Sophie Ellman-Golan
The Jewish Activist Who Powered The Women’s March
Sophie Ellman-Golan is an activist at the forefront of the fight for social and racial equality.
After working at Everytown for Gun Safety, the nation’s largest gun violence prevention organization, she became the deputy head of communications and outreach for the Women’s March, the nationwide protest movement that brought millions of people into the streets around the country to protest President Trump the day after he was inaugurated.
In these spaces, and in her work as a core member of Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Ellman-Golan, 25, is carving out a unique place for Jews. “We as a community have been disengaged from movements for social justice for decades,” she wrote in the Forward in response to the riots in Charlottesville, Virginia.
She argued that Jews must lend their privilege to the fight for social and racial justice. She also wrote about her fellow Women’s March leaders, including Linda Sarsour. “Sometimes we say things that cause each other pain,” she wrote. “But we trust and respect each other…. We are committed to these discussions despite our discomfort and tears.”
It is a new model of solidarity — but also an old one for Jews who have always believed in the paradoxical possibilities of commitment through disagreement, and argumentation out of love.
“We must remember that we cannot keep relying on the legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel as our ticket into anti-racism work,” Ellman-Golan wrote.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30