Pictured are Nina Turner (wearing white blouse), a former Ohio senator, and Rhiannon Childs, organizer for Women's March Ohio

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Official Women's March Cleveland Anniversary: Jan 19, 2019.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-As women worldwide prepare to participate in women's marches across the globe this week, including a 10:30 am rally and march on Jan 19 on Public Square in downtown Cleveland, Women's March National has announced its 32-member steering committee for 2019,  which includes three Jewish women, former Ohio state senator Nina Turner, and Rhiannon Childs, executive director of Women's March Ohio. (Editor's note: Cleveland will also a host a 1pm special program after its march at Old Stone Church on Public Square that will feature Susan Bro of Virginia and Black Women's PAC President Elaine Gohlstin of greater Cleveland as its keynote speakers. Bro is the mother of murdered anti-racist activist Heather Heyer, who was murdered in 2017 by an Ohio man as a counter protester at a White nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.)

Women's March National said in a statement that the steering committee “more fully represents the diversity and vibrancy of the Women’s March movement” than the organization’s four co-chairs."

The three Jewish women are transgender activist Abby Stein, Yavilah McCoy, founder of a non-profit that advocates for Jews of Color, and April Baskin, former vice president of hospitality for the Union of Reform Judaism, the country's largest Jewish denomination.

The appointment of the three Jewish women to the steering committee comes as the national group faces unprecedented controversy regarding the association of two of its leaders, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, with Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan, who has angered the Jewish community with his anti-Semitic rhetoric.

The dispute has divided the revived women's movement, which took off in 2017 with a march on Washington that followed the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the largest single day protest in America, and one that brought women to the streets in cities across the nation.

Farrakhan and his supporters say the claims are racist, and that the conflict transcends Women's March, and is , in part, indicative of tensions associated with the infighting between Israel and Palestine, in particular along the Gaza Strip and the West Bank .

Others caught in the crossfire include longtime activist  and women's advocate Angela Davis, who is Black and came under fire by the Jewish community for her stance on Palestine, though Davis says she is equally supportive of Israel, on some issues.

Some Blacks  are torn, including those that rely on Black leaders like Farrakhan to step up on racism matters, matters they say are necessary to address, even in spite of the baggage that people like Farrakhan and the rev. Jesse Jackson  might bring to the table.

The Jewish community wants Women's March leaders, specifically Mallory and Sarsour, to denounce Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam, which has yet to occur.

Some local women's march organizers, including in Cleveland, want the discrepancy with Women's March and Jewish women to stop, if fences, in fact, can be mended.

They say that policies of the president should supersede the religious and racial tension between the two sides.

Mallory, who is Black, and Sarsour, a Palestinian, deny any anti-Semitism, though the conflict has caused a few cities to cancel anniversary marches this year, including New Orleans.

And some other cities are changing their names or declaring their independence from Women's March National, including Los Angeles and Washington State, and a city in Denver.

Most events, however, will go on as planned nationwide, some 200 of them, including in the capital city of Washington D.C.

Ohio will host seven marches, including in Cleveland, Columbus, Akron and Dayton.