No Bibi, No Women?
The Jewish Federations of North America earlier this week had a somewhat awkward task: To explain to its many members that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t going to attend the 2011 conference next month in Denver after all.
“As in any conference, program changes arise,” read the October 24 memo, which went on to explain that the Prime Minister regretfully had other obligations on his busy calendar.
That’s understandable. What’s a little harder to understand is another absence: women headliners.
Here’s how the official JFNA release describes the big names attending the three-day conference:
“Among the headliners scheduled to appear are global political leaders such as Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Daniel Shapiro; top journalists Peter Beinart (author of a much-debated article on American Jewry), James Carroll (author of “Jerusalem, Jerusalem”) and Aluf Benn, editor of the leading Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz; leading-edge business thinkers such as the retired president of Starbucks, Howard Behar; the founder of the magazine Fast Company, Bill Taylor; and many other fascinating figures.”
You’ll notice not a single woman on this list.
Continuing the theme, the agency is touting a massive social action event that will culminate in a party starring three hip Jewish musicians. Yep, all men.
Surely, there are prominent and talented women active in the federation system, including the current chair of the JFNA board. Can it really be that the largest meeting of the organized Jewish community in North America can’t find a single female to put in its official announcements? At a time when women remain sorely missing from the American Jewish establishment leadership, this oversight is telling.
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
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Naftali Bennett is back: Former Israeli prime minister will make another run at Netanyahu
-
Fast Forward Citing post-Holocaust doctrine, Germany seeks to deport 4 pro-Palestinian protesters, including one American
-
Fast Forward Trump administration freezes research funding to Princeton amid antisemitism investigations
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
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.