More than half of young Jewish American women surveyed indicated they’re hiding their Jewish identities post-Oct. 7, according to a new survey by Jewish Women International.
Nearly half of the respondents reported dating less as a result of increased antisemitism and other ramifications of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks.
Regarding the post-Oct. 7 impact on their personal lives, three-fourths of respondents reported that their mental health (75%) and relationships with friends (74%) suffered.
“We were hearing from the young women that they’re experiencing [negative] mental health impacts where they hadn’t before,” said Meredith Jacobs, the CEO of JWI.
The survey results, released in February, sought to gather young Jewish women’s experiences with antisemitism and the subsequent impacts on their personal, academic and professional lives and connection with Judaism.
JWI and Sharp Insight LLC collected the data through a mixed-methods study that included a nationwide survey of Jewish American women ages 20 to 34, and a focus group series with the same audience at JWI’s 2025 Women to Watch event. The data was collected from November to December.
“Based on our findings, young Jewish women feel disenfranchised in the workplace, ostracized in social circles and compelled to erase their Jewish identities for fear of personal safety,” Jacobs, a Rockville resident, told Jewish Insider.
Hannah Loffman, JWI’s director of women’s impact and development, said she has a “very personal connection” to the survey.
“I left my previous job due to antisemitism,” the Washington, D.C., resident said, adding that she had worked for a non-Jewish nonprofit organization.
Immediately after Oct. 7, Loffman overheard two of her colleagues in conversation: “They were chatting about how, ‘You would have thought the Jews would have learned their lesson after the Holocaust, being kicked out of Germany. What difference does this make?’”
“Needless to say, I was speechless,” Loffman said. “I was the only Jewish person on my staff at the time, so I wanted to make sure that I heard it correctly … They basically continued to share sentiments around ‘the Jews had this coming.’”
She added that these remarks made it difficult for Loffman to work with those colleagues. “How could I collaborate with people who didn’t understand me as a person and who were saying things that were so egregious?” she asked. “I went back into my office, I closed the door and I cried.”
What does this all mean for JWI? The findings will help inform the next steps regarding the nonprofit’s programming, which Loffman helps inform.
“There is a post-traumatic growth approach that we’re taking that really supports the individuals that emerge from crisis like this,” Loffman said.
“The survey asked them what supports they needed,” Jacobs told Washington Jewish Week. “So our intention as JWI is not just to do the study and see information, but create the needed responses and supports to meet [young Jewish women’s] needs.”
“It’s moving young Jewish women from a space of vulnerability — which I absolutely felt, being the only Jewish person and feeling so isolated and stuck — to a place of leadership,” Loffman said. “I turned that into, ‘Where do I go from here? Who is my support?’ We are now at that stage of being action-oriented.”
JWI’s Young Women’s Impact Network supports Jewish professional women in their 20s and 30s in 10 cities across the U.S. Jacobs and JWI are looking to launch more chapters of YWIN, with the next cities being Miami and Pittsburgh.
“What we’re hearing from the young women is that those spaces for having friends … where they know they can show up as their full selves, is important and gives them that base of support and friendship,” Jacobs said.
“I’m really excited by what is coming next,” Loffman said. “We have workshops and programs in the works that help women navigate dating and friendship and partnership in a time when identity and values really shape personal connections.”
This summer in New York, JWI will debut a series of classes on Jewish identity in the workplace: helping them proudly uphold their Jewish identity and create Jewish employee resource groups or affinity groups.
JWI is also working to build a program that aims to support young Jewish women navigate relationships, Jewish identity and Israel, because one-fourth of the surveyed women indicated their dating life had been impacted by the events of Oct. 7.
“What’s important to them? What do they need in a partner?” Jacobs asked. “You’re taught not to talk about money or religion or politics, but we want to help them understand how to have those conversations early on in the relationship, so that they develop long term with a partner who, whatever they believe, supports them and they can feel safe in their relationship.”
This program guides women through how to have these conversations and also confront any myths that arise.
“I think this is what is unique about what JWI does, because we work in leadership, but we also work very deeply in addressing violence against women. We approach women’s leadership with an understanding of trauma, and so we say, ‘This is the reality of what [Jewish] women experience. How do we address that? How do we give women the tools to not only be resilient, but to thrive and grow and become empowered to be leaders and voices?’” Jacobs said.
She described this work as “post-traumatic growth.”
“It’s … more than resiliency,” Jacobs said. “This is about taking this moment and growing.”
