John Lennon said it first; “A working class hero is something to be”

On the evening of November 17th, Schermerhorn’s typically spooky vibe was replaced with that of strongly opinionated women ready to discuss a heavily loaded question: is feminism Jewish? A panel comprised of Michelle Goldberg, Vivian Gornick, and Catha Pollitt deliberated on the topic before an audience of about twenty women, most of them elderly. Although the discussion was supposed to be led by Goldberg, the audience members pitched their own questions as they came to mind.

There are two correct answers to the question at hand; the first of which is no, feminism is not Jewish. Gornick strongly defended the secularity of the second-wave feminism movement, claiming that there was no feminism in the history of Jewish life until our generation. She believes that the feminism movement belonged to women, not Jews. This movement, along with the labor movement and other 20th century revolutions, was entirely secular. Gornick expanded on this, claiming, “the labor movement was not Jewish. It was Italian, Irish, it was the working class!” A lot of women in the audience reacted negatively to her point and vocalized their disagreement. One yelled, “a lot of those immigrants in the unions were Jews, it’s okay to admit that Jewishness had some impact on the labor movement, and the feminism movement, too!” Gornick believes that growing up as a girl, an immigrant, and a part of the working class all contributed to her outlook during the revolution, but not being Jewish.

The answer could also be yes, feminism is Jewish. Pollitt mentioned the fact that Solomon praised the woman who was involved in the world, taking care of herself, and living her own life. These actions are unlike a nun or Virgin Mary, ideal figures in other religions. Jewishness and Judaism promote equality between men and women, and have strong matriarchal values. Pollitt, along with many other women in the room, believed that because Jewish women had these values, they found it easy to be productive as feminists in the ‘70s and ‘80s. This explains why there was such a surplus of Jewish feminist leaders from this time period despite the population of the United States being only 2% Jewish.

The women also went off on some interesting tangents, including a discussion of why Jewish women get higher educations. Some seek higher education in order to have access to a career in the case of an emergency. Gornick used the story of one of her Jewish friends as an example: when this girl was deciding whether or not she should seek a college education, her mother encouraged her to do so because “a girl needs a trade in case her husband drops dead.” Gornick said this was a common mentality for women at the time, but Pollitt disagreed. She said that poor Jewish women went to college to get jobs and join the working class; others went to college to become graceful educated wives of wealthy men.

The education topic then shifted to a discussion of their shared hatred for Jezebel, a popular feminist blog. Although slightly irrelevant to the topic of Jewish feminism, the conversation was notable because it was a rare moment of unanimous agreement. Pollitt said, “the obsession women have with Jezabel is the same with the world we want to abandon: sex, fashion, looks, how to better please your man.” Gornick agreed, comparing it to Cosmopolitan and urging girls to stop reading it.

The discussion ended with an interesting twist of the discussion topic: Is Judaism/Jewishness feminist? Gornick immediately jumped on this question and responded, “Not at all, not in any religion. Religion is based on the pretext that there is a supreme being, then a man, then a woman.” She said that there was no feminism in the history of Jewish life until our generation, and it was powered by outsider factors mentioned earlier (i.e. being a woman, a member of the working class, and an immigrant).

The talk concluded with a member of the The Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies thanking the audience members and inviting them up to discuss the issues further with the panelists individually.

Being a working class heroine via Shuttershock