Steinem tells parents ‘Don’t listen to me, listen to yourself’

Steinem spoke about experiences as a Jew in modern day America

March 31, 2017 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Gloria Steinem (left) was the inaugural speaker at the Hannah Senesh Community Day School’s new series Conversations@Senesh. She was interviewed by journalist Virginia Heffernan (right). Photo by Drew Geraci

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Gloria Steinem is a leader of the feminist movement, but the American icon told parents at a school in Carroll Gardens that one doesn’t have to be famous to create changes in society.

“Don’t listen to me. Listen to yourself,” Steinem said during an interview with journalist Virginia Heffernan at the Hannah Senesh Community day School on March 27.

“Each of us can be effective in ways that nobody else can be,” Steinem said.

Steinem’s appearance was the inaugural event in the school’s new Conversations@Senesh series in which prominent people will come to the school to speak about their experiences as Jews in modern day America.

Hannah Senesh Community Day School is a progressive, independent K-8 Jewish day school located at 342 Smith St. in Carroll Gardens. Its students are drawn from a diversity of Jewish backgrounds.

In front of a sold-out audience, Steinem and Heffernan, who is a Senesh parent, discussed the values that influenced Steinem’s campaigns for gender equality and human rights.

The talk ranged from Steinem’s suffragist Jewish grandmother, to the Passover Seders she participated in, to her thoughts about religion in general.

Steinem also spoke about the relationship between feminism and Judaism, characterizing Judaism as “a religion that continues to want justice on earth and that idea of justice is contagious.”

The Conversations@Senesh program is part of the new Steinhardt Speaker Series at Senesh. Philanthropists Michael and Judy Steinhardt are the sponsors of the series.

For more information, call the Hannah Senesh Community Day School at 718-858-8663.