The Jewish Voice

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If one lives long enough, one will surely see how history--including feminist history--is erased, forgotten, and continually revised. You may also see this in terms of Feminism and Antisemitism/anti-Zionism. The early activists and theorists are rarely mentioned on the internet, and those who were not there at the time or who did very little are now everywhere, claiming credit they do not deserve, disappearing all those who were in the room, so to speak. Like so much else, the internet has been scrubbed clean of this particular historical reality.

George Orwell's 1984, a dystopian novel, was prophetic. He published it in 1949, 76 years ago. In it, Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth. His job? To rewrite history. We have many Winston Smiths today, all of whom are busily rewriting their own, as well as collective and reality-based, histories.

But, I am so pleased to report, a brave new group, which calls itself Feminists Against Antisemitism, has recently arisen. They are primarily based in the UK and even more significantly, most of the founders are Christians, not Jews. I will withhold my thoughts on such a glaring, even alarming, disparity. Either Jews or Jewish women are not feminists (which is not true), or they are too heavily invested in politically correct left-wing anti-Zionism to dare to see clearly or to defend their people, themselves, or Western civilization. Perhaps they are also very assimilated and care little for Israel or even for Judaism.

From 1971 – 1981, I have had some feminist colleagues--but not that many. Thus, I have waited 56 years for such a group to arise. I am so glad they are now here. The late great poet Adrienne Rich, in her collection Snapshots of a Daughter in Law, speaks for me:

"Well,

she's long about her coming, who must be

more merciless to herself than history.

her mind full to the wind, I see her plunge

breasted and glancing through the currents,

taking the light upon her

at least as beautiful as any boy

or helicopter,

poised, still coming,

her fine blades making the air wince

but her cargo

no promise then:

delivered

palpable

ours."

I am sharing with you the first piece posted by Feminists Against Antisemitism. Long may they flourish. And yes, I am in touch with these women.

Why We Stand With Jewish Women: Part 1 – Perspectives from Two of Our Non-Jewish Founders

Wondering why we’re in this fight? We think the better question is: why isn’t everyone?

Feminists Against Antisemitism

Jan 05, 2026

This is the first post in a new series about why non-Jewish feminists are stepping up to fight antisemitism. Why do two women with no Jewish heritage choose to take this stand? Freya and Susan share their journeys – what shocked them, what changed their minds, and why October 7th was a turning point.

Freya

@FreyaVanadiss

Something strange happens when I express my solidarity with Jewish women, something I’ve not experienced before. There’s a kind of puzzlement – a quick check of ‘but you’re not Jewish, right?’, before asking ‘so why fight this fight?’.

What’s strange about it is that no one ever checked my ethnicity when I ran campaigns supporting Iranian women, or when I helped organise fundraising for a black women’s refuge. No one batted an eye when I raged against homophobia that targeted lesbians, or against misogynistic religious extremism. It was obvious that I, a left-wing radical feminist, would support minority and oppressed women in my community and around the world, even if I was not directly affected.

I’m very simple in my views if I’m being honest: I ask, does this harm women? If it does, then I’m interested, and I’m here to help try to combat it. Which is why, when I saw the videos begin to emerge on October 7th, and when the evidence of mass sexual violence and rape began to mount up, I expressed my solidarity with Jewish and Israeli women as I would with any group who had been targeted in this way. And that’s how I got a taste of what it’s like to be a Jewish woman in our horrifically antisemitic and antizionist culture.

Bewildered by the reaction – or lack of one – by the feminist community when it came to the rape, torture, murder and abductions of hundreds of women, I joined the first March Against Antisemitism in November 2023. The usual ‘gang’ of feminists I protested with were nowhere to be seen. Instead, I marched alongside Jewish women I knew from my activism, but not well. The surprise many of them had when they realised I definitely wasn’t Jewish, and had no ‘skin in the game’ was frankly rather heartbreaking.

Over the last two years, I’ve got used to explaining why: my Dad worked for the news and taught me to question everything, never follow the crowd, and that sometimes there really are moral rights and wrongs. As a feminist, I believe rape is absolutely one of those ‘wrongs’, no matter the ‘context’.

And that I’m still haunted by those videos I will never un-see, and how sometimes I can’t sleep at night as I imagine what those women went through.

But really, the answer to ‘Why are you in this fight?’ is also very simple: because I’m a feminist. The question that should be asked of feminists is, ‘Why aren’t you?’

Susan

@sleeepysandy

Like Freya, my dad was a powerful influence on me, and while not a judeophile, he had a real admiration for the Israelis. I am old enough to remember Munich, Entebbe, and Soviet interventions in Syria and the Middle East. Through my work and personal life, I had many Jewish friends; it is hard not to admire Jewish culture. Those traditions that Reb Tevye sings about in Fiddler on the Roof are a remarkably powerful social glue.

That said, many things have blindsided me in my journey to my now explicitly Zionist position. For one, until recently, I had the comforting belief, as a leftie, that antisemitism was a right-wing disease. It isn’t. The antisemitism (coupled with anti-westernism) on the left is far more insidious and dangerous, and I honestly didn’t see it. For another, if you had asked me ten years ago, I would have said that I was pro-Jewish but anti-Israel. I now say that you cannot be both, and I was fooling myself to think I could. I want to unpick that a bit.

Israel exists in a very complex political and historical context, but most people want a simple answer to the question “who are the good guys here?” So – again, like a lot of lefties - I plumped for the idea of Israel as “The Big Bad Wolf” for excluding poor oppressed Palestinians. The Israelis’ very strength and audacity – which I guess is what my Dad admired - meant that I saw them as not worthy of my sympathy and support. I was committed to the underdog.

However, in a complex world, here is a simple fact: Israel exists by right of history, international treaty, and conquest. Here is another: it is the only country with a majority Jewish population. If you doubt Israel’s right to exist, I invite you to explain why you do not argue over the borders of much of central and eastern Europe, which were established in similar, or arguably less legitimate, ways.

If you think “but the Palestinians lived there” is the crucial difference, go find out what happened to the millions of Germans who lived in the Danube area, or indeed any ethnic Germans who happened to be living outside the newly defined Germany. No-one rails against the Potsdam conference. The Swabians don’t sit in camps in Hungary, actors and activists don’t wave “free Swabia” flags, and there aren’t UN agencies that regard that as justification for 80 years of grievance. I bet Greta Thunberg couldn’t find Swabia if she tried. Mind you, she couldn’t find Gaza either.

To me, the fact that a Jewish state was necessary to prevent a recurrence of centuries of pogroms and persecution is inarguable, and proven by October 7th in grisly detail. Had Israel been created before 1933, six million Jews might not have been obliterated. I still think Israel is the safest place in the world to be a Jew, and many of those most committed to its destruction hate that it exists for that very reason. What do you call a policy that seeks to wipe out a country that already exists? I call it genocide. If you are antizionist, in my view you have found a polite way to be a genocidal antisemite.

Do I approve of everything Israel does? No. But Israel exists in a dilemma that few other countries face: having to continually defend its very existence while surrounded by radical neighbours who want to wipe it off the face of the earth. So don’t judge Israel by the standards you’d use for your own country. To coin a phrase, that’s your privilege speaking.

All this crystallised for me after October 7th. We got a taste of what a world without Israel would be like. Like Freya, I expected feminist outrage; I couldn’t believe feminists I knew and loved and got drunk with were denying rape happened, or justifying it by referring to Israeli government actions. Acceptance into left-wing feminist circles was implicitly conditional on condemning Israel’s alleged genocide. I am a feminist: I know rape is never justified. I am not an expert on war and cannot judge if the Israeli response is genocide, so it isn’t appropriate to require me to condemn it as a feminist. For what it is worth, I really don’t think it is, and I think most activists think Israel’s existence is “genocide” per se.

So in October 2023, I reached out on social media to all the Jewish women I knew, to offer them my love and support. I looked for tiny signs from other feminists that they supported Jews, and tried to gather them together. I spoke up in feminist circles. I went to the first march (actually more of a shuffle) against antisemitism. I have never felt so welcome – or so horribly humbled and embarrassed by the gratitude Jewish women expressed for what, to me, is a basic act of humanity and feminism.

I will stand shoulder to shoulder with Jews forever. I do not want to live in a world where Jews are not safe. Hence, I am a Zionist. I stand with Israel.