Feminism, Antisemitism, and Antizionism: The Untold History

It is no longer news that feminism has enabled antisemitism and antizionism around the world—and far beyond the feminist movement. But how did this happen? This course looks at some of the most consequential ways in which feminist ideas and vocabularies have contributed to modern-day manifestations of hostility towards not just Jewish women, but Jews in general, and towards Israel. We will explore: the ongoing campaign against Jewish American feminist Betty Friedan; the development of feminist theory that marginalized or excluded Jews and Jewish women, leading to their oppression both within and outside of the movement; the Jewish feminists who developed a new antizionist Jewish identity; and modern-day movements that use feminist principles to undermine Jews, Jewish women, and Israel. Participants will be able to explain the basic history of global feminist antisemitism and antizionism as well as some of its most important contributing factors. This course is based on the book “Feminist Antisemitism: An Intellectual History” by Kara Jesella. Recommended readings are for those students who would like to look even more carefully at primary sources.

Session 1: The Campaign against Betty Friedan

To understand contemporary feminist antisemitism and antizionism, it is essential to understand Betty Friedan, the Jewish American feminist who kicked off the contemporary feminist movement in 1963 with her book The Feminine Mystique, as well as the campaign to undermine her legacy.  Who was Friedan? How is it that even as millions of women around the world were galvanized by her work, some women felt that she was the enemy? What did this important group do about it? And how do we still experience this campaign to transform her into a symbol of racism, imperialism, and even patriarchy manifest today?

Session 2: Academic Feminism’s Jewish Problem

It is not so surprising that antisemitism and antizionism existed in the feminist movement; any large international movement would have included people with unsavory views, a result of historical antisemitism. But how did expressions of hostility towards Jews become central to academic feminism? To answer this question, we will look at the development of Women’s Studies and its most important theories, with special attention to the role of socialist feminism; the importance of identity politics; new feminist theories around knowledge that marginalized or excluded Jewish women; and the increasingly important role of theory to academia, including theories about whiteness and queer theory.

Session 3: Jewish Antisemitism and Antizionism

This class will focus on a crucial contributor to feminist antisemitism and antizionism: the complicity of Jewish feminists. Not only did many Jewish women develop ideas that would disempower Jews, they also helped spread these ideas to other movements. We will start in the 1970s, with the Jewish women who brought socialism into Women’s Studies; then move into the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, with the development of Jewish feminism, partly by feminists who wanted to create an explicitly leftist, secular Jewish feminist identity; and then explore contemporary manifestations of that identity and their consequences.

Session 4: Contemporary Manifestations of Feminist Antisemitism and Antizionism

In this class, we will look at how ideas developed in the other three classes apply to today’s feminist movement and its particular expressions of antisemitism and antizionism. This might include: Black Lives Matter as a feminist movement; the 2017 Women’s March as the mainstreaming of antisemitism and antizionism in the feminist movement; how theories of sexual violence developed in the years leading up to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 primed young feminists to dismiss such violence towards Jewish Israeli women; how the Uncommitted Movement deprioritized the needs of women; and/or other current events. We can also briefly discuss: what is next for the movement?

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