New York Dyke March Doubles Down on Anti-Zionist Line as Jewish Participants Move Elsewhere

Tens of thousands of lesbian, queer, nonbinary and transgender women are expected to fill Manhattan on Saturday for New York City’s 33rd annual Dyke March. This year’s event is held under the slogan “HOT DYKES MELT ICE,” a reference to U.S. immigration enforcement. But, as last year, organizers are again making clear that anti-Zionism is central to the march and that self-described Zionists are not welcome.

In the march’s official core-values document, organizers say they stand “in solidarity with all oppressed peoples and occupied lands, including Palestine.” Under the anti-Zionism section, they write that they oppose “the nationalist political ideology of Zionism,” especially as promoted in U.S. institutions, because it is used to subjugate, displace and marginalize Palestinians. They also stress that they distinguish between opposition to Zionism and antisemitism, saying their criticism is directed at a political system and ideology, not Jews or Judaism.

Many local Jews are unconvinced. Nate Shalev, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, said they spent a decade on the march’s organizing committee before resigning. Married to an Israeli woman, Shalev said the committee turned against Israel supporters after the October 7 attack and became hostile to “anyone who expressed opposition, anyone who has any connection to Israel, anyone who is, quote, ‘not a good Jew.’” Judy Kreines was the only committee member in 2025 to oppose reaffirming the march’s anti-Zionist commitment, and was then removed in a 15-2 vote. “You do not get to decide who is a good dyke or a bad dyke, just as you do not get to decide who is a good Jew or a bad Jew,” she said.

Judith Kahn-Windsor, the widow of LGBTQ rights icon Edie Windsor, was also told she was no longer welcome at planning meetings. “This was our community, and now it is not our community,” she said. Last year’s march drew about 30,000 people and included Israeli flag burnings, “Free Palestine” chants, calls to free all Palestinian prisoners, and verbal attacks on businesses, including Target, which protesters labeled a “Zionist target.” Jewish activists who once tried to change the march from within are now focusing on parallel queer Jewish spaces. On Sunday, many are expected to join a separate event by Shalom, Dykes, founded in 2024 by march alumni pushed out of the main event. The group says it provides a place where “Jewish lesbians can exist fully and freely as themselves, without questions.”