As Jews around the world prepare for Passover, we ready ourselves to tell our ancient story about suffering and liberation, of oppression and the unyielding pursuit of freedom. The centerpiece of our story is Moses’ simple demand to Pharaoh: Let my people go. This year, Jewish women have our own demand to institutional feminism: treat us as equals.
On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists carried out heinous attacks against Israeli civilians. That awful day was many things: a terrorist attack, a mass kidnapping, an emotional trauma, the beginning of a war, and a reigniting of global antisemitism. Oct. 7 was something else as well — it was one of the largest and most barbaric instances of gender-based violence in all of modernity.
According to Ha’aretz, “There are at least 15 survivors from the Nova music festival, where more than 360 people were murdered, who were witnesses to acts of individual rape and gang rape at different places on the grounds of the party.” The New York Times documented Hamas’ sexual assaults, Sheryl Sandberg produced a documentary about them, and former hostages have told their stories.
At the end of March, recently released American hostage Keith Siegel told “60 Minutes,” “I saw sexual assault with female hostages,” and “I witnessed a young woman who was being tortured by the terrorists. I mean literal, you know, torture, not just in the figurative sense.”
These testaments are bolstered by the United Nations special envoy on sexual violence in conflict, who issued a report that states there is “clear and convincing information” that some women and children hostages were subjected to rape and sexualized torture. These acts should have shocked the feminist world into unequivocal condemnation.
And yet, a year and a half later, social media accounts with millions of followers promote rape denialism online. Too many human rights groups and feminist organizations that claim moral authority have refused to acknowledge what was done to these women. It seems there is one set of rules for women, and another for Jewish women, #metoo has been transformed into #metoounlessyoureajew.
The time has come for Jewish women, and all moral people to demand more. This year as we celebrate the right to freedom, we must demand that Jewish women who are victims of this heinous crime are treated as equal to others.
This silence of feminism is a self-defeating moral failing — it creates a permission structure for the normalization of rape as a weapon of war. At the recent conference Zionism: A New Conversation, a presenter explained how Hamas rape denialism is sometimes excused or minimized by anti-Israel groups to support larger political goals. The fear is that once sexual violence is airbrushed away in one conflict, it will be downplayed in others, leading to the proliferation of rape as a tool of war. Diminishing the personhood of Jewish women diminishes the rights of other female victims of terror around the globe.
Every feminist organization, every human rights body, and every political leader who has ever spoken out against sexual violence has a duty to recognize and denounce what happened on Oct. 7 and to the hostages over the past 18 months. To fail to do so is to betray the very principles they claim to uphold. The rights of women are not conditional on nationality. Sexual violence is not a crime that can be selectively condemned. Instead, Jewish women must be treated as equal to all others.
The story of Passover teaches us that freedom requires action. The Israelites were not freed through silence or neutrality — Moses was unwavering in his repeated demand for emancipation and so must we.
To the survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks, and to all those who have experienced sexual violence, we must affirm: You are not alone. Your pain is real. Your dignity is sacred. We are committed to ensuring that this violence is not forgotten and that it is never repeated. We must reject any attempts to justify or downplay such atrocities and instead hold perpetrators accountable. Jewish women are equal to all others.
May this Passover remind us of our sacred obligation to stand up for those who have been silenced and to never, under any circumstance, tolerate rape or sexual violence. Let us ensure that their suffering becomes a catalyst for a world that refuses to turn a blind eye to terror. In doing so, we will honor the true meaning of liberation, the kind that frees us all.
Fersko is the senior rabbi of The Village Temple, host of the “How to be a Jew” podcast, and author of “We Need to Talk About Antisemitism.”
