Karlie Kloss

By Jenny Singer November 30, 2018

A Model Jewish Activist

Whether she wants it or not, supermodel, entrepreneur, activist and coder Karlie Kloss has our blessing.

This brand new addition to the tribe converted to Judaism before marrying her partner of six years, Joshua Kushner (you may be familiar with his elder brother, Jared).

Kloss, a 26-year-old St. Louis native, rocketed to success as a high fashion runway model in 2008, going on to become arguably the most successful and accomplished model of her generation. As a computer science student at New York University’s Gallatin School of Independent Studies she started coding, which her led to developing a not-for-profit charity group to teach young girls coding in an empowering environment. “Kode With Klossy,” a 2-week bootcamp that teaches teenage girls coding skills, has grown to 50 camps in 25 cities. It is entirely free for every participant, with the goal of welcoming diverse students to an otherwise exclusive world.

Kloss and Kushner are not only blindingly photogenic, with an apparently enviable relationship and more professional success than you could shake an expensive stick at — they also represent the nascent progressive wing of the Kushner family. The couple attended the Women’s March and March for Our Lives together, and Kloss has led the pair in anti-gun violence activism.

Watch out for Kloss. Already high profile, she’s steadily becoming an eshet chayil, a woman of valor.

— Jenny Singer

Jenny Singer is a freelance writer with pieces in Vox, the Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, Teen Vogue, and more. She was previously a staff writer at Glamour and the Forward, and she’s currently getting an MFA in nonfiction writing at the University of Iowa.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO