is it an effort to make Israel change? Oran effort to destroy Israel?
Sarsour’s conversation about Israel and the Palestiniansas well as her conversation about Islam conflate feminism with other issues. Sarsoursaid.… “people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it” cannot be part of the feminist movement. She defended Islam against charges of misogyny, sayingshe wished she could take away the vaginas of women critics of Islam. They “did not deserve to be women.”
Tamika Mallory is an African American. She is the child of founders of and was the youngest Executive Director of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. She sees the Women’s Marches as addressing social issues in the US. She wanted the 2019 version of the March to address issues of race, class, gender, nationality, and sexuality. Opposition to Trump was not enough.
Mallory’s association with and admiration for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has led to accusations that she is anti-Semitic. Evvie Harmon, a March organizer, supported March co-founder Vanessa Wruble’s claim that Wruble was pushed out of the leadership. Harmon cites Mallory and another co-president of the March saying “you people hold all the wealth.” Farrakhan’s inaccurate claims that Jews were central to the slave trade and, therefore, responsible, for slavery has become part of the conversation. Mallory’s critics want her to demonstrate that she is not anti-Semitic by denouncing Farrakhan for his anti-Semitic views.
Sarsour and Mallory have reflected (skeptics say they appear to have reflected) and apologized (skeptics are unconvinced by the apologies).
Mallory won’t denounce Farrakhan. The official March response was:
“Minister Farrakhan’s statements about Jewish, queer, and trans people are not aligned with the Women’s March Unity Principles.”
Mallory’s response:
I have heard the pain and concerns of my LGBTQAI siblings, my Jewish friends, and Black women…..
…. it was the women of the Nation of Islam who supported me [when my son’s father was murdered] and I have always held them close to my heart for that reason….
I was raised in activism and believe that as historically oppressed people, Blacks, Jews, Muslims and all people must stand together to fight racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamaphobia. I believe that LGBTQAI people are not an abomination or a creation of man, but simply people, and that religion is not to be used as a tool to abuse, divide, harm, bully or intimidate.
The Jewish Telegraph Agency reported on Sarsour’s response:
Sarsour said the[Women’s March Leadership] wants to have a better relationship with the Jewish community.
“Trying to dismantle oppression, while working within systems of oppression, is hard,” Sarsour wrote. “We are deeply invested in building better and deeper relationships with the Jewish community. And we’re committed to deepening relationships with any community who has felt left out of this movement. We want to create space where all are welcome.”
Sarsour and Mallory see the demands for denunciation of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam as a product of the accusers’ racism and bigotry. In their opinion, disagreeing with Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQAI views is enough.
What should be expected of Jews and others accused of racism and bigotry?
My first failed letter began and ended with the idea of American Jews reflecting about the Jewish role in slavery. Georgetown University and Brown University were imperfect examples. Georgetown’s predecessor institution had sold slaves to get out of debt. The family that founded Brown included slave traders. Both institutions sought ways to change their institutions.
My second failed letter began and ended with TikkunOlam, repairing the world. I noted the term had come to mean an obligation to work toward making a better world.
American Jews are not an institution and can’t take institutional steps for redress. Jews can reflect – alone or together. Should Jews listen to the complaints of racism and bigotry and reflect on them?
American Jews reflecting on racism remember the positive role of Jews in the Civil Rights movement. Many American Jews reflecting on slavery remember their eighteenth and nineteenth century ancestors as oppressed people in Eastern Europe. Certainly not as slave owners.
Is reflection on the slave trade and on slave ownership out of line? Jews did own slaves. In a census before the Civil War, 87% of whites in Charleston, SC owned slaves; 83% of Jews in the city did. The wealthiest almost certainly invested in the slave trade.
Would remembering listening to someone using the term “schwartzer” or “faigele” as an epithet be a worthy reflection? Should we contemplate participation in a system that has made American Jews as prosperous a demographic as Episcopalians? Should we contrast that success with demographic groups whose participation has been less successful? What about reflection, rather than anger at, those who say “repair yourselves before repairing the world?”
Critics of the Women’s March suggested appointing additional leaders for the March. Did they suggest adding Jewish leaders? I don’t know.
The leaders of the Women’s March appointed three new Jewish members to the 30 or so member steering committee – April Baskin, Yavilah McCoy, and Abby Stein.
- Baskin had coordinated diversity efforts for the Union of Reform Judaism. She is black and Jewish.
- McCoy is the New England head of The Curriculum Initiative. The CTI expands awareness of Jewish culture and identify for prep schools. She is black and Jewish.
- Stein is a white transgender woman. Raised in a Hasidic community, she has been an activist on behalf of transgender women.
These appointments were not taken by critics as an act of reconciliation.
Two Women’s Marches in New York were assured. The exodus of politicians was assured. The exodus of conventional organizations was assured. The NAACP explained that its youth movement would have a speaker at the Washington March, but it was not a sponsor of the March.
Were the three new appointments a statement against anti-Semitism? Were they a challenge to critics? Do you accept unconventional Jews, black and transgendered Jews? Do these appointmentsdemonstrate that the leaders of the Women’s March are not anti-Semitic?
Am I persuaded? Would you readers be persuaded that the leaders of the Women’s March are not anti-Semitic? Reflect on that.
Have we lost something by not being unified in our dismay at the Trump presidency? Reflect on that?
One New York politician skipped the Washington March, but went to both New York Marches. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. Reflect on that.