Identity & Anxiety in Our Turbulent Times

In the year that has passed since October 7, 2023, how many of us have felt our Jewish identity and sense of belonging shift—suddenly, violently, unexpectedly, or maybe gradually and without our initial understanding? Perhaps it’s safe to say that all of us have been changed in one way or another.

Lilith reached out to feminist thinkers, writers and activists and asked them: how have your sense of Jewishness, your anxiety, your experience of antisemitism, changed? And also: what scares you? What gives you hope?

These are their answers, edited and condensed.

ART: (Immediately above and accompanying, red) INVENTION III (2022), COURTESY OF LYNNE AVADENKA)

A note about the art:

Lynne Avadenka’s Invention series was created with Hebrew wood and metal type printed letterpress on a Vandercook proof press. Each piece includes Hebrew text excerpts:

“She works willingly with her hands” from Eishet Chayil, in The Book of Proverbs

“Great Invention,” which is what David Gans said about printing in 1592