Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Life

No, Steve Bannon Did Not Call Jewish Girls Whiny

Joshua Seidel, who contributes to the Scribe at the Forward, is a self-identified Jewish supporter of Trump and the alt-right, as well as author of the sentence, “I have thick skin and a tolerance for others.” So in the spirit of healthy debate and open-mindedness, I’m going to respectfully ask what was up with his recent Federalist piece, which opens as follows:

“We all know the stereotypes for Jewish women and girls: Aggressive, demanding, pushy! Maybe some might say ‘whiny’! If you’re a Jewish man, you’ve either given voice to these opinions or privately considered them while walking home after another argument or sitting in a restaurant feeling emasculated. ‘All stereotypes are true’ Murry Rothbard once said, and we all know there’s truth to this one. Yet what kind of non-Jewish person would DARE to voice to the same opinion? Clearly, only Hitler. Or Stephen Bannon.”

As Mark Joseph Stern points out in Slate – and this is the aspect of this story I find compelling – Steve Bannon didn’t actually call Jewish women or girls whiny:

“Now, Seidel actually misquotes Bannon’s ex-wife, who, in reality, claimed that Bannon said he “doesn’t like Jews and that he doesn’t like the way they raise their kids to be ‘whiney brats’ and that he didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews. (Emphasis mine.)”

Why do I find this worth noting? Because Seidel has shifted Bannon’s alleged prejudice from a hatred of Jews (and of women) to a hatred of Jewish women. (Specifically: to a hatred of Jewish women often found within the Jewish community, separate from whatever we face as women and as Jews in mainstream society; as is spelled out on “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” the “JAP” is a concept that tends to need explaining on the outside.) Why has Seidel done so? I can’t know his mind, but I’d imagine the latter would be more palatable to a Jewish man, particularly one who identifies with the alt-right.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.