Believe Jewish Women

This past week, a Jewish feminist movement has gained serious momentum across the world. Under the hashtag #MeTooUnlessUrAJew, critics have been calling out the hypocrisy of democratic institutions and progressive activists, who were almost certainly extremely vocal during the #MeToo movement, downplaying or denying the rape of Israeli women and sexual violence by Hamas terrorists that occurred on Oct. 7. The conversation is global. Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg made a presentation to the United Nations, in which she criticized the organization for its silence; six high-ranking feminist writers and attorneys penned a piece in Slate describing the sexual assaults and insisting "the victims of the Oct. 7 attack stand excluded from the world’s sisterhood;" and in Canada, Beth Tzedec's Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin wrote an op-ed for the National Post demanding Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly "must end" her silence on the issue by condemning it publicly. From London, U.K., journalist Nicole Lampert has covered this as well, writing a piece in UnHerd on why people are refusing to believe what really happened. She joins Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy to break down why it's been such an uphill battle to get feminists to believe Israeli women and to understand the distinctions between realities in Canada, Britain and the United States. Credits Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold and Phoebe Maltz Bovy. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. Support the show by subscribing to this podcast, donating to The CJN and subscribing to the podcast's Substack.