I am a Jewish woman, and if those in power are to be believed, my rights have never been more protected.
Never has the Republican Party so loudly undertaken what they say is a zealous defense of the fairer sex. President Donald Trump has signed executive orders claiming as their goal the preservation of women’s spaces, women’s rights and women’s opportunities. Meanwhile, the administration just as vigorously attacks the people they identify as the enemies of the Jews: graduate students, university professors and artists who have spoken out against Israel. Nothing, it seems — not laws, not morals, not the truth — will stand between the Trump administration and the protection of women and Jews from the shadowy forces that would destroy them.
Despite being a Jew and a woman, these initiatives will not protect me. Indeed, I am among their targets.
But despite being a Jew and a woman, these initiatives will not protect me. Indeed, I am among their targets, because I’m the wrong kind of Jew and the wrong kind of woman: My interpretation of Judaism demands justice for the slaughtered thousands in Gaza, and my assigned gender at birth was not “female.”
In fact, the regime has issued all these orders in part to unilaterally answer two largely unanswerable questions — “Who is a Jew?” and “What is a woman?” — in ways that serve their particular aims. And their particular aims include abuse and demonization of inconvenient Jews and inconvenient women, the ones who aren’t willing to have their identities be defined by gentiles or cisgender men.
This becomes clear when you look at whose interests this administration actually protects — and whom they attack.
Who are the Jews so beloved of Trump and his cabal? Only the most rabid of Israel supporters, the ones who actively endorse the carnage in Gaza, the ones who are fully in favor of Benjamin Netanyahu’s brutal policies in Israel and the occupied territories. Any criticism of Israel is considered suspect, to the point that Trump can even say of Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, a longtime and ardent Zionist, “He’s not Jewish anymore; he’s a Palestinian.” Which means the Jews who actually do support and fight for Palestinian rights are classified as threats to their fellow Jews, as antisemites, as enemies of the state.
And women — what kind of woman does the administration envision protecting when it issues its ultimatums? The imagined cisgender, heterosexual white girl who can’t compete in sports because of burly men in dresses. That image helped win the election.
I am also a woman — so are Black women, fat women, disabled women, incarcerated women, and so on. But all such groups are seen as not the correct kind of woman. Rather than protecting my rights, which would strengthen the rights of all women, the Trump administration has defined trans people out of existence and started confiscating our passports.
How do these redefinitions serve the regime? In two ways.
For one, by creating approved versions of Jews and of women, the regime can play at being sympathetic to liberal values in a way that will confuse and divide at least some of the people who would otherwise oppose them.
The best enemy of an authoritarian regime is one perceived as an interloper, hidden in plain sight but biologically different.
Even among those who have historically voted Democrat, you find large constituencies of Jews who fear Palestine protesters and women who fear trans people. Their reasons are varied, from familial ties to the Jewish state to the tidal wave of wildly misleading press coverage about youth gender transition. Supposedly liberal politicians can find it in their hearts to throw Palestinians, trans people and their allies under the bus. Sometimes, they’re even enthusiastic about Trump empowering them to say “good riddance.”
What one ends up with is many Jews and women — traditionally liberal constituencies — terrified into accepting authoritarian measures because of the belief that, at the very least, those measures are keeping them safe. In truth, they are merely farther down on the list of potential victims.
However, there is another reason for these cruel definitions, which is that the groups defined as fake — Israel-critical Jews and trans women — have elements in common that make people like me a useful target. The best enemy of an authoritarian regime is one perceived as an interloper, hidden in plain sight but biologically different; infiltrating, undermining; removing resources from deserving people.
That fear is embedded in both the oldest antisemitic and misogynist tropes. The unnatural woman, the Weird Sister with the beard are as old as witch trials, which were, of course, concurrent with mass expulsions and murders of Jews on similarly specious grounds.
If you’re one of the “good” Jews or the “good” women, one who feels like Trump and his cronies are protecting you, I will leave you with a simple message: When you let lawless authoritarians define the boundaries of any group — and that includes “American citizens” — you place yourself on the list of targets. As time goes on, there are fewer and fewer left who fit the accepted definition. It’s only a matter of time before the slogans that you thought protected you are being shouted at you as you’re being detained, or worse.
In spite of all this, I draw hope from the fact that any wall built to keep people out of Judaism or womanhood is bound to fall. These are categories that cannot be reduced to simple definitions. The “wrong” kinds of Jewish women will always exist, and our existence should be taken as a threat to authoritarians. If they didn’t fear who we are, they wouldn’t try to tell us who we aren’t.
