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Allison Tombros Korman
Strategic thinker and nonprofit leader with a passion for helping others
Allison Tombros Korman, Founder and Executive Director of the Red Tent Fund
Allison Tombros Korman is an accomplished public health professional with extensive experience in strategic leadership, program and association management. She is the founder and executive director of the Red Tent Fund, an abortion fund steeped in Jewish values.1
Career Background
- Former Senior Operations and Strategy Director at the DC Abortion Fund (April 2022-December 2023)3
- Inaugural Executive Director of the Red Tent Fund, launched in May 202414
- Longtime reproductive health educator and activist1
Founding the Red Tent Fund
Korman launched the Red Tent Fund as a reaction to the anti-Israel hate prevalent among abortion activists, especially after the Oct. 7th Hamas attacks in Israel.1 She created the fund in May 2024 to allow Jews to be open about their Judaism while continuing to support abortion rights, a cause deeply important to them.1
The fund aims to provide a safe space for Jewish abortion rights supporters who felt alienated by the growing antisemitism in the movement.1 However, the fund has faced backlash, with some abortion activists accusing it of being a "Zionist" project that caters to funders rather than abortion seekers.1
Korman resigned from her position at the DC Abortion Fund in December 2023 after facing extreme antisemitism in the workplace following the Oct. 7th events.25 She documented her decision in an essay for Tablet Magazine.1
Highlights
#Jewish people should not have to chose between their identity and their support for #abortionrights. Now they don't have to.
Thank you to everyone who has read and shared my story about how anti-Jewish sentiment at the DC Abortion Fund (DCAF) left me no choice but to resign from work I care about deeply and is essential healthcare for so many. My story is one of many that speak to the disturbing trend of excluding Jewish supporters and employees in the reproductive health world. I'm both comforted and devastated by the number of people who have reached out to me since publishing my story Wednesday, sharing their experiences of feeling isolated and pushed out of progressive spaces post October 7th, particularly those from the repro and abortion movement.
Our family is under no illusion that my experience in an office in Washington, DC is comparable to that of victims of terrorism and sexual violence, families of hostages, and civilians and aid workers suffering the horrors of war. But I do hope sharing my experience will help the reproductive health movement make more space for the passionate Jewish supporters of this vital work. We are all more aware than ever how critical abortion work is. This is the time to be pulling people into our movement, not pushing them out.
Thank you to everyone who has reached out with your support. They truly help lift my heart. And thank you for continuing to share the article so that Jews in progressive work hopefully feel more seen and supported. Shabbat shalom.
