{"id":3964,"date":"2026-03-08T19:13:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:13:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/?p=3964"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:41:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:41:52","slug":"jewish-australian-women-reflect-on-life-after-october-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/jewish-australian-women-reflect-on-life-after-october-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Australian women reflect on life after October 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Lynne Michelle Swarts, Senior Academic Tutor, St Andrew’s College, and Sessional Academic, Discipline of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies,, University of Sydney<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Ruptured is a timely and powerful anthology that explores the fractured experiences of 36 Jewish women in Australia in the aftermath of the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza. The title is luminous and haunting in its simplicity. <\/p>\n

Each voice grapples with the shock-waves of recent events, which \u2013 as editors Lee Kofman and Tamar Paluch note \u2013 cast a shadow \u201claced with the unmistakable imprint of intergenerational trauma\u201d.<\/p>\n

This book is not just a chronicle of pain and upheaval, but a testament to the strength and resilience each woman demonstrates in the struggle to maintain their sense of identity and belonging in contemporary Australia. <\/p>\n\n

Review: Ruptured: Jewish Women In Australia Reflect on Life Post-October 7 \u2013 co-edited by Lee Kofman & Tamar Paluch (Schwartz Books)<\/em><\/p>\n\n

In Australia, where Jews have always felt an integral part of society, antisemitism has increased three-fold<\/a> since October 7. One in five Australians now hold antisemitic attitudes<\/a>, the editors report, the highest rate across Anglosphere nations. <\/p>\n

Ruptured draws on a tapestry of perspectives, its reflections both deeply personal and urgently communal. Its voices cross generations, incorporating migrants from the former Soviet Union and Israel, queer women, women of mixed heritage, second-generation Holocaust survivors and women, like me, descended from families who have lived in Australia for generations. <\/p>\n

Everything changed<\/h2>\n

Contributors include journalists such as former Age writer Julie Szego, Rachelle Unreich, who wrote about her mother\u2019s experience surviving the Holocaust in a 2023 book<\/a> and Sunday Life columnist Kerri Sackville. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s legal academic Kim Rubinstein and political scientist Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a specialist in the Middle East and a former political prisoner in Iran. There\u2019s also a rabbi, cookbook authors, psychotherapists, educators, musician Deborah Conway and artists like Nina Sanadze<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
\"A<\/div>\n

<\/a>

\n Deborah Conway.<\/span>
\n Tracey Nearmy\/AAP<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe effect of October 7 seems to have been felt by every Jew,\u201d writes lawyer Melinda Jones.<\/p>\n

Kofman\u2019s essay, Writing in a Time of War, grasps that seriousness. She recounts how her life changed when Israel was invaded, and the destruction in Gaza began: <\/p>\n

\n

Then everything \u2013 everything \u2013 in my partly uncluttered, mostly fulfilling life changed \u2026 And I could no longer write.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It wasn\u2019t Hamas\u2019 barbarism or Palestinian suffering that silenced her \u2013 she always hoped that her writing could bring light to a darkened world. What broke her was \u201cthe outbreak of antisemitism from Australia\u2019s hyper-educated, progressive elites, including many writers [\u2026] whose books fill the shelves of my study\u201d. She adds, \u201cit was a mindf\u2026k to realise that people who live and breathe words [\u2026] could be so selective about suffering.\u201d <\/p>\n

Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Lynette Chazan echoes this existential dread: \u201cOur existence\u201d as Jews \u201cis again up for grabs\u201d. Like a modern prophet, she asks: Is Israel\u2019s destruction dressed up in human rights, \u201cthe world\u2019s clandestine fetish?\u201d <\/p>\n

While the war is undeniably catastrophic for innocent Palestinians in Gaza, Kofman argues that in Australia, empathy for Jews has evaporated under the guise of anti-Israel sentiment. Her peers on the left she writes, were more focused on the <\/p>\n

\n

demonisation of Israel and \u2018Zionists\u2019 \u2013 meaning Jews who affirm Israel\u2019s right to exist. Meaning nearly 80% of Australian Jews<\/a> according to conservative estimates.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n <\/p>\n
\"A<\/div>\n

<\/a>

\n Lee Kofman argues that in Australia, empathy for Jews has evaporated under the guise of anti-Israel sentiment.<\/span>
\n Lee Kofman<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018A double life\u2019<\/h2>\n

This anthology sensitively covers recurring themes, include silencing, alienation, shock, horror, racism and vile anti-Jewish visceral hatred. Every author writes of living what grief and trauma counsellor Irena Zilberman calls \u201ca double life\u201d. <\/p>\n

Scrolling through social media on October 7 and 8, finding out terrible truths. The near naked and dead body of 23-year-old German-Israeli citizen Shani Louk, taken from the Nova music festival, on the back of a pick-up truck<\/a>. Julie Szego and Deborah Conway describe their disbelief on October 9, when chants at a rally in front of the Sydney Opera House<\/a>, included<\/a> \u201cWhere\u2019s the Jews\u201d and \u201cf\u2026k the Jews.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bodycam videos of mutilated, raped, dismembered and burnt bodies from the Nova music festival<\/a> continue to surface. Interior architect and writer Kate Lewis writes of Eshkol, a small town near the Gaza Strip, where parts of her Australian family live. Its residents, like those in the nearby kibbutzim, were ravaged<\/a> by \u201cunthinkable inhumanity, ripped apart and butchered\u201d. Burnt alive. <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
\"Mourners<\/div>\n

<\/a>

\n The funeral of 23-year-old German-Israeli citizen Shani Louk, taken from the Nova music festival.<\/span>
\n Abir Sultan\/AAP<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zilberman finds out her uncle and aunt were killed at Ofakim, near Gaza. She describes her loneliness when she continues to see friends for whom these atrocities have little impact. Similar isolation and despair are felt by many of these writers when close, non-Jewish friends say little \u2026 or nothing. Szego notes, \u201cFirst there is silence,\u201d from those once considered friends and then \u201csilence from comrades and \u2018good\u2019 people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Authors write of their efforts to learn as much as possible on Israel. Psychoanalyst, art psychotherapist and artist Julia Meyerowitz-Katz eloquently calls this moment \u201cAgainst Silence\u201d. Simonne Whine, founder of grassroots activist Jewish identity movement J-United, writes \u201cit\u2019s part of my increasing commitment to actively combat hatred\u201d, to try to \u201cmake some sense of it all\u201d. She continues:<\/p>\n

\n

my bedside table became a battleground of sticky notes and highlighted passages [\u2026] The more I read the more I understood none of this was new.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Against silence<\/h2>\n

These women read the same books that I did: Israeli producer Noa Tishby\u2019s Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth<\/a> and ex\u2013Palestinian militant Mossab Hasan Yousef\u2019s Son of Hamas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Or they listened to former US Defense department official, columnist and writer Dan Senor<\/a>\u2019s podcast, Call Me Back<\/a> and the podcast by Israeli philosopher journalist Yossi Klein Halevi<\/a>, produced by Shalom Hartman Institute<\/a>. Or they discovered leading Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal<\/a>, the chairman for the Israeli Movement for Freedom of Information, on Senor\u2019s podcast.<\/p>\n

We are all forced to consider our resilience as Jews in the face of persistent, intense hatred. It feels reminiscent of the dangers faced in 1930s Germany, where Jewish shops were vandalised<\/a> and antisemitic signs paraded through the streets. Actor Dena Amy Kaplan observes: \u201cwe, as Jews, are stronger and closer than ever.\u201d Writer, director and musician Galit Klas<\/a> agonises, \u201cWho will hide my daughter?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/a>

\n Julie Szego.<\/span>
\n Tony Lupton\/Wild Dingo Press<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Julie Szego reflects on the disbelief felt by many Australian Jews when reading an open letter in Overland<\/a> published \u201cbarely a fortnight after the attacks, barely a week after the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza [\u2026] condemning \u2018war crimes committed by Israel in its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Similar petitions and open letters have appeared across social media and in publications like the Sydney Review of Books<\/a>. According to Szego, the petitioners overlook several critical issues. She writes that they don\u2019t mention hostages, they ignore or \u201ccontextualise\u201d the events of October 7, nor do they acknowledge Hamas\u2019 use of human shields. Nor, she writes, do they mention Iran, a key supporter of Hamas<\/a>. Surprisingly, the signatories represent notable individuals from literature, arts, academia and human rights groups.<\/p>\n

High school teacher Siana Einfeld speculates, after documenting the hate in her northern Melbourne suburb, on whether her city is safe for Jews anymore, when antisemitic slogans, boycotting of Jewish businesses and artists, and even violence towards Jews and Jewish sites<\/a> has become the new normal. <\/p>\n

Writer and corporate communications consultant Jessica Bowker mentions the silver lining of increased resilience and compassion since October 7. She has sought out Jewish friends and \u201cthose who empathise the positives of October 7\u201d \u2013 becoming, in the words of Deborah Conway and New York Times foreign policy journalist Bret Stephens, \u201cmore Jewy<\/a>\u201d. Is the challenge, as Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio teaches, to hold onto hope?<\/p>\n

Who should read this book?<\/h2>\n

This anthology comes just weeks after Australia\u2019s antisemitism special envoy Jillian Segal\u2019s plan to combat antisemitism<\/a>. Its well-timed arrival prompts me to ask: who should read this book? <\/p>\n

Anyone interested in the way Jewish women feel right now, in our \u201clucky\u201d country. I think it should be read by women \u2013 including academics, creatives and the literary left who should know better \u2013 who deny Jewish agency, who think they know more clearly than the contributors to this anthology what it is to be \u201cothered\u201d. I\u2019m not holding my breath. <\/p>\n

Are there equivalent books written anywhere else in the world? I don\u2019t think so. As Einfeld puts it, she live in a place where she still believes \u201cco-existence [with fellow non-Jewish Australians] is possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

This book is a major contribution to that aspiration.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

This article written by Lynne Michelle Swarts, Senior Academic Tutor, St Andrew’s College, and Sessional Academic, Discipline of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies,, University of Sydney<\/strong> and is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Lynne Michelle Swarts, Senior Academic Tutor, St Andrew’s College, and Sessional Academic, Discipline of Hebrew, Biblical and Jewish Studies,, University of Sydney Ruptured is a timely and powerful anthology that explores the fractured experiences of 36 Jewish women in Australia in the aftermath of the October 7 2023 Hamas attacks and the ensuing war […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":3965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iranians.global\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}