Donations

Please Help Support My Work

Welcome to my first-ever public fundraising letter. I urgently need your help in order to continue my work. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made to my not-for-profit organization: The Phyllis Chesler Organization. You may send funds through Paypal at this website. Or, you may send a check to the not-for-profit Phyllis Chesler Organization c/o my lawyers:

Bender and Rosenthal
451 Park Avenue South
NYC 10016

As you know, I have been doing cutting-edge work on the front lines for many years, as an author, activist, lecturer, expert courtroom witness, and blogger. My books have been translated into many languages and I have been interviewed by the major media on many continents. .

Over a forty year period, each of my books and articles have led to heightened public awareness and often to long-lasting campaigns on behalf of women in the areas of psychiatric diagnosis and imprisonment; sexual and physical violence; custody, divorce, and surrogacy; motherhood as a sacred rite; a woman's right to self defense; explaining what happens when women, like men, also internalize sexism; I have also co-led a struggle on behalf of Jewish women's religious rights in Jerusalem.

But I have also been a pioneer in the areas of the new anti-Semitism, the demonization of Israel, and the nature of Islamic gender and religious apartheid, jihad and terrorism. As you may know, I once lived in Kabul, Afghanistan and have been active in Muslim, Jewish, and Israeli circles for a very long time.

It is crucial that I continue to inform and educate Americans and Westerners, including Israelis, about the dangers we face. But, it is just as important to find, work with, and support Muslim and ex-Muslim dissidents and feminists. I am doing this as well. Our lives depend upon our doing both.

A little background might be helpful.

In the early 1970s, I was among the first to speak out against anti-Semitism. From the mid- to late 1970s, I worked hard to defeat the Zionism=Racism mindset at the United Nations. More recently, I had to condemn anti-Semitism more publicly, and in writing. Thus, since the Second Intifada, I was, again, among the handful who first spoke out against anti-Semitism and the demonization of both America and Israel; against jihad and Islamic terrorism; about Islamic gender and religious apartheid; and especially about the betrayal of the truth—indeed, of the "Palestinianization" of the world's leading progressives, academics, and activists.

From 2001 on, I was the first among us to write about a possible second Holocaust of Jews in Israel; the first to challenge the danger of memorializing a previous Holocaust instead of saving people from current and future Holocausts; the first to warn of the Iranian threat; the first to begin documenting the systematic bias against Israel, Jews, and America in the mainstream media, in the academy, and among progressives; the first to begin a systematic study of Islamic gender apartheid as it has penetrated the West in the form of honor killings and honor-related violence. I was among the handful who first analyzed the dangerous biases against Israel and America at the United Nations and among human rights groups; the first to write about the psychoanalytic roots of Islamic suicide terrorism and the psychological dimension of jihad.

I have been publishing books and articles for more than forty years. They have always been well and widely reviewed. This all changed in 2003, when I published my twelfth book, The New Anti-Semitism. Then, I suddenly became persona non grata in my publishing, media, activist, and social circles. In 2005, when I published my thirteenth book, The Death of Feminism, I condemned feminist leaders for having abandoned a universalist vision of human rights in favor of multi-cultural relativism. This meant that feminists would do anything to avoid being called "racists" or "Islamophobes." Many feminists focused obsessively on the quintessential evil of Israel and America and, in so doing, sacrificed the cause of women's rights both here and in the developing, Muslim world.

And thus, in 2003, I began writing for Frontpage magazine, City Journal, the Washington Times, Intellectual Conservative, National Review, and Pajamas Media where I am now happily ensconced.

But I also wrote steadily about the "gender cleansing" of women in the Sudan and about women's rights in the Islamic world, especially in Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and in immigrant communities in the West. I interviewed many Muslim and Arab feminists whom I found extraordinarily heroic and who could not understand why western feminists had, in effect, abandoned them in favor of a doctrine of cultural relativism.

I have lectured about all of these subjects both here and abroad as a keynote speaker and as a panelist. I've done media interviews. I've written articles. And, I've conducted original research.

Early in 2009, in Middle East Quarterly, I published the first study which contrasted honor killings with western domestically violent femicide. This study received serious attention and led to predictable controversy. By 2010, I will have published my second study, which is an analysis of 230 honor killing victims on five continents; it will also appear in Middle East Quarterly. I served as the only behind-scenes and on-air expert for a documentary about honor killings in America. I have also been interviewed by the media and by law enforcement officials on this topic since it is of growing concern in the West and has serious implications for North American and western immigration policies. I have just been quoted in the Canadian media about Canada's new Guide for Immigrants, which notes that "barbaric customs" such as "honor killings and honor-related violence" is against the law in Canada. I intend to continue researching and speaking out on the issue.

I was among the very first who described what happened at Fort Hood as an "act of jihad" and "terrorism" and the first who explained that Major Hasan committed mass murder because he is a jihadist, not because he is "mentally ill." I spoke about this on CNN on the Lou Dobbs program and I also challenged President Obama for not describing this as an act of jihadic terrorism.

I have also hosted informal "salons" in my home so that visiting thinkers and activists can present their views in an intimate setting. For example, I've hosted and interviewed speakers from around the world including Seyran Ates, Paul Berman, Nonie Darwish, Bassam Eid, Brigitte Gabriel, Tareq Heggy, Alan Johnson, Philippe Karsenty, Nancy H. Kobrin, Irshad Manji, Nidra Poller, Fred Siegel, Sol Stern, Ibn Warraq, etc. And, I've worked with Aayan Hirsi Ali, Zeyno Baran, Valentina Colombo, Irwin Cotler, Manda Zand Ervin, Tawfik Hamid, David Horowitz, Douglas Murray, Daniel Pipes, Natan Sharansky, Wafa Sultan, Zeinab al-Suweij, Leon de Winter, Ruth Wisse, and many others on panels and at conferences.

I absolutely cannot continue without your help. I hope you can donate generously at this time. No check will be too small. All donations will be acknowledged and appreciated. For donations of $500.00 or more I will sign a copy of one of my books (your choice) and mail it to you.

Please take a look at some of my work on this website. You may also visit Pajamas Media where I blog at: http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler

Bless you and thank you for reading my work.

All best,

Dr. Phyllis