A Jews for Racial and Economic Justice protest after a grand jury decided not to indict the police officer who killed Eric Garner. Randi Weingarten is on the front right. (Courtesy JFREJ)
In the wake of the flawed report in Rolling Stone about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, one Jewish woman with a national profile is determined not to let the conversation about rape in American society die because of one problematic article.
Writing in Jezebel, Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, reveals for the first time that she was the victim of an attempted rape — by a “nice Jewish guy” she met at a Shabbat dinner during her college years.
She writes:
It was just after my junior year in college. I had an internship in labor relations at an automobile plant in Warren, Ohio. A New Yorker from birth, I was out of my element. I tried to find community to anchor my summer in Warren. I did what was familiar: I went to shul. One family invited me over for Shabbat dinner. Dutifully and hopefully, I went. They also invited a young man. He was nice enough. So, when this “nice Jewish guy” invited me for dinner, I said, “Sure.”
A few days later, I went to his apartment. And that’s where it happened. He tried to rape me. I managed to get out after a struggle, but the emotional scarring was deep.
Read the full story here.
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