Sisterhood is Antisemitic: How Feminist Ideas about Identity, Power, Feelings, and Belonging Justified October 7th

This webinar is presented by Kara Jesella
Date: Wednesday, July 12, 2026 
Time: 9am PT / 10am MT / 11am CT / 12pm ET 

Webinar length is approx 90 mins, ZOOM link will be sent in a registration confirmation email, and will be emailed directly to you a few days before the event.

From the beginning, feminism was shaped by psychology; Betty Friedan, the famous Jewish founder of second wave feminism, was a psychology PhD student who studied with Erik Erikson, and that era’s formative practice of consciousness-raising fused politics and self-help. Indeed, psychology is a field that is specially equipped to deal with feminism’s emphasis on identity; feelings, including feelings of belonging; and theories of, and different ways of enacting power, all of which have contributed to the movement’s increasingly well-known antisemitism and antizionism. Based on my book Feminist Antisemitism: An Intellectual History, published by Routledge in June 2026, this talk tells the story of how antisemitism and antizionism became central to the feminist movement and its most important theories, like intersectionality, with a special emphasis on elements of this history that are of particular interest to psychologists. It will establish the surprising antisemitism that existed even as the movement began before showing how, as different versions of feminism competed, a feminism that does not seek mainstream goals like equal rights or treatment–indeed, an antizionist feminism that justifies the horrific sexual assault of Israelis on October 7th and legitimizes the destruction of the Jewish state–has become predominant. “Sisterhood is Antisemitic” will give psychologists the background that they need to understand how radical feminism fomented hostility toward Jews; they will be able to bring their own training in these issues to the topic, which will surely allow for important new insights

Learning Objectives

• Participants will understand the basic trajectory of feminist experience and thought that has led to the movement’s antisemitism and antizionism, including the influence of Black Power and queer theory.
• Participants will be able to explain some of the basic ideas related to feminist and queer antisemitism and antizionism, including the role of feelings, belonging, power, and identity.
• Participants will be able to explain why feminist theories undergirding contemporary antisemitism and antizionism are wrong and how they hurt Jews.