IWF is proud to celebrate Karol Markowicz as our Champion Woman.
Independent Women’s Forum is pleased to announce that popular New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz is the latest entry in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.
Karol is also a Fox News Contributor, London Spectator writer, and co-author with Bethany Mandel of “Stolen Youth: How Radicals Are Erasing Innocence and Indoctrinating a Generation,” which was published earlier this year. It received resounding praise from Christopher Rufo, Abigail Shrier, and Matt Walsh. According to Shrier, "Mandel and Markowicz have written an indispensable field guide for parents, laying out the unique challenges of this cultural moment and equipping them to protect their families."
Karol has been very much in demand for commentary because of the war in the Middle East and a surge in antisemitism in the U.S. “As an American Jew, I worry about America first,” Karol says, “but I think that what happens in Israel necessarily affects what will happen in America and the rest of the free world. We are, as I see it, in a battle of civilization. I understand not caring about other countries. I understand wanting to focus internally on what the problems are here. But I think we forget that we share common enemies with Israel and that we have extremely similar goals for that free society that we take for granted.”
As for Karol's background, she has a fascinating history. She was born in Russia but, despite risks and setbacks, moved to and was raised in Brooklyn. “My parents met in Turkmenistan where they were both working,” she recalls. “My mother was sent there to be a teacher, my father was sent there to be a doctor, because when you were Jewish in the Soviet Union, you don’t have options. You weren’t going to be sent to Moscow. When the Soviet Union started letting Jews out in the 1970s, my father applied. I like to say that he was born an American but over there.”
Every year the family celebrates July 20th as their “Americaversary.” “We have a big party,” Karol says. “It’s bigger than birthdays. It is a really big deal that we get to be Americans. I’m thankful all the time. I have three kids and they’re all-American kids, all born here, and they are not going to have the ‘Americaversary’ that we celebrate every year, but I want them to be grateful and proud of their country. I don’t know how my kids are going to turn out, but I know that they’re not going to be America haters, and I can say that for sure.”
Markowicz thought that she would never leave New York, but the pandemic changed that. She was disillusioned with the way New Yorkers submitted to illogical pandemic rules and didn’t care that public schools were closed (even though well-to-do families could send their kids to private schools). Karol and her husband and children moved to Florida to recapture their freedoms. She is still pulling for New York, but she’s doing this from Florida. “We feel like such geniuses for getting out when we did,” she says. Of course, it means they have to add a celebration to their calendar—they throw a party for Karol’s coming to America anniversary and another on the date they became Floridians.
We know you will enjoy meeting this delightful, thoughtful, and fearless woman.
