Views essay The Women’s March It fi nally might be ready to take Jewish women seriously. F or the first time in a while, I am cautiously hopeful that the Women’ s March may be turning a corner. I am not talking about the dramatic changing of the guard, though it is certainly a big deal that three of the march’ s four prominent co-chairs — Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour — have stepped down after the organi- zation’ s leadership was plagued with controversy, including praising notorious anti-Semites like Louis Farrakhan and alle- gations they pushed a Jewish woman out of leadership because of her religion. For me, the bigger news is that one of the 17 new board members has already been removed for rhetoric that many found to be anti-Semitic , including demonizing the Anti- Defamation League, chastising Muslims who are willing to join interfaith efforts and calling Israel a “racist” state that “engages in terrorism. ” Just days after Zahra Billoo was announced as part of the new board, the Women’ s March took the outpouring of concern from Jewish organizations seri- ously and actually did some- thing. The organization that in February 2018 took a staggering nine days just to say Louis Farrakhan did not “align” with its values managed to actually fire someone over anti-Semitism concerns. This is a marked difference, indeed, from where the organi- zation began. In 2017, shortly after the first Women’ s March rocked not only Washington, D.C., but the entire world as a unifying feminist storm, I found myself reluctantly questioning whether I was wel- comed in this supposedly inclu- sive wave of feminist activism as a Jewish woman and a Zionist. I very much would have pre- ferred to pull the pink pussy hat over my eyes and ignore the fact that there was a singular hostility toward Israel in the movement and then a growing tolerance for anti-Semitism. It felt whiny, if not traitorous, to question and raise concerns when I was a proud feminist who agreed with so many of the overarching goals and objectives of the movement. I should take the good with the bad, I thought. But I couldn’ t. It felt dishonest and hypocritical, especially in a movement that proclaimed to value intersectionality and encouraging people — especially women — to speak their truth and be the ones to name and call out discrimination and hate. I was prompted to write “Does feminism have room for Zionists?” after the International Women’ s Strike — distinct from the Women’ s March — present- ed a platform that singled out Israel as the only country other than the U.S. for condemnation, demanded the “decolonization of Palestine” and proudly touted Rasmea Odeh as an organizer. Odeh had been convicted for her involvement in a bombing that killed two Hebrew University students. The response I received from the most prominent and loudest voices of the modern feminist and progressive movements was a resounding no — both implic- itly in their hyper-hostility to anything that could be mistaken as acknowledging the legitimacy of Jewish statehood and explicit- ly from Sarsour. Anti-Zionism seemed like rel- atively small potatoes against my new looming question: “Does feminism have too much room for anti-Semitism?” It wasn’ t just that Sarsour had said that “nothing is creepier than Zionism, ” but that she had unabashedly and unapolo- getically minimized its harm, saying, “I want to make the distinction that while anti-Sem- itism is something that impacts Jewish Americans, it’ s differ- ent from anti-black racism or Islamophobia because it’ s not systemic. ” But a year can make a dif- ference. With fresh blood and a willingness to listen and take action, there is finally some hope that Jewish women’ s concerns will be heard and taken seriously. This doesn’ t mean that there isn’ t more room for improve- ment. For one, it was disappoint- Emily Shire JTA To make a donation to the DETROIT JEWISH NEWS FOUNDATION go to the website www.djnfoundation.org The Detroit Jewish News (USPS 275-520) is published every Thursday at 29200 Northwestern Highway, #110, Southfield, Michigan. Periodical postage paid at Southfield, Michigan, and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: send changes to: Detroit Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Hwy., #110, Southfield, MI 48034. Arthur M. Horwitz Executive Editor/Publisher ahorwitz@renmedia.us F. 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