Stacey Newman Uses Increasingly Dangerous Rhetoric
Former Missouri State Representative Stacey Newman recently wrote a revealing editorial in the St. Louis Jewish Light, where she specifically derides anti-Zionist Jews such as myself. The editorial helps shed light on her mindset, the mindset of other staunch supporters of the State of Israel, and her recent political actions. Given the atrocities she routinely excuses, it is important to understand this way of thinking and why it is so dangerous.
When you mention the former State Representative to people who have long been involved in liberal Missouri politics, you often hear fond remembrances of a principled and tenacious fighter for reproductive rights and gun control. Newman is still a fighter, but, in her own words, she is no longer “a progressive liberal activist”. She now uses most of her energy to influence Missouri politics in support of Israel.
Although she presently considers herself “just a Jew”, that doesn’t mean that she shows solidarity with all Jews. Newman seems to hate some Jews. In the recent Jewish Light editorial, Newman vigorously attacks Jews who support rights for Palestinians and are willing to take actions and use words to oppose Israel’s oppressive actions.
The editorial begins with Newman using one of the ugliest words in the Yiddish language to mock Emmy Award-winning Jewish actress Hannah Einbinder, who recently called for a “free Palestine” while accepting her award.
Referring to Einbinder, Newman writes ““As a Jew” says anyone with a microphone, podcast or a protest sign and their criticism of Israel or denial of antisemitism is purported to carry more weight than the average “shiksa.””
The word “shiksa” disparagingly refers to a non-Jewish girl or woman. The word is derived from the Hebrew word “shekets, meaning “abomination”, “impure,” or “object of loathing“”. From my experience, calling someone a shiksa means you are calling them an unclean, non-Jewish woman who tempts Jewish men away from Jewish women. It is highly offensive to many people, including myself. As Rabbi Jack Abramowitz puts it well “(Using the word) “Shiksa” is simply indefensible. That word is inherently condescending, racist and misogynistic. Lose it.”
Why would Stacey Newman, who sees herself as a feminist mentor, compare a Jewish actress to a “shiksa”? What is it about Hannah Einbinder supporting freedom for Palestinians that causes the person who wrote that she will not tolerate “racist, misogynist, homophobic, (or) anti-Semitic slurs” to use a racist, misogynist slur? Why would the St. Louis Jewish Light, a “community partner” with the St. Louis Jewish Federation, publish the slur?
Newman certainly could have made the same point by using a different, inoffensive word like “non-Jew” or “gentile”, but even if she had, her point doesn’t make a lot of sense. Newman quotes Rabbi Steven Burg who says anti-Zionist Jews “wield their Jewish identity like a shield, as if their genetic lottery ticket grants them moral authority to speak for an entire people.” Anti-Zionist Jews, myself included, feel compelled to speak up precisely because Zionists claim that a “genetic lottery ticket” allows us to become Israeli citizens and enjoy rights that Israel denies to Palestinians. Palestinians lack that “genetic lottery ticket” in the eyes of the Israeli state. This arrangement is racist and morally wrong. I will note that I’ve never heard any anti-Zionist Jew claim that they are speaking for all Jews, but I often observe establishment Zionist leaders and groups like the Jewish Federation of St. Louis claim that they speak for the entire Jewish community.
In Newman’s piece, she names a group that I am proud to be part of, Progressive Jews of St. Louis, and she maligns the group for something it wasn’t even a part of. She writes:
Last June, protesters who align with Progressive Jews of St. Louis, who refer to themselves as anti-Zionist Jews, attempted to disrupt an Israel program with 200-plus older Jewish attendees by screaming “Free Palestine,” waving Iranian flags and banging drums, requiring heavy security presence at a local synagogue. “As Jews” they insisted their views and Jewish identity trumped all others, supposedly giving their harassing speech increased moral weight.
Nobody at Progressive Jews of St. Louis knows what event she is writing about here. What was the event, and why were people upset enough to protest it? None of us know. What is the “harassing speech” that she refers to? How does it have anything to do with Progressive Jews of St. Louis when the group wasn’t even present, just unnamed people who supposedly “align” with the group? Newman answers none of these questions.
While Newman doesn’t do a good job explaining the behavior or worldview of Progressive Jews of St. Louis, her editorial does an excellent job revealing her own dangerous and extreme worldview. She writes of “genocidal fallacies” as if calling Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide is a “fallacy”. It is a well-documented truth recognized by (among many other groups) the International Association of Genocide Scholars, al-Haq, B’Tselem, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. At no point in the entire editorial does she show any recognition of the State of Israel’s slaughter and massive human rights abuses of the Palestinian people. She refuses to countenance the possibility that this could be the motivating factor for why people protest Israeli actions. She writes that “a red keffiyeh scarf” is “associated with Arab solidarity”. She does not write “Palestinian solidarity” because she cannot bring herself to state that Palestinians exist. She notably does not use the word “Palestinian” even once in the entire editorial.
This is why she can expound the bizarre theory that anti-Zionist Jews are motivated to “gain progressive credibility, believing dangerously it will insulate them from antisemites.” This and other similarly absurd theories to explain the existence of anti-Zionist Jews are common among Israel’s staunchest supporters. They cannot contemplate the possibility that Jews would oppose Israel because of anti-racist moral convictions guided by Jewish values. They cannot understand that many of us have spent time in Palestine, and we were appalled by the gross mistreatment of Palestinians by the State of Israel. Because of their racism and steadfast refusal to listen to Palestinians, they can’t and won’t understand that we have Palestinian friends, who we want to see thriving, and living freely. Instead, they create their own fantasies of who we are that fit their narrative, just as they have created fantasies about who Palestinians are.
Stacey Newman has repeatedly and publicly dehumanized Palestinians, and she has insulated herself from the real horrors of what Israel has done in the last two years. Because of this, she falsely sees all acts of solidarity with Palestinians as antisemitic, and when people become upset at her position supporting a genocide, she thinks that this is the case “just because I am a Jew”. As solidarity with Palestinians becomes the dominant position of Americans, especially within her Democratic Party, she is freaking out, convinced that Jews everywhere are in existential danger “because they are Jews”.
A case in point is the only actual specific criminal act that she names in the editorial, the burning of cars in Clayton by an unknown perpetrator. She claims that the cars were attacked because they were owned by Jews, as if Jewish-owned vehicles in the St. Louis area are being regularly targeted because of the ethnicity or religious practices of their owners. This is not happening. The graffiti on the scene made it very clear that the perpetrator specifically targeted Israeli Defense Forces Paratrooper Myles Rosenblum because he voluntarily took part in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza and Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. The St. Louis Jewish Federation and other establishment Jewish organizations spent months intentionally raising Rosenblum’s profile. In May, Rosenblum spoke at the Jewish Community Center in an event meant to honor his actions. The Jewish Light covered the event favorably, but since the burning of the cars, the Jewish Light and the Jewish Federation have removed from their websites all references to it.
I do not support the vigilante action that took place in Clayton. I also do not support the intentional lies about the action by establishment Jewish organizations and the St. Louis mainstream media concerning the nature of the crime.
Why does this editorial by Stacey Newman in the St. Louis Jewish Light matter?
It matters because Newman is a political actor who is guided by the dangerous ideas she espouses in the editorial. Her work affects policy outcomes and helps determine government resource allocation. She is also actively trying to shape who does and does not represent us in elected bodies.
This past June, Newman was in Washington, DC, as part of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis’ lobbying effort. She was pushing for the Jewish Federations of North America’s Six Point plan, which includes increased security grants for Jewish institutions, greater funding and power for the FBI, and potential online censorship. In line with the goals of this lobbying, as residents of North St. Louis still desperately need resources for tornado recovery, the federal government recently granted $1.5 million to St. Louis area Jewish institutions for “physical security and emergency preparedness”, to be administered by FEMA.
In 2024, Newman led the Jewish outreach effort for the Wesley Bell for Congress campaign. This was driven by her opposition to Cori Bush’s support for Palestinian life. She was joined by openly anti-Palestinian bigot Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham. Among other tactics used, they helped convince many Orthodox Jews who typically vote in Republican primaries to take a Democratic ballot. Both of them are gearing up again to organize Jews to support Wesley Bell and oppose Cori Bush in the 2026 election.
Stacey Newman began the Missouri Alliance Network this Spring. It is a pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian political action committee designed to do in Missouri state and local Democratic primary campaigns what AIPAC does in congressional and national elections – incentivize candidates to support pro-Israel positions that are increasingly unpopular with Democratic voters. So far, the only candidate ever endorsed by the Missouri Alliance Network, St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, wisely rejected their endorsement after learning of the racist thoughts of board chair Jeffrey Abraham. After Spencer’s rejection of the endorsement, Abraham’s name quietly disappeared from their website as a “founding board member”. Despite no longer being listed on the website, he was recently quoted in the press as a member of the board.
Under the auspices of the Missouri Alliance Network, Newman led the campaign to impose a speech code on students in Missouri schools that would require schools to punish students and faculty for many types of statements criticizing the State of Israel. In addition, Newman was directly involved in the Anti-Defamation League’s Jewish Policy Index, which means she is helping shape perceptions on whether or not states throughout the country are sufficiently combating antisemitism.
While Newman’s words read to many of us like an unhinged rant, she is not a fringe figure. People should know her thoughts. Despite (or perhaps because of) her inability to understand the Palestinian struggle and the reasons why so many people, including Jews, oppose Israeli atrocities, she is an integral part of establishment St. Louis Jewish institutions, even representing the Jewish Federation in Washington, DC. Last week’s editorial was not an anomaly – the Jewish Light frequently gives her space to promote her ideas, her Missouri Alliance Network, and her attempts to restrict speech in Missouri schools. Read her own words so you can understand how dangerous she is.
