Emily Shire

Starting The Debate On Zionism And Feminism
Emily Shire’s Twitter bio says it all — combining pride in Israel, feminism and femininity, too: “My high school yearbook quotes were of Golda Meir and Carrie Bradshaw.”
Shire, a 27-year-old law school student and contributor to the Forward, became a voice for young feminist Zionists when she published an essay in The New York Times passionately opposing those feminist activists who excluded Zionists from marches taking place on International Women’s Day.
“As a proud and outspoken feminist who champions reproductive rights, equal pay, increased female representation in all levels of government and policies to combat violence against women, I would like to feel there is a place for me in the strike,” she wrote. “However, as someone who is also a Zionist, I am not certain there is.”
Her argument sparked a storm on social media.
“It got way more attention than I expected,” she said. “It felt like a niche issue, but I was surprised that people seemed to care enough. Many American Jewish women are icons of the feminist movement, and we think it’s a space that we’re comfortable in, and that it should go hand in hand with Jewish values.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A Jewish city attorney is going after pro-Palestinian protesters. Her Oct. 7 tweets are making it complicated.
-
Fast Forward Kehlani responds to Cornell concert cancellation: ‘I am not antisemitic’
-
Fast Forward David Horowitz, ’60s radical turned right-wing firebrand and critic of Islam, dies at 86
-
News Pro-Nazi singer sells out Zagreb arena as Croatia’s collaborationist past sheds its taboo
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.