Gloria Steinem never forgot her Jewish roots

Gloria Steinem did not grow up in a synagogue. She did not have a bat mitzvah. She was raised, for the most part, without religion at all. But when it came to antisemitism, she never hesitated.

“Never in my life have I identified as a Christian,” she once said, “but wherever there is antisemitism, I identify as a Jew.”

Steinem, the writer, organiser and most recognisable face of America’s second-wave feminist movement, died last week at her home in New York City. She was 92. 

A statement posted to her Instagram account said she passed peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.

Steinem spent more than five decades fighting for women’s equality, co-founding Ms. Magazine, helping establish the National Women’s Political Caucus and turning lived experience into political force. In 2013, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. But to remember Steinem only as a feminist icon is to miss half the story.