Where Are the Intersectional Feminists Two Years After October 7th?

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month  a time to honor survivors, raise awareness, and demand systemic change. This October carries even deeper meaning: two years since October 7th, when sexual violence was used as a weapon of war against Jewish and Israeli women.

I am a second-generation Russian Jewish woman. When my grandfather changed our family name from Hessolovich to Hess, he was protecting us from antisemitism. On paper, I became German instead of a Russian Jew. That act of survival still protects me today, but it also shaped how I move through the world, balancing silence with visibility, safety with truth.

Twenty years after surviving domestic violence, I now see Jewish and Israeli women facing sexual assault, disbelief, and the same fear I once carried in silence. And I ask: Where are all the intersectional feminists now?

Believe Jewish and Israeli women.

October 7, 2023: Rape as a Weapon of War

On October 7th, 2023, sexual violence was weaponized in Israel. Women were abducted, raped, and tortured. Amit Soussana was the first to speak publicly, and others; both men and women  have since come forward. Survivors are still not universally believed.

The Dinah Project report, A Quest for Justice: October 7 and Beyond, confirms these atrocities were not incidental but deliberate. Yet Jewish and Israeli survivors continue to be denied the dignity of being believed.

If these were any other women, feminist organizations worldwide would be leading marches, drafting petitions, and demanding justice. Instead, when the survivors are Jewish and Israeli, the global feminist community looks away.

Bearing Witness  and Being Silenced

In March 2024, I joined an Academic Delegation as the only USC faculty member and social worker, alongside colleagues from Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth and a group of Italian activistis. We visited the Nova Music Festival site, homes in Kibbutzim, and met with families scarred by terror. I took photos not to sensationalize, but so the world would believe survivors. 

In June 2025, I attempted to return on a Trauma Mission. When war closed Israel’s airspace, I was stranded in Spain, waiting and hoping I could reach the people I came to support. Each hour of uncertainty reminded me of the helplessness survivors endure daily.

And yet, when I raise these truths, I hear: “But what about the children in Gaza?” As if compassion is a zero-sum game. As if acknowledging Jewish pain erases Palestinian suffering.

Trauma is not a competition. But dismissing Jewish survivors while claiming to fight for women’s rights is hypocrisy.

Traumatic Invalidation

Dr. Miri Bar Halpern, PhD,authored  Traumatic Invalidation within the Jewish Community After October 7th. The secondary trauma that occurs when survivors’ experiences are doubted, minimized, or denied. This invalidation deepens wounds rather than healing them.

For Jewish and Israeli survivors, traumatic invalidation looks like this:

• Emotional neglect – Withholding compassion, as if Jewish grief is less deserving. When I raised the silence around sexual violence on October 7th, a colleague dismissively said it was “acknowledged when it happened,” and when I mentioned the BLM paraglider meme, she minimized it as “only Chicago.”
• Criticism and Double Standards – Survivors and advocates are labeled “too strong” or “too outspoken” for naming antisemitism or sexual violence. A colleague accused me of “dividing the department” by advocating against antisemitism, even though similar antiracism advocacy was never criticized. These responses silence survivors, minimize trauma, and reinforce unequal treatment.

• Unequal treatment – Expecting Jewish women to remain silent to avoid backlash.
• Exclusion – Erasing Israeli voices from survivor advocacy and feminist spaces.
• Controlling norms – Social pressures urging silence and assimilation.
• Labeling and silencing – Survivors stay quiet to avoid being seen as a “bad Jew” or a political pawn.
• Denying reality – When colleagues, friends, or institutions refuse to believe or recognize October 7th testimonies, survivors are retraumatized.

This cycle is devastating. Survivors relive not only the original trauma but the pain of being silenced, shamed, or erased. Invalidation itself becomes a weapon.

October 2025: Two Years Later

Two years since October 7th, 48 hostages remain. Survivors of rape and torture are still disbelieved, minimized, or ignored. My own history of domestic violence and sexual assault resurfaces each time I hear their stories dismissed.

Meanwhile, antisemitism on U.S. college campuses has surged. Reports by the ADL and Hillel International confirm sharp rises in antisemitic incidents from students, faculty, and staff. The silencing of Jewish and Israeli survivors mirrors this hostility, creating exclusionary environments that betray the very ideals of feminism and social justice.

So I ask again: Where are the intersectional feminists two years later? Where are the voices that once declared “Believe All Women”?

The Moral Imperative

Believing women cannot be conditional. It cannot stop when the survivors are Jewish or Israeli.

• Believe Jewish and Israeli women.
• Amplify their voices, even when it’s unpopular.
• Stand up in classrooms, media, and public life.
• Confront denial and minimization, even from allies.
• Advocate for justice, healing, and dignity.

UN Women, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and global feminist NGOs loudly mobilized for survivors in other conflicts. But when the survivors are Jewish or Israeli, they fall silent. Why?

Where are the National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood, Women’s March, and leading U.S. feminist voices who once declared that all women must be believed? Where are the campus women’s centers and gender studies departments that claim to stand against sexual violence? Why have they abandoned Jewish and Israeli survivors?

My grandfather’s act of survival changing Hessolovich to Hess  was about protection. But survival should not mean silence. Two years after October 7th, I will not be silent.

Because if we truly believe all women, then we must also without hesitation  Believe Jewish and Israeli women.

Call to Action:

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this year it coincides with the painful two-year mark since October 7th. This is why the Trauma Informed Learning Alliance is holding our Annual IPV Revolution event, focused on the intersections of domestic violence and gun violence. This year, the stories will represent BIPOC and Jewish communities. For the first time, we are including Jewish narratives.

As a Jewish woman, I admit that I did not think about including us until October 8th. But silence is no longer survival. Inclusion is survival. Believing survivors is survival.

The IPV Revolution is more than an event, it is a demand that all survivors, including Jewish and Israeli women, be believed, supported, and honored.