(JTA) — Local organizers canceled the 2019 Chicago Women’s March, citing the high cost and overextended volunteers.
The announcement was made at the end of November, but local media reported it this week. The Chicago groups said in the announcement that it would hold a Women’s March “anniversary action” on Jan. 19, the day the third annual Women’s March is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., and cities across the country.
In October, the Chicago group held a March to the Polls to empower women prior to last month’s midterm elections. The event drew some 100,000 people.
The cancellation announcement came two weeks after the Women’s March Chicago said in a Facebook post — in response to questions about whether the Women’s March organization is “anti-Semitic” — that “we have ZERO affiliation with Women’s March Inc. We are an independent organization that decries hate in any form.”
Top leaders of the main organization have been accused of engaging in or condoning anti-Semitism, of not cutting ties with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and of failing to heed the concerns of its thousands of Jewish backers.
