Another time, Hannah had been discussing the term BAME (Black and minority ethnic groups) with a colleague in the D&I world, explaining that Jews were, in fact, a minority group, “and they literally laughed in my face that I could somehow claim the double privilege of being white and belonging to a minority”.
The lack of consideration for Jewish employees was thrown into sharp relief after October 7, when, says Sarah, many law firms failed to condemn the Hamas attacks, or they put out a statement which was so vanilla that any sense of sympathy for Jews and Israelis was lost. “I have felt sickened at the way the D&I sector has failed to step up after October 7, while after Black Live Matter and when Russia invaded Ukraine, very quickly, in the corporate world, round table discussions were set up and big statements were made, rightfully condemning the murder of George Floyd and Russia’s actions.”
She says that what makes it “so jarring” is that after George Floyd’s murder, “Jews were among the most supportive groups” in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Hannah Bradshaw (left) and Sarah Lyons, founders of Jewish Women in Law[Missing Credit]
What was also mind-blowing to them as women working in the gender space was the lack of compassion shown towards victims of Hamas’ well-documented sexual violence carried out on Israeli women on October 7 and on female hostages.
“We follow a lot of feminist influencers who often speak out about sexual violence and harassment in the workplace, but after October 7, they didn’t say anything, or they even denied it, which was shocking to Sarah and me,” says Hannah, who is from St John’s Wood.
The handful of non-Jewish colleagues who have condemned the terror attacks or who put yellow ribbons in their profile has meant a lot to them. “For us, when they have said something, it has felt 20 times more powerful than when Jewish people have spoken out,” says Hannah.
Yet the overall inertia from D&I and HR departments and senior management in law firms post-October 7 was felt acutely by many of the Jewish and Israeli women whom Sarah and Hannah were coaching at BlueSky.
“We noticed that Jewish women lawyers were feeling very isolated after October 7. Despite the perception that there are a lot of Jewish people in law, some of them were only Jewish person in their firm, or they didn’t have a Jewish network to turn to,” recalls Sarah, adding that one Israeli lawyer she was coaching was “just trying to keep her head down” as she was so afraid of being vilified by colleagues.
The response to Hannah’s LinkedIn post and the awareness that many Jewish and Israeli women were feeling deeply lonely – and even fearful – at work, spurred her and Sarah to set up JWIL, Jewish Women in Law, a group that meets about three times a year for a drink and a chat, usually structured around a keynote speaker.
“When we started it in January 2024, we had four or five people in our network we knew would be there, all whom were having similar experiences, but they told their Jewish female friends, and we ended up having around 30 people,” says Hannah.
Most of them talked about work and their kids and played Jewish geography
“People came from all over London who just had a need to connect, to not feel judged and to be in a place where they could feel physically safe.”
Although the ripple effects of events in the Middle East were what had brought them all together, the terrorist attacks and the war were not part of the general discussion. “Most of them talked about work and their kids and played Jewish geography”, says Sarah, who lives in East Finchley. “People kept asking why this kind of thing hadn’t existed before now.”
For Sarah and Hannah, who are both former lawyers themselves, nearly a year and a half after October 7, little has changed in how D&I departments are acknowledging Jewish pain. “As far as they are concerned, it was one day of attacks in Israel and the rest has been happening in Gaza, which has made them feel more justified in their approach,” says Hannah, adding that the topic has become “so polarised” that some law firms no longer bring it up at all.
Despite an increase in Jewish networks, for some Jewish lawyers, including women, the sense of isolation has continued in the workplace, they say and share anecdotes of clients who faced a backlash when they arranged to bring in a Holocaust survivor to speak on Holocaust Memorial Day or were challenged when they wanted to set up a talk on antisemitism.
Says Sarah: “Someone who came to JWIL said to us: ‘You have no idea the difference this group has made to me.’ Others have said how nice it is to be at an event where you don’t have to monitor what you are saying since at other corporate networking events, the women find themselves masking. They don’t have to do that here.”
JWIL’s next event is on March 18. Email: hello@wearebluesky.co.uk to attend. It is open to any Jewish woman working in law
