On July 28, Alexi Ashe Meyers and Dr. Marcy Gringlas — both with strong ties to the Island — brought the documentary “Screams before Silence” to the M.V. Film Society. The documentary focuses on the sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, including the massacre at the Nova Peace Festival. According to Human Rights Watch, Hamas-led armed groups carried out numerous coordinated attacks on civilian residential communities and social events, and on Israeli military bases in the area of southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip. During this attack, women were raped, mutilated, and killed. Many men were killed as well, and new reports coming in state that some men were also victims of sexual assault.
In the film, Sheryl Sandberg, former COO of Meta and founder of LeanIn.org, is the presenter, and interviews multiple eyewitnesses, released hostages, first responders, medical and forensic experts, and survivors. According to screamsbeforesilence.com, despite indisputable evidence, the attacks have received little attention from human rights groups, press, and international organizations. I Believe Israeli Women (IBW), part of Jewish Women’s International, stated that the sexual violence has been denied and that wide spread disinformation is invalidating and denying the humanity of Israeli women, and of Jewish women everywhere.
Ashe Meyers is a human rights lawyer who served as assistant district attorney with the Brooklyn district Attorney General’s Special Victims Bureau and Human Trafficking Bureau. Currently, she is the director of Anti-Trafficking Policy at Sanctuary for Families, a New York-based service provider and advocate for survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking, and gender violence. Ashe Meyers said she was also part of I Believe Israeli Women.
“Myself and other colleagues in women’s rights and sexual violence focused organizations banded together to create a statement to condemn rape as a tool of war,” Ashe Meyers said.
Marcy Gringlas, PhD, joined forces with Ashe Meyers to bring “Screams before Silence” to the Island. Gringlas is the co-founder and president of Seed the Dream Foundation. (STDF). STDF works with schools and organizations in the U.S., Israel, and worldwide to advance educational opportunities in underserved communities, combat antisemitism, foster connections between Israel and the U.S., prevent gender-based violence, and provide emergency needs for Holocaust survivors.
“My husband and I started Seed the Dream 13 years ago,” Gringlas said. “Both of my parents are survivors of the Holocaust. My dad was in Auschwitz and my mom was a hidden child in the mountains.” Both of Gringlas’ parents made their way to Detroit, met, and started a family. “They had the courage to start a life. Everything we do is inspired by and out of love, respect, and admiration for how they lived their lives.”
After Oct. 7, STDF also began providing grants to meet the needs of survivors and their families. Gringlas and her husband were involved in emergency services in the hospitals after the massacre and talked to their grantees in the Israeli Rape Crisis Center. “We were hearing that people were not believing it happened and we asked, ‘What can we do?’” Gringlas said.
Seed the Dream sponsored a trip to stand in solidarity with the survivors and families. “This trip was born out of the silence around the massacre. People weren’t speaking out and people in Israel were feeling separated and alone,” Gringlas explained.
Twenty-five women were chosen to go to Israel. “We chose these women specifically — lawyers, judges, activists, media, people in the entertainment business — to take this three-day trip and support survivors and the families of those being held hostage,” Gringlas said. “We chose people who would go back and use their personal platforms to take action in the ways they knew best — organizing speakers, webinars — we have begun to grow to be thousands of people supporting this work.”
The first day spent in Israel was to bear witness. “Our day ran from 7 am to 11 pm. We saw the sites of the carnage. We went all the way south to the villages, and to the Nova site where the music festival was being held. We heard the stories of survivors and witnesses, and spoke to first responders who found and treated the bodies,” Gringlas said.
On their second day, the women learned more specifically about the needs of the people they met. “We went to a post-trauma unit and met with soldiers and hostages. Then we went to the Jeruselum Rape Crisis Center, where we spoke with delegates,” Gringlas shared.
The third day, the women met with the First Lady of Israel, Michal Herzog, and also brainstormed action plans. ”Our third day was all about rolling up our sleeves,” Gringlas said.
The screening of “Screams before Silence” is just one way Ashe Meyers and Gringlas are rolling up their sleeves. Their mission is to keep this conversation going, acknowledge victims, and stand in solidarity and understanding.
I attended the screening, admittedly filled with anxiety around what I was about to watch. I had plenty of you-can-do-this conversations with myself leading up to the showing. The sold-out house reflected that many people were willing to bear witness. Throughout the film we heard painful eyewitness testimony, saw horrendously hard to look at images, and listened to heart-breaking stories. One survivor of the Nova Peace Festival told Sandberg that he was hiding behind trees while he witnessed a woman being brutalized by several men. When Sandberg asked him what he was thinking at that moment he said, “I wish I had a gun. I would have tried to save her. I wish I had had a way to save her.”
Another woman, who had been taken hostage and was finally released, said the worst part was knowing that she had to rely on her captor, even after he abused her. And still another young woman, accompanied by her mother, walked us through their house, describing how she watched the murder of her father and sister before being taken hostage herself.
After the screening, two guest speakers shared their experiences. Bedouin police officer Remo Salman El-Hozayel, who was responsible for saving hundreds of lives, spoke first. “He’s a hero,” Gringlas said. “He’s remarkable. What he represents. This is not just an Israel and Jewish issue — it’s a humanitarian and female issue — rape as a war weapon.”
El-Hozayel shared images and video clips of the attack at the Nova Peace Festival. He found a deserted car and drove people to safety while explosives went off and bullets flew around him. He made over 30 trips — putting his life on the line — to save hundreds of people. “My wife called me and said, ‘Your kids are waiting for you at home.’ It broke my heart,” El-Hozayel said. “But I knew I had to go back. Now I travel all over sharing my story.”
The second speaker, Shari Mendes, is an architect living in Jerusalem and a member of an all-women’s reserve unit in the Israel Defense Forces tasked with identifying, processing, and preparing deceased women for burial.
“This started out as a volunteer posting in 2010. I was trained to help with mass casualties, but I never thought I’d see something like this,” Mendes said. “I was suddenly part of a catastrophe.”
Mendes shared that she and the others worked tirelessly. “One room was the identification room,” she said. She went on to say that there were many people working in this room — dentists identifying through teeth, and people taking fingerprints. “Women were treated with respect by people from all religions. The other room, where I was, was especially for women. It was quiet and respectful.”
Mendes acknowledged that she has had to take breaks from speaking about this. “Speaking up is very hard but I feel like it’s my duty,” she said. “I had children in the military and I felt like some of these young women could have been my kids.”
Since their return, members of I Believe Israeli Women have been hosting a series of events sharing actionable steps people can take to combat disinformation, push for domestic and international policy, and build a global movement that supports Israeli women. “What became abundantly clear while listening to the survivors, geo political experts and soldiers, was that they wanted us to go home and share this message,” Ashe Meyers said.
The remaining hostages have now been in captivity going on nine months. “I think about the families and bringing them home. Unfortunately, the news moves on and we aren’t talking about the rapes, which are still occuring as these people are being held hostage. We want to keep it in the public eye,” Gringlas said. “We don’t want people to forget. Israeli women, and my parents, witnessed firsthand what happens when people stay silent. We have to speak up and speak out.”
The room opened up for questions and there were numerous tearful acknowledgements made to Mendes and El-Hozayel, as well as to Ashe Meyers and Gringlas. One woman asked what we (the people in the room) could do.
“Israelis want to know if the world will support them,” Ashe Meyers said. “My hope is that you will speak the truth about what you saw.”
“You are now first-hand witnesses,” Gringlas said. “You can speak out, support organizations like Rape Crisis and IBIW, and you can keep hope alive. Let’s keep hope alive.”
To learn more about the documentary, visit screamsbeforesilence.com. Watch “Screams before Silence” on YouTube at youtube.com.
