Children’s event celebrating pioneering Jewish woman cyclist canceled for DEI
A children’s museum housed on a U.S. military base canceled a planned storytime reading celebrating the life of a pioneering 19th-century female Jewish cyclist earlier this year, after the book was flagged under a military-wide ban on DEI content.
The stated reason was because the book was about a woman, its author, Mary Boone, said. “If they had actually read the book and found out it was about a Latvian Jewish immigrant, it would have been a double whammy,” Boone said.
It happened this spring on a military base near Tacoma, Washington. The book is “Pedal Pusher: How One Woman’s Bicycle Adventure Helped Change The World.” The picture book is a biography of Annie Cohen Kopchovsky. In 1895, she became the first woman to cycle around the world.
It made news this month when Boone wrote an op-ed about it in the Seattle Times.
A section of the book briefly mentions Kopchovsky’s Jewish and immigrant identity as one reason why her journey, as a mother of three circumnavigating the globe by bike in 1895, was so improbable.
“Annie was a Latvian Jewish immigrant, and this was a time when prejudice toward Jewish people was widespread,” the book reads.
Back in 1895, Kopchovsky set off on her bicycle journey from Boston as part of a wager between two men who had placed bets on whether it was possible for a woman to cycle around the world. Initially pedaling west, she reached Chicago and almost gave up before ditching her heavy women’s bicycle for a lighter and more practical men’s model, then set off back east — eventually sailing on to bike in Europe and Asia before heading back to Chicago.
During her travels, Kopchovsky went by “Annie Londonderry” — not to disguise her Jewish identity, but because she had struck a sponsorship deal with the mineral-water company Londonderry Lithia. She earned $10,000 for her ride and wrote often about it after her return, frequently embellishing her tales of derring-do.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency