As the third annual Women’s March approaches this coming Saturday, many influential activist groups have walked away from the national organization due to concerns over anti-Semitism. EMILY’s List, the National Council of Jewish Women, and even the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have distanced themselves from the Women’s March. Many other groups have remained official partners, however, and many won’t even give an explanation.
PJ Media reached out to 12 official partners of the 2019 Women’s March, and only three responded. Two Jewish groups, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the YWCA, and more remained silent.
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) directed PJ Media to AFT President Randi Weingarten’s social media posts. Weingarten took a photo with Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory, Women’s March leaders known for anti-Semitic statements and ties to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The AFT president praised them as “warriors for justice,” and thanked them for “debunking myths.”
While we don’t agree on everything, @Lsarsour and @TamikaDMallory are warriors for justice and I am honored to know them and work with them & call them friends.. glad to have this meeting today w/ them & @Skleinbaum debunking myths pic.twitter.com/NvvzRMaxG2
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 10, 2018
As for Code Pink, Ariel Gold, the group’s national co-director, pointed to the “statements by Representative Steve King” as evidence that “the forces of white supremacy and militarism are growing more vociferously each day.” In her statements to PJ Media, Gold did not address the worrying connections to Farrakhan and the reported anti-Semitic statements of leaders like Mallory. According to a Tablet exposé, Women’s March leaders blamed the Jews for the international slave trade.
One more group, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, responded to PJ Media’s request for comment.
“In this moment of increasing white nationalism and authoritarianism, our collective safety hangs in the balance and our future requires unity between and among our communities,” Ginna Green, chief strategy officer at Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, told PJ Media. “The movement of the Women’s March and the millions of women and allies who participate are committed to building an intersectional movement to ensure that collective safety.”
Green acknowledged that “some in the Jewish community feel tremendous pain and anguish as a result of these ongoing discussions around anti-Semitism,” but she insisted that “at the same time, others are continuing to organize and shape the work of the Women’s March, including a contingent of Jewish women of color like me. By remaining part of the Women’s March movement, Bend the Arc ensures we remain part of the conversation—and we are buoyed by the many public commitments to fight anti-Semitism made by the Women’s March leadership.”
“We affirm our participation, and remain focused on the threat that unites us all: a growing white nationalist movement, emboldened and embodied by this President and his enablers in Congress,” Green concluded. “This movement is bigger than any one leader, and will grow and evolve only if we continue to build relationships without the fear or threat of walking away.”
While these responses left a great deal to be desired, at least AFT, Code Pink, and Bend the Arc had the good sense to respond in the midst of this scandal. The ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Harry Potter Alliance (yes, this is a real organization), the National Bar Association – Women Lawyers Division, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Sierra Club, and the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) gave no response. Even two Jewish groups, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice and the Jewish Voice for Peace, did not justify their ongoing relationship with the Women’s March.
The ACLU’s continued presence on the sponsors list, and its silence on this issue, should be particularly damning, as it once again reveals this historic civil right’s organization’s surrender of its principles to far-Left activism.
This was a serious mistake, since the Women’s March anti-Semitism scandal is ongoing — if it hasn’t gotten worse.
On Monday, Tamika Mallory, a co-president of the Women’s March, doubled down on calling the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan the “greatest of all time.” On “The View,” Mallory had a chance to explicitly condemn Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic statements, but she refused.
On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) dropped its relationship with the 2019 Women’s March. While the DNC did not sponsor previous Women’s March events, it was listed as a partner on the Women’s March website as recently as Sunday.
Would-be protesters across the country canceled their Women’s March events amidst the anti-Semitism scandal. AFT, Code Pink, and Bend the Arc may not be concerned, but they arguably should be. At the very least, the other groups who refused to comment should rethink their strategy. Any future partners will have to address this issue, one way or another.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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