It’s no question that anti-Semitism has been on the rise, from the 2018 Squirrel Hill shooting, recent Ye controversies, and Donald Trump’s meeting with Nick Fuentes, an infamous Holocaust-denying streamer. Jews across the country are sensing these trends toward hostility. In 2022, 41% of American Jews felt their status was more insecure than it was a year ago, a 10 percentage point increase from 2021.
March also marks Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions of American women in a variety of fields, from science to literature, throughout our nation’s history. In honor of the intersection of these events, it’s important to recognize the contributions of Jewish women—including women of color and LGBTQ voices. While iconic Jewish women, such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, have made impactful contributions, I have made an effort to include women whose contributions are not typically as well-known.
Emma Lazarus
Born in New York City in 1849, Emma Lazarus grew up in a Sephardic Jewish household, a population descended from the Iberian Peninsula. Most famous for her poem “The New Colossus,” which is now engraved in the Statue of Liberty, Lazarus was one of the first prominent Jewish American authors, advocating against anti-Semitism. Her notable work “Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death and Other Poems” was one of the first to highlight the struggles of Jewish Americans. Beyond written works, Lazarus also volunteered at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and helped establish the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York City, created to provide Jewish immigrants with vocational training.
Bella Abzug
The daughter of poor Russian-Jewish immigrants, Abzug grew up in the Bronx and was notedly outspoken from a young age. After graduating from Hunter College and then Columbia Law School, she was one of the few female law students across the country. Abzug then ran her own law practice for over two decades, specializing in civil and labor rights cases. Notably during McCarthy’s “Red Scare,” she was one of the few attorneys willing to defend those accused by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1970, Abzug was elected to represent a part of Manhattan in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming one of only 12 female representatives. During her 3 terms in Congress, she continued to fight as an anti-war activist and advocated for economic justice.
Betty Berzon
A psychologist from California in the mid-late 20th century, for a long time, Berzon struggled with her own sexual orientation. In 1968, at age 40, Berzon began to identify as lesbian, and soon, began treating members of the LGBTQ community at her practice. In 1971, Berzon’s life changed when she helped found the country’s first social service agency for gays and lesbians, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which now provides more services for LGBT people than any other organization in the world, ranging from the fields of health, education, housing, and advocacy. Berzon went on to challenge and win the fight against the American Psychiatric Association’s classification of homosexuality as a mental illness. Berzon also wrote a number of popular self-help books and a memoir Surviving Madness, A Therapist’s Own Story which won a Lambda Literary Award for excellence in gay and lesbian writing.
Dr. Irena Klepfisz
Born in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941, Dr. Klepfisz survived World War II by hiding in an orphanage and then in the Polish countryside with her mother. Dr. Klepfisz moved to New York City at 8 years old and started using poetry to express her experiences with the Holocaust and her sexual orientation. With a deep passion for Yiddish translation and language, she earned her masters in English Literature from the University of Chicago and her doctorate in English in 1970. Known for studying the cross-over of Queer and Yiddish studies, Dr. Klepfisz was a professor of Jewish and Women’s Studies at Barnard College until she retired in 2018. Beyond her work as an academic, Dr. Klepfisz was an outspoken advocate against the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli government.
Rabbi Sandra Lawson
Born and raised in St. Louis, Rabbi Lawson is one of the first black, queer, female rabbis. Having graduated from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 2018, Rabbi Lawson is now the Inaugural Director of Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Reconstructing Judaism, the central organization in the Jewish Reconstructionist movement. In contrast to the traditional 3 branches of Judaism (Orthodox, Reform and Conservative), the Reconstructionist movement is a more progressive sect of Judaism that believes in adopting traditional Jewish practice to modern society. Rabbi Lawson is also a musician, advocate, and social media “influencer” amassing thousands of followers across her platforms, following her belief that the Torah can be taught in virtual spaces. If you are interested, learn more about her social media platforms here.
Maryam Chishti
Being raised Jewish and Muslim, Chishti spent the school year in a Jewish community in New York City’s Upper West Side and her summers in a heavily-Muslim community in Kashmir, India. Since graduating from Brandeis University in 2020, bridging her dual identity, Chishti serves as the Co-Executive Director of both the Jews of Color Initiative and the LUNAR Collective. Combining digital storytelling with community programming, in 2021 the LUNAR Collective launched an 11-episode film series following the diverse experiences of 23 Asian-American Jews. Check out the series’ trailer below; all 11 episodes and more are available for free on YouTube and through their website.
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