Being Jewish with Jonah Platt
Published on December 4, 2025
Traumatic Invalidation: Jewish Trauma, Antisemitism, and Mental Health Post-October 7th. Dr. Miri Bar Halpern, a Harvard-affiliated clinical psychologist and trauma expert, joins Jonah Platt to discuss her groundbreaking research on Traumatic Invalidation in the Jewish community after the October 7th attacks. This is a crucial conversation about Jewish pain, antisemitism, and the mental health crisis caused by denying or ignoring the emotional experience of a traumatic event.
Dr. Bar Halpern, an Israeli American and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, shares her personal journey from growing up during the Second Intifada to becoming a leading voice in trauma and radicalization prevention. She explains how the normalization of anti-Israel chants, like “Globalize the Intifada,” triggers intergenerational trauma and the “fight, flight, freeze” response in the Jewish nervous system.