Feminism’s Jewish Problem

For decades, Zionism has divided the cause. Now the split has curdled into something uglier—suggesting the problem may be built into the movement itself.

By Nicole Lampert and Zoe Strimpel

“The feminists, the so-called feminists, are no longer concerned with the occupation of women’s bodies worldwide, but rather with the occupation of a country called Palestine, which has never existed. Every single area of feminism in America has been wrecked, ruined and is involved in boiler plate filth against Israel and the Jews.” This is how Phyllis Chesler, 85, the feminist psychotherapist, activist, author and long-time observer of global feminism, describes the current moment.

While Chesler remains warm and cheerful in her demeanor, her disgust with the state of the movement she has dedicated her life to, which is now imploding for the second time because of anti-Zionist antisemitism, is a solid mass. A good 40 years into the fight, and with 20 books under her belt, Chesler is now working on a major tome entitled The Complete and Utter Palestinianization of American Feminism.

For those in the thick of it, and especially for Jewish and Israeli women, none of what Chesler is saying will be a surprise. Last fall, at a weekend conference for FiLiA, a charitable organization that bills itself as Europe’s largest grassroots feminist conference, there were literal fisticuffs. At the Saturday-night party celebrating the outfit’s 20th anniversary, drinks were thrown, telephones were grabbed and bouncers had to hold women back from physically sparring about Zionism. An activist at the opening plenary led some in the chant of “Free Palestine,” while others screamed at her to stop and walked out.

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