Stosh Cotler
Stosh Colter
By Aiden Pink December 4, 2018
Building A Nationwide Jewish Resistance
The advocacy group Bend the Arc emerged this year as one of the leaders of the so-called “Jewish Resistance” to President Trump’s administration.
Led for the past four years by CEO Stosh Cotler, 50, Bend the Arc has been one of the most outspoken groups protesting Trump’s immigration policies. They held rallies across the country to condemn Trump’s plan to end the DACA program for undocumented immigrants, and continued to hold protests against family separations at the border. Some activists were even arrested at the Capitol in January.
Bend the Arc also called the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh a “national disgrace” with Cotler herself decrying Trump’s “limitless hatred, anger and lies.”
After the synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, Bend the Arc’s chapter there – founded only two years ago – wrote a petition, eventually signed by more than 86,000 people, stating that Trump was not welcome there until he denounced white nationalism and stopped targeting minorities. The group also organized a march on the day of Trump’s visit to the synagogue, where an estimated 2,000 people of all faiths and backgrounds sang Hebrew songs during their walk through the Squirrel Hill neighborhood, while turning their backs on the president as his motorcade exited. The march ended with chants of “Vote! Vote! Vote!”
Indeed, Bend the Arc was highly active leading up to election day. Its PAC said that it did 31,000 door knocks and raised nearly $600,000 in support of its endorsed liberal candidates, some of whom won close congressional races.
Bend the Arc is not your typical Jewish organization and Cotler is not your typical CEO. Cotler has a black belt in kung fu. And the past year has shown she isn’t afraid to go on the attack against the administration.
— Aiden Pink
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.
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.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
