Hear Our Hadassah Voices: End the Silence About Weaponizing Sexual Violence

(Bat Ami Cener for Victims of Sexual Abuse staff pictured L to R) Social Worker Nurit Seidel Levy, Director Dr. Dvora Bauman, Nurse Gitit Hadashi. Photo courtesy of Hadassah.

(Pictured L to R) Ilean Rowe, Debby Rose and author Michelle Elisburg. Photo courtesy of the author.

After the horrific attack on October 7, Hadassah, an organization that has advocated for women since its founding over 112 years ago, continues, through its EndTheSilence campaign, to urge the UN and the world to hold Hamas accountable for its sexual violence against women during the Israel-Hamas war.

From the first reports coming out of Israel, there was concern about large-scale sexual abuse, especially since Hamas terrorists, themselves, supplied physical evidence by filming their weaponization of sexual violence and sharing live videos on social media. Yet, despite the physical evidence and eyewitness testimonies, Hamas leaders and their supporters continue to deny the claims and have not been brought to justice.

Despite the evidence, human rights and feminist organizations were slow to respond or remained silent. Groups that are supposed to empower women were hesitant to believe the Israeli women. The UN did not make a statement for eight weeks.

Ten years ago, celebrities on the red carpet at awards shows held #BringBackOurGirls signs on behalf of abducted Nigerian schoolgirls. Yet today, most of them have remained silent about the Israeli women, as well as those from other countries, who were kidnapped on October 7. Many of the women are still being held hostage — for over 15 months now — while reports continue to come out about the torture and sexual abuse perpetrated on these girls and women of all ages. Trending memes, hashtags and satires have led to the #metoo-unlessyouareaJew social media campaigns.

Attorney Cochav Elkayam-Levy, a leading Israeli legal advocate and chair of The Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes Against Women and Children, was devastated by the denial and established a comprehensive, legal framework to ensure that the evidence collected adheres to rigorous global standards. “The silence by the most important international human rights bodies felt like a betrayal, not only of us, but of humanity. This led me to understand that I must document everything to fight against denial and to ensure accountability for the perpetrators.”

Our Hadassah Louisville Chapter honored Hadassah for its EndTheSilence campaign, introduced in February 2024. With Hadassah being the Hebrew name for Queen Esther, we used the Purim-themed stained glass window in the lobby of Louisville’s Temple Adath Israel Brit Shalom as a background. We held up signs stating, “Rape is Not Resistance” and recorded a chant of “End the silence on sexual violence” to post online, in unison with Hadassah colleagues across the globe, on March 8, International Women’s Day.

Knowing that education is critical to combating the denial of Hamas’ sexual crimes, the Hadassah Louisville Chapter organized a community program to raise awareness. The #EndTheSilence, Hear Our Voice workshop on April 28, 2023, at the Louisville’s Trager Jewish Community Center, was facilitated by University of Louisville professor Dr. Susan Rhema.

The program began with a juxtaposition of the October 7 events with the long history of sexual violence against Jewish women. Dr. Rhema explained the difference between rape during war, when individuals have an opportunity to do harm, and rape as an operational strategy of war when commanders order their men to rape in a pre-planned, systematic fashion. When rape is intentionally used in conflict, it meets the definition of torture.

We also discussed trauma and its physiologic response and considered the words of Peter Levine, developer of Somatic Experiencing®, a naturalistic and neurobiological approach to healing trauma. Trauma, he says, is a paradox which has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect. When we heal ourselves, he explains, we heal the world because we do not perpetuate the trauma; instead, we create connection and purpose. When we elevate the voices of those who cannot speak for themselves, we can bring healing.

When I, myself, researched the topic, I was dismayed to learn more than I already knew how extensively sexual violence pervades our history.

Beginning with the rape of Dinah in Genesis, history demonstrated multiple examples of how armies used rape as an instrument of war against Jewish women.  As stated by Irina Astashkevich in her book, Gendered Violence: Jewish Women in the Pogroms of 1917 to 1921, mass rape as a public spectacle was the perfect weapon because it asserted the perpetrator’s power, publicly destroyed the victim’s dignity and victimized the entire community as the Jews were destined to become witnesses to their own disgrace.

Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus’s Molecular Psychiatry Laboratory has been researching irregular hormone and immune biomarkers that result from severe trauma—irregularities that are sometimes passed on to the next generation! This intergenerational manifestation of trauma cannot be understated. The trauma of past generations is literally in our DNA!

Although denying what happened to women in Israel is a very specific betrayal, it is sadly a universal global problem that women do not receive justice when war crimes are committed against them.

Dr. Dvora Bauman, director of the Bat Ami Center for Victims of Sexual Abuse at the Hadassah Medical Organization, insists that society must stand up and assert that rape may not be considered an acceptable part of war. War is horrible and many people die, but gang rapes and sexual violence should never be operational strategies of war.

When I was in Israel in August, I made a special request to meet with Dr. Bauman, a pediatric and adolescent gynecologist. As both a female physician, a pediatrician and someone who has worked with survivors of sexual violence, I felt very connected to Dr. Bauman. We shared our lack of comprehension as to how the world ignored such immense evidence of these crimes.

Some “experts” doubted the testimonies of the rape victims because they did not provide those testimonies immediately after the incident. But gender-based experts know that many victims do not come forward for months, due to the trauma, shame and humiliation of the assault. One former hostage, released after several months of captivity, did not come forward until she had the security of being surrounded by her family. She felt compelled to speak up for all the others still held captive.

How does one explain the continued worldwide lack of condemnation of the rapes and gender violence? Dr. Bauman answers unhesitatingly with one word: “antisemitism.”

I recall my own college days as an activist, participating in the Take Back the Night march on behalf of rape victims; how we chanted, “However we dress, wherever we go, yes means yes and NO means NO!” How did my peers from Wesleyan University 30 years later choose to join pro-Palestinians encampments instead of screaming out against Hamas’ sexual violence when so many witnesses heard the victims cry out, “NO, NO, STOP!”?

And I recall the power of the protests in Louisville during the summer of 2020, when “Say Her Name” kept Breonna Taylor (a Black medical worker who was shot and killed by police officers in Louisville during a botched raid on her apartment), from being an anonymous victim.

I cannot stop thinking of my Israeli sisters and how historically, genetically and figuratively our shared DNA instantly connects us. I know that I am them and they are me. I listen to their voices. I say their names. I speak for those who cannot and advocate for an end to the silence on sexual violence.

Michelle is a member of the Hadassah Writers’ Circle, a dynamic and diverse writing group for leaders and members to express their thoughts and feelings about all the things Hadassah does to make the world a better place, to celebrate their personal Hadassah journeys and to share their Jewish values, family traditions and interpretations of Jewish texts. Since 2019, the Hadassah Writers’ Circle has published nearly 500 columns in the Times of Israel Blog and other Jewish media outlets. Interested? Please contact hwc@hadassah.org.