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6 Famous Jewish Women Explain Why Michelle Obama Rocked Her DNC Speech

Social media users sang Michelle Obama’s praises for her Monday night speech at the Democratic National Convention, in which she strongly endorsed Hillary Clinton’s run for president.

In the speech, Obama spoke of the importance of caring about the future of the next generation and said Clinton was “the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children.”

In a widely quoted part of the address, Obama dealt with both the United States’ history of racism and progress.

“…I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn,” the First Lady said. “And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters and all our sons and daughters now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.”

Obama also alluded to Republican nominee Donald Trump, slamming his slogan “Make America great again.”

“So, look, so don’t let anyone ever tell you that this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again,” Obama said.

Here’s what Jewish social media users had to say about the speech:

Journalist Julia Ioffe took a stab at Melania Trump, whose speech at the Republican national convention last week was revealed as partly plagiarized from an earlier speech by Michelle Obama. In April, Ioffe’s profile of Melania Trump lead to her husband’s supporters bombarding her with anti-Semitic death threats.

New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister shared an article in which she wrote that Michelle Obama “eviscerated” Donald Trump.

Journalist Rachel Sklar suggested Ivanka Trump take notes from Obama.

Pulitzer-Prize winning author Anne Appelbaum called Obama’s address “the speech of the year.”

Singer-songwriter Regina Spektor gushed about Obama’s speech on Twitter.

Jerusalem-based writer Noga Tarnopolsky seemingly hinted at Melania Trump’s speech, although Obama did enlist the help of Jewish speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz to compose her remarks.

Contact Josefin Dolsten at [email protected] or on Twitter, @JosefinDolsten

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