Young Jewish women feel increasingly isolated
Jewish Women International was preparing to lead a training seminar last year about domestic violence for staff members at a Jewish Community Center on the West Coast. As we do with every one of these, we reached out to the local domestic violence agency and invited them to participate.
But the response we received was chilling.
“No, thank you,” they replied. “Our staff supports Gaza.”
This was not a political debate or a social-media post. We did not mention Israel or Gaza. It was a refusal to collaborate with a Jewish organization on survivor support, a decision that directly affects whether Jewish women know where to turn for essential and often life-saving resources.
As upsetting as the response was, it didn’t surprise us.
More than a decade ago, JWI was leading a healthy relationship workshop at a university and reached out to the campus sexual-assault survivor support group to partner with us. They refused because we also worked with Hillel.
Jewish professionals working in domestic and sexual-violence spaces have long shared similar experiences. But since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s ensuing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, this antisemitism has become normalized. What was once whispered has become overt.
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Denial and misinformation about the sexual violence committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups against Israeli women and men is now widespread. These narratives have moved beyond social media and onto the global stage, echoed by international figures like Reem Alsalem, the UN’s special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
The consequences of that denial are not abstract, but deeply personal.
That reality became painfully clear after the murder of 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim and her partner, 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky, this past May. Sarah worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington and, like many other young Jewish women since Oct. 7, paid a steep personal price for her commitment to Israel. When we first met, she told me how she had lost all of her friends after accepting the embassy role.
The isolation that so many young Jewish women describe in a JWI survey was not theoretical for Sarah, but her lived reality. Joining our Young Women’s Impact Network DC chapter, she found a community where she could show up unapologetically as a Jewish woman. It was a rare space where belonging, support and friendship still existed when many other doors were closing.
After Sarah was murdered, I repeatedly heard the same refrain from young Jewish women across the country: “She could have been my friend. She could have been me.”
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In the two years since Oct. 7, I’ve spoken with young Jewish women across the country who have described a growing sense of isolation. Many have lost friends, professional networks or entire communities for standing with Israel or refusing to stay silent in the face of rape denial. Spaces that once felt safe—feminist organizations, survivor groups, even workplaces—have become hostile and exclusionary.
The message they’re hearing is unmistakable: “MeToo, unless you’re a Jew.”
For more than 125 years, JWI’s mission has been to end violence against women and amplify Jewish women’s leadership. Just as we called on the world to stand with the victims of Oct. 7 and Israeli survivors, we are now calling on our community to listen and support our young Jewish women here at home.
They are standing in solidarity with Israel, while battling antisemitism, hostility and isolation. They are the future leaders of our Jewish community, and we cannot afford to let them stand alone.
I will not let Jewish women be marginalized. I will not let us stand alone. I will not let us fall.
Join us by listening, supporting this research and helping to ensure that the next generation of Jewish women knows that they are believed, protected and never alone.
Meredith Jacobs is CEO of Jewish Women International.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
