All the women in my family are physically feminine — and resilient and internally tough — that includes both my mother and me — we had to be...
Commuting to Baltimore to get your Master of Social Work degree after having three children, and then commuting to Harrisburg to your Department of Public Welfare job — where you cope with sexual harassment and daily bureaucratic hornets’ nests — ain’t easy. Especially when you are the daughter of one of Pennsylvania’s most powerful Democratic politicians and justices, and Jewish — although he passed away in 1970, everyone is keenly aware of the lineage — and there are antisemitic, misogynist people who wrongly insinuate that “Daddy” helped you get where you are in life.
When in fact your Jewish father — son of immigrants — was a public servant with a middle-class income, and you went to York’s city public schools for most of your childhood.
We need to talk about the normalized, antisemitic misogyny toward Jewish women in America. And we need to talk about how it comes from all races. And how it is so normalized that the people doing it don’t even notice they are doing it.
We need to talk about the fact that my mother’s hometown — and mine — York, PA — had a Black female mayor for two terms, but it definitely never had a Jewish female mayor, and:
Zero Jewish female lead anchors in prime time on any major news platform — but there are a number of non-Jewish women of all races anchoring in prime time — who regularly have Jewish men on their shows to prove how much they “love the Jews” — but don’t even notice that there are zero Jewish women in lead anchor roles in prime time — or, for that matter, in movies or TV in general — unless they change their names or play Jewish stereotypes like Funny Girl and "geek," and:
Never been a Jewish First Lady.
Never been a Jewish Second Lady.
Obviously, no Jewish POTUS or VEEP.
But we HAVE had a Black President and First Lady for eight years — and a Black-Indian female Vice President for four years.
But definitely — NO Jewish women.
And if one ever did get elected, it would probably be a biracial or queer Jewish woman — to get any votes from Democrats — and I was raised in a family of "true blue" liberal Democrats — but the talented, brilliant women in my family are Straight Jewish Women and Caucasian-looking — so they had to settle for backstage political roles.
Liberal, talented Jewish women — like my Mother — often end up as unpaid organizers, and support the political careers of non-Jewish people — both people of color and white politicians — who are not Jewish.
One or two of them even get to go to the Obamas’ yearly Passover dinner and be in the photos they make sure to tweet...and maybe even Mamdani’s — when he throws a Seder at Gracie Mansion to prove he’s not a total antisemite.
Lots America needs to talk about.
