Keren McGinity

Keren McGinity
Giving A Jewish Response To #MeToo
“There needs to be a Jewish response to the #MeToo movement.”
That was the clarion call from Jewish Studies professor Keren McGinity detailing some of the harassment she had personally suffered in the Jewish institutional world.
A gender historian who specializes in the changing meanings and experiences of Jewish intermarriage, her story was no less forceful for the irony that one of the few times in which converts, intermarried women and Jewish women are treated similarly is when they are being sexually harassed.
The original op-ed in the New York Jewish Week was both an account of an anonymous harasser and a broader call for self-searching on a communal level:
If we want to create positive cultural change for ourselves and for our daughters, women must speak out and the Jewish community must act.
In the days that followed, it became clear — especially through the reporting of Hannah Dreyfus — that McGinity’s harasser was Steven M. Cohen, a hitherto widely-respected and cited expert on Jewish demography. Several other women accused him of significant improprieties, leading to his apology and resignation.
The admission brought into question the profoundly influential work that Cohen had done for the Jewish community over decades. Had his attitude toward women colored his understanding of continuity?
Many institutions which had used his expertise regularly — including this one — cut ties with him as Cohen retreated to do teshuva for his abuses.
But McGinity’s larger, communal, point is still in play. She has set an example by serving on the Sexual Misconduct Task Force of the Association for Jewish Studies, but until we, as a community, craft a meaningful response to the #MeToo moment, we are all guilty of endangering our daughters’ future.
— Dan Friedman
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
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In Germany, a Jewish family is reunited with a treasured family object — but also a sense of exile
-
Opinion Trump’s hasty approach to an Iran deal could be a big problem for Israel
-
Fast Forward In NYC, Itamar Ben-Gvir says he’s changed — and wants ‘the Trump plan’ in Gaza
-
Opinion Itamar Ben-Gvir’s visit to a Jewish society at Yale exposed deep rifts between US Jews
-
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.