In the two years since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its brutal attack on Israel, many Jewish communities worldwide have felt a seismic cultural and emotional shift. Conversations around antisemitism, identity, and belonging have resurfaced with painful urgency. Yet, amid these overlapping crises, one group has found itself isolated from both the Jewish and the autistic communities: autistic Jews.
As an autistic Jew, I have observed a growing sense of isolation within our community. The mainstream autistic community’s exclusionary practices have led us to seek support and belonging within the Jewish community, where such exclusion is not adequately addressed.
For years, autistic individuals have sought understanding and belonging in neurodivergent spaces – places where differences are embraced and identities intersect. But since October 7, that sense of safety has eroded for many Jewish autistics who find themselves alienated from a broader autistic community that often embraces anti-Israel sentiment and, at times, veers into outright antisemitism.
Despite attending autistic schools, I have never felt socially comfortable in conventional autistic spaces. Frequently, I participate in events held in regular Jewish spaces and engage in online forums specifically for autistic Jews.
Forced to choose one identity
This experience is far from isolated. Across social media and within advocacy networks, autistic Jewish voices are increasingly excluded, silenced, or tokenized. Some have been removed from online groups for expressing support for Israel’s right to exist. Others describe a painful pressure to “choose” between their Jewish identity and their autistic one.
The broader autistic community – often progressive and social justice-oriented – has not meaningfully addressed antisemitism or the complexities of Jewish identity. Instead, the narrative too often erases Jewish lived experiences in favor of simplified “oppressor vs oppressed” binaries that do not reflect reality.
Meanwhile, the organized Jewish community, despite its growing awareness of disability inclusion, has largely overlooked this issue. Many Jewish institutions have ramped up programming around mental health, accessibility, and neurodiversity, but few have publicly acknowledged that Jewish autistic individuals are facing exclusion and hostility within the very spaces meant to uplift neurodivergent voices.
Harmful silence
That silence is especially striking now, as last week’s 2025 World Zionist Congress discussed disability inclusion as a formal agenda topic. This marked an important step forward for representation within global Jewish life. Yet the conversation must go beyond ramps, sensory rooms, and token visibility; it must also address the social isolation, political marginalization, and communal alienation that autistic Jews experience in the post-October 7 landscape.
This silence hurts twice over. Jewish autistics – already navigating a world that misunderstands both autism and Judaism – are being left to fend for themselves. They are left out of autistic spaces for being Jewish and left out of Jewish spaces for being autistic. If you genuinely care about the representation of autistic individuals, then listen to us: We are the ones with the lived experiences and means to talk about it.
Jewish organizations have an opportunity and a responsibility to address this gap. It begins with listening to autistic Jewish voices and including them in leadership, not just as tokens of inclusion but as thinkers, advocates, and contributors to the future of Jewish life.
Inclusion cannot be conditional
Synagogues, advocacy groups, and schools can take small but meaningful steps: hosting dialogues on neurodiversity and identity, providing sensory-friendly programming, and creating spaces where autistic Jews can express the fullness of who they are. Another step is looking beyond collegiate education and seeing the value that we bring to workspaces.
Inclusion cannot be conditional. True solidarity means standing up for all members of the community, especially those at the margins of multiple identities. The Jewish world cannot afford to overlook autistic Jews any longer because when we fail to make room for every voice, we all lose part of our collective strength.
The author is a news writer for Israel Daily News, a freelance writer, and a digital creator.