Quotes from Karen Brodkin Sacks

What did it mean to be a Jewish woman, and how did that differ from being a white or mainstream one? Why were middle-class Jews Democrats, and some of our equally middle-class Protestant neighbors Republican?

Our Jewishness was racially a middle place to experience womanhood. In relation to mainstream white folks, the women of my family felt different. However, in relation to African Americans, we experienced ourselves as mainstream and white.

Suffrage was attractive to many immigrant daughters, who recognized that race-based benefits of feminine refinement and male protection were white-only and never intended for them.