2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

Feminists are abundantly represented among the ranks of American Jews protesting Israel’s myriad human rights violations of Palestinians. As the recent vote to support the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) by the National Women’s Studies Association underscores, growing numbers of women understand Israel’s military occupation of Palestine to be a feminist issue. How, as Jewish feminists, does our embrace of intersectional analysis and anti-colonial solidarity compel us to speak out? Why is a feminist analysis useful for working toward peace in Israel and Palestine?

Despite the fervor of our movement today, many of us who feel called to act in more recent years – whether after Operation Cast Lead in 2008, Operation Protective Edge in 2014, or since the wave of violence in fall 2015 - do not know the movement's longer history. This roundtable discussion, moderated by a young activist, seeks to draw out the insights and wisdom of three women whose involvement goes back fifteen, twenty-five, or even more years ago.

Some questions we will explore: why and how did these women come to question Israeli nationalism and their respective relationships to Zionism? What might today’s activists learn from earlier feminist solidarity efforts? How have organizing efforts against the war in Vietnam, the nuclear arms race, and anti-Black racism within the United States informed Jewish feminists’ understanding of their role in ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine?  What are the salient generational differences, particularly in reference to historical experiences of communism, anti-Semitism, fascism, and the Holocaust?