A firsthand account from activist Taryn Thomas on how seeing the reality of October 7 for herself exposed the deception at the heart of the antizionist movement.

What really happened inside the elite university antizionist encampments?

When student Taryn Thomas joined the high-profile anti-Israel student encampment at Stanford following October 7th, she expected a space dedicated to human rights, justice and critical thinking. Instead, she found a highly insular culture shaped by social media algorithms, peer pressure, and intense linguistic policing, where selective empathy was the norm and dissent meant immediate social exile.

In this episode, Taryn sits down with FAA co-founder Freya Papworth to share an insider’s look at the normalisation of antisemitism that defined her campus experience after October 7th.

Taryn details her journey toward a new perspective after visiting the Nova exhibition—a touring installation documenting the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival, where around 360 people were killed, many more were injured, with some subjected to sexual violence, and 44 people were taken hostage to Gaza—and traveling to Israel to hear from survivors firsthand.

Taryn’s journey is essential listening, especially if you’ve ever felt pulled into a discussion or activist space that leaves no room for doubt, no space for questions, and no empathy for the other side. This episode is a challenge to that. A reminder that real understanding doesn’t come from slogans or taking sides. It comes from being willing to look, to question, and to confront what you’d rather not see.

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00:00 Taryn describes how she got involved in pro‑Palestine activism and began to question it
02:00 How social media shaped her understanding of October 7 and misled her early on
05:30 Inside the encampment: pressure to conform and silence around antisemitism
08:30 How language was controlled and dissent was shut down
12:30 The turning point where she felt the movement had lost its moral clarity
15:00 Seeing the Nova exhibition and confronting what happened on October 7
20:00 Her decision to visit Israel to understand the reality firsthand
24:00 Experiencing a missile attack and seeing daily life in Israel up close
26:30 The backlash and loss of relationships after speaking out
38:00 Why personal relationships and stories — not arguments — changed her mind

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In this episode, we share a recording of our recent live interview with Melanie Phillips, journalist and author of Fighting the Hate: A Handbook for Jews Under Siege.

Drawing on decades of experience analysing media narratives, political extremism, misinformation and moral inversion, she shares practical strategies for responding in real-world situations at work, online and in social settings.

As she explains, many people advancing these antisemitic or antizionist ideas believe they are acting out of justice and anti-racism. Understanding that, without conceding ground, is key to responding effectively.

Watch or listen now for clear, practical guidance on challenging Jew hatred and the narratives that sustain them.

Shownotes

[00:00] How to respond to arguments
You are not trying to win debates. You are trying to challenge certainty and shift the conversation.

[00:01] Antisemitism after October 7
A surge in antisemitism across workplaces, communities and public life.

[00:02] Silence and self-censorship
Speaking up about antisemitism or antizionism often leads to social and professional consequences.

[00:06] Why this matters now
This is about responding to antisemitism, antizionism, misinformation and distorted narratives.

[00:11] When to engage and when not to
You need to judge the situation, prioritise safety and choose your battles.

[00:15] Practical ways to push back
Preparing simple lines and questions to challenge misinformation and anti-Jewish racism in the moment.

[00:19] Guilt by association
How people are labelled, excluded and shut down for who they know or what they question.

[00:28] The “Israel is colonialist” claim
How to challenge one of the core antizionist narratives without getting dragged into a long debate.

[00:37] Keep your responses simple
You do not need long explanations. A clear, unexpected point can disrupt the narrative.

[00:57] What antizionism is doing
How antizionism functions as a form of discrimination and overlaps with antisemitism.

[01:13] Conflict in relationships
How to handle disagreements with friends, family and political groups without losing yourself.

[01:27] Why there is still hope
More people are recognising misinformation and pushing back, even if they are not always visible.

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FAA’s Georgia Ladbury interviews musician Zohara Niddam about the cancellation of her band’s UK tour, and the growing effort to keep Jewish and Israeli artists off stage.

We’re marking the UK’s Jewish Culture Week with Israeli musician Zohara Niddam who joins Feminists Against Antisemitism to unpack the recent cancellation of a klezmer band tour in a case that raised serious questions about whether Jewish artists are now being judged on their politics before their work.

A Jewish band, Oi Va Voi, found itself subjected to a level of scrutiny rarely applied in the music industry: questioned over nationality, identity and politics, and ultimately cancelled.

The official justification? The artwork of Zohara’s solo album, a piece designed to capture the emotional and symbolic complexity of life amid conflict.

The reality of the response? Are Jewish and Israeli artists now being judged to a different standard and expected to justify their identity, their associations, and even their right to perform?

At a time when everything feels pulled into simple categories – oppressor or oppressed, right or wrong – this episode explores what gets lost when there’s no room for complexity. When art can’t be open, ambiguous or difficult. When artists aren’t allowed to explore, only to agree.

And when the very voices trying to grapple with conflict, including those advocating for coexistence, are the first to be shut down.

Most people assume maternity care is neutral and a safe, compassionate space where politics stays outside the room. This episode of the Feminists Against Antisemitism podcast challenges that assumption.

For Maternal Mental Health Week 2026, Georgia Ladbury, a public health professional and doula with a particular interest in maternal health and health inequalities, is joined by Laura Godfrey-Isaacs (NHS community midwife) and BJ Woodstein (doula, IBCLC lactation consultant, author) to talk about an issue many people don’t even think exists in the birth world: antisemitism, and how it’s affecting Jewish women’s safety, trust, and mental health during pregnancy, birth and postpartum.

They describe a side of maternity care most people don’t realise exists: staff protesting in scrubs, Jewish women hiding they’re Jewish in hospital, and Jewish birth workers being frozen out for speaking up, even facing political vetting like “Are you a Zionist?” They connect today’s rhetoric to older antisemitic tropes (including blood libel), and ask what “inclusive care” means if Jewish women don’t feel safe at the most vulnerable moment of their lives.

[00:00] Introduction: antisemitism in the birth world - Why maternity care is an overlooked site of antisemitism and inequality.

[00:02] Guests and lived experience in maternity care - Laura Godfrey‑Isaacs and BJ Woodstein on working, birthing, and advocating as Jews in the birth world.

[00:06] Power, trust, and the role of doulas - Why emotional safety and advocacy matter so much in pregnancy and birth.

[00:08] Antisemitism inside healthcare spaces - Political activism, professional pressure, and the impact on Jewish staff and patients.

[00:15] Blood libel and “baby killer” rhetoric - How ancient antisemitic tropes reappear in contemporary maternity contexts.

[00:22] Zionism, misunderstanding, and silencing - Why Jewish explanations are dismissed and how language is weaponised.

[00:27] EDI blind spots and data erasure - How equality frameworks fail Jewish women and why Jewish identity isn’t properly recorded.

[00:39] Mental health, fear, and professional fallout - Trauma, isolation, and loss of safety for Jewish mothers and birth workers post–Oct 7.

[00:51] Shifrah UK: building Jewish cultural safety - Why Shifrah was founded and how it supports Jewish families and professionals.

[01:02] Stronger together: allyship and closing reflections - What solidarity looks like in maternity care and how women can stand together.

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Since 7 October, Australia has seen a rapid rise in open antisemitism — from “gas the Jews” chanted on the steps of the Sydney Opera House to the doxxing of hundreds of Jewish creatives, most of them women. What many once dismissed as fringe has broken into the mainstream, and Jewish women have been forced to confront it head on.

This conversation brings together four women who have lived the consequences of this shift: writer Julie Szego, musician Deborah Conway, NCJWA president Lynda Ben‑Menashe, and online‑safety advocate Zara Cooper.

Together, they explain how antisemitism in Australia metastasised so quickly, why institutions froze, and how entire sections of the feminist, academic, and LGBTQ+ worlds turned on Jewish women.

The panel speaks plainly about:– how “self‑righteousness” and influencer culture have turbo‑charged harassment– the way online mobs organise, attack, and justify their abuse– the decay of critical thinking and the spread of disinformation– the failure of feminist organisations to respond to sexual violence against Jewish women– how academic theories like “settler colonialism” became blunt political weapons– the hollowness of multicultural rhetoric when it refuses to name antisemitism– the deliberate platforming of fringe Jewish anti‑Zionist groups as if they speak for the community.

This webinar makes clear that antisemitism in Australia didn’t appear overnight; it’s the result of years of ignored warnings, institutional cowardice, and fashionable ideological narratives that treat Jews as fair game.But it also shows how Jewish women are pushing back — using evidence, principled feminist analysis, and the simple insistence on truth.

Despite the hostility, there is solidarity, clarity and a refusal to be intimidated.As one speaker put it: “Hate is loud. Jewish women are louder.”

⁠https://x.com/FAAntisemitism⁠⁠

Support Us⁠ – Your contribution powers the essentials, our website, tools, tech etc. so we can organise, host events, and challenge antisemitism in feminist spaces. We’re not a charity; we’re a collective of women taking action.

Your support fuels the work.

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Birmingham entrepreneur and social activist Simone Schehtman reveals how misinformation and antisemitism almost kept Jewish fans out of Birmingham, and why the consequences reach far beyond football.

Recently Susan McDonnell sat down with Simone Schehtman, who is a quietly unstoppable Birmingham community leader who found herself at the centre of one of the most bewildering — and frankly frightening — episodes we’ve seen in British public life for a long time.

What started as “just” a story about football fans being barred from a match turned out to be anything but. As Simone tells it, the deeper you look, the stranger (and darker) it gets:
misinformation that somehow became “intelligence,”
extremist activists shaping the narrative,
police relying on AI fabrications over actual government reports,
and a chain of decisions so sloppy and prejudiced that it nearly resulted in Jews being banned from a public event in Britain.

Not in the 1930s. In 2025.

This conversation is a wake‑up call. As Simone tells it, we can discover just how thin the line can be between safety and scapegoating. And, optimistically, how quickly institutions can fold when they meet loud, organised pressure.

It’s also a story of tenacity: of a handful of volunteers, exhausted and furious and determined, refusing to accept “we’ve made our decision” as an answer.

We hope you’ll listen.

https://x.com/FAAntisemitism

Support Us – Your contribution powers the essentials, our website, tools, tech etc. so we can organise, host events, and challenge antisemitism in feminist spaces. We’re not a charity; we’re a collective of women taking action. Your support fuels the work.

And hit SUBSCRIBE on our YouTube Channel

Izabella Tabarovsky unmasks the Soviet playbook hiding behind today’s so‑called “compassionate” anti‑Israel mobs, and the lessons we can take from the Soviet Jews who resisted.

In this episode of the Feminists Against Antisemitism podcast, Freya Papworth speaks with the writer and historian Izabella Tabarovsky to uncover the origins of the antisemitism erupting in feminist spaces.

In the West, most of us were taught to recognise antisemitism only in its Nazi, far‑right form but that narrow education has left many of us unable to spot the strain that came from the Soviet left, where Antizionism was engineered as a socially acceptable way to target Jews. Watch to understand how this blind spot enabled antisemitism to spread through activism, academia, and feminist circles, and why so many feminist spaces are now saturated with it.

This important conversation makes clear that what is often framed today as “progressive anti-Zionism” is neither new nor accidental, but something more precise and more dangerous: Antizionism, a dedicated antisemitic political project rooted in Soviet propaganda and designed to make hostility toward Jews appear moral and principled. We recognise these narratives for what they are, and we refuse to accept their laundering into our feminist spaces.

By tracing how Antizionism was engineered, absorbed, and reproduced, we can finally name the pressure placed on Jews to prove their moral worth through denunciation. The Refuseniks, and especially the women whose courage and organising exposed Soviet lies, show us what resistance looks like: refusing silence, refusing erasure, and refusing to bend to ideological demands. This understanding is why we are pushing back. It is why we insist on a feminism that does not sacrifice Jewish women, and why antisemitism, however repackaged, has no place in the movements we are building.

Izabella Tabarovsky has been named by Moment Magazine one of 50+ Jewish Innovators of the Past 50 Years. She has lectured at Yad Vashem, Georgetown University, the London School of Economics, George Washington University, the Parliament of Finland, and before a U.S. congressional briefing, among others. ​​

She is a Senior Fellow with the Z3 Institute in Palo Alto and a Fellow with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, and the Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa.

Show Notes

• Background (2:23): Isabella’s background and why she wrote “Be a Refusenik”
• Soviet Antisemitism and the Roots of Modern Antizionism (5:57)
• Post-Holocaust Soviet Jewish Experience (10:31)
• The Refusenik Movement (28:11): What is a Refusenik?;
• Parallels to Today’s Campus Antisemitism (33:42)
• Women in the Refusenik Movement (55:39)
• Feminism and Antisemitism (1:01:49)
• “As a Jew” Jews (1:08:25)
• Conclusion (1:17:11): The burning bush metaphor

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Feminists Against Antisemitism is building a community where women—Jewish and non‑Jewish—can speak openly, learn together, and push back against a tide of antisemitism that has gone unchallenged for far too long.If this resonates, please share the event, join our Substack, and stay with us for the next conversations.Follow us at:

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Susan McDonnell speaks with legendary second‑wave feminist Phyllis Chesler – founder, scholar, and author of Women and Madness, An American Bride in Kabul, and The New Antisemitism – about a lifetime of documenting how parts of the feminist left embraced Antizionism, excused Islamist misogyny, and silenced women who refused to go along.Chesler traces the rot back decades: from UN women’s conferences hijacked by anti‑Israel propaganda to academics and media gatekeepers who blacklisted her for saying what was happening to Jews – and to women – before and after 7 October.

She names the costs: cancellations, smear campaigns, death threats, and the women (and men) who kept going anyway. Most of all, she calls today’s feminists to moral clarity: defend women under Islamist regimes, reject fashionable Jew‑hatred, and build real alliances across faiths to tell the truth and save lives.She also talks bluntly about the cost of telling the truth: ostracism, career sabotage, threats, and why she kept going anyway.

And for women navigating this terrain today, she offers sharp, unsentimental guidance about how to survive inside a movement that often punishes dissent. She lays out strategy, what to expect, how to stay standing, and how to always keep your integrity intact.---Feminists Against Antisemitism is building a community where women—Jewish and non‑Jewish—can speak openly, learn together, and push back against a tide of antisemitism that has gone unchallenged for far too long.If this resonates, please share the event, join our Substack, and stay with us for the next conversations.

Follow our work at:

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https://x.com/FAAntisemitism

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In this urgent episode of Feminists Against Antisemitism, journalist Nicole Lampert speaks with Nika Hazini and Niaz Maleknia, two Iranian women who grew up under the shadow of the 1979 revolution and have spent their adult lives watching their homeland fall deeper under a regime that brutalises women, minorities, and anyone who dares to oppose it.

The conversation traces Niaz and Nika’s childhood memories of the 1979 revolution, before unfolding how a broad anti‑Shah coalition of leftists and Islamists enabled the clerics’ rise, only for leftists to be crushed once Khomeini consolidated power. They explain how women were among the first targets, with a landmark mass feminist protest erupting the moment hijab was declared mandatory; and how, to this day, Iranian women face arrests and harsh penalties for unveiling, coercive “modesty” rules, and brutal violence, even as teenage girls have been at the forefront of the modern Women, Life, Freedom uprising.

They discuss the regime’s growing reliance on foreign militias, the long‑standing bond between Iranians and Jews, and the deafening silence of many Western feminists who, they argue, have absorbed regime propaganda without realising it. Presented as solidarity with Palestinians, these positions end up supporting Hamas, repeating Tehran’s messaging, erasing the oppression of Iranian women, and displaying an antisemitism that refuses to acknowledge the suffering of Jews or Iran’s role in fuelling the conflict.

You’ll come away with a deeper understanding of:

• the Iranian women’s revolution

• the geopolitical reality linking Iran, Israel and the West

• the failures and debates within Western feminist organisations

• what genuine feminist solidarity looks like

…and why Iranian women are quite literally fighting for their lives.

Watch, share, and stand with the brave women of Iran.

Nicole Lampert (Moderator) – Freelance journalist, broadcaster, and commentator who writes regularly on antisemitism, Israel, and women’s rights for outlets including The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Independent, The Sun and the Jewish Chronicle. A former showbusiness editor of the Daily Mail, she uses her media expertise to clarify complex social issues. She was recently awarded the Pete Newbon Award for her outstanding contribution to public understanding of antisemitism by the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

Niaz Maleknia is an Iranian documentary and lifestyle photographer based in London, known for exploring taboo subjects, including an internationally exhibited project on love dolls. She holds an MA from LCC, teaches on its BA Documentary course, and her Hold Still portrait—selected by the Duchess of Cambridge—is part of the National Portrait Gallery collection. Niaz also runs photography workshops for children and adults across London, drawing on her teaching background to build creative confidence and observational skills.

Nika Hazini is an experienced Financial Services lawyer with over 20 years experience advising on a variety of transactional and regulatory projects in the field and has worked in the world’s most prestigious law firms and banks across the globe. She is also a thinker and a champion of Middle East peace and a bright future for that whole region. Nika has worked for over a decade on the Persian Jewish DNA project and presents regularly at various conferences on the topic.

A conversation you almost never hear outside academic circles, this webinar cuts through theory and speaks directly to the activists who’ve been sensing something is wrong in feminist spaces but haven’t heard it named clearly until now.

Our first Feminists Against Antisemitism webinar was a sweeping exploration of how antisemitism has threaded itself through feminist movements—historically, academically, and right into the present day.

Moderated by journalist Nicole Lampert, with speakers Zoë Stimpel and Dr Kara Jesella, the discussion traced the story from the women’s conferences of the 1970s, through the battles inside Spare Rib and the Women’s Liberation Movement, to the rise of intersectionality, queer theory, DEI frameworks, and the new wave of Antizionist ideology in feminist spaces today.

Speakers:

• Kara Jesella – Author and scholar whose forthcoming Routledge book (2026) traces the history of antisemitism within the feminist movement. Kara holds a PhD and MA in Performance Studies from NYU and a BA in Women’s Studies and English from Vassar College. She served as managing editor of a feminist academic journal and is currently a fellow at the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Her expertise illuminates the intersection of feminist theory, Jewish identity, and exclusionary politics.

• Zoe Strimpel – Telegraph columnist and social historian, Zoe writes extensively on feminism, identity politics, and cultural trends. She has researched the Spare Rib controversy of the 1980s in depth and published on the magazine’s role in shaping feminist discourse, including chapters in Women’s Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain and articles in Social History of Medicine. Her work offers valuable insight into how debates over Zionism and antisemitism fractured the feminist movement and why those fault lines matter today.

• Nicole Lampert (Moderator) – Freelance journalist, broadcaster, and commentator who writes regularly on antisemitism, Israel, and women’s rights for outlets including The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Independent, The Sun and the Jewish Chronicle. A former showbusiness editor of the Daily Mail, she uses her media expertise to clarify complex social issues. She was recently awarded the Pete Newbon Award for her outstanding contribution to public understanding of antisemitism by the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism.

The conversation was grounded in real experience, archival research, and first‑hand accounts of how Jewish women have been excluded, targeted, or erased within feminist spaces that claim to stand for all women.

Within 90 minutes, the panel unpacked:

• How antisemitism and Antizionism became intertwined in feminist organising

• Why Jewish women—central to the civil rights, gay liberation, and anti‑apartheid movements—became reframed as oppressors

• The UN women’s conferences of 1975 and 1980, and how they seeded narratives still shaping the left today

• The collapse of Spare Rib under the weight of increasingly extreme anti‑Israel politics

• The migration of academic theories into mainstream activism, online culture, and DEI policy

• Why modern feminism so often centres everything except women

• Where Jewish women—and feminist allies—can go from here

Attendees told us that the event helped them to make sense of dynamics they’ve been feeling but haven’t had the language or historical context to express.

If you care about feminism, Jewish women’s safety, movement‑building, or the integrity of progressive spaces, this conversation is essential viewing.

This is only the beginning. Feminists Against Antisemitism is building a community where women—Jewish and non‑Jewish—can speak openly, learn together, and push back against a tide of antisemitism that has gone unchallenged for far too long.

If this resonates, please share the recording, join our Substack, and stay with us for the next conversations.