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Ten years have swiftly passed since the slaying of Miami native Steven Joel Sotloff, who, as you may remember, was beheaded by ISIS in 2014 in the Syrian desert, in an or ange jumpsuit on international news while the world watched. This, after he was held hostage for an entire year and tortured.
Aside from Steven’s historic geo-political story, which we already know, few people are aware of what this Israeli-American dual citizen and international journalist did to keep his Jewish faith while being tortured as a hostage for a year in 2013.
Steven made aliyah to Israel and com pleted his bachelor’s degree cum laude in Journalism and Counter-Terrorism at the Re ichman University IDC International School for Counter-Terrorism.
Steven’s work was vast and brilliant. He covered Jewish-Arab conflicts, broke the his toric Benghazi story to CNN, covered the Arab Spring, and foresaw the Syrian refugee crisis in advance.
Once taken as hostage in 2013, Israel, in a desperate attempt to save his life, swept the Internet of his work so that ISIS would not find out he was Jewish or Israeli. Friends and family in the United States removed posts of him attending a Jewish school as a child, the synagogue his family belonged to, and stories about his grandparents, who were Holocaust survivors. Bar Mitzvah photos were removed.
During Steven’s year as a hostage, when ISIS brought him out daily to face Mecca to pray, he stood at the back of the hostage group, and with great subtlety, faced Jerusalem to say his Jewish prayers instead. On Jewish fasting days, Steven told his cap tors he feels too sick to eat. His surviving hostage mates, such as surviving journalist Marc Marginedas, found this to be brave and inspiring.
If Steven had fear, his Jewish faith kept him strong. He was known amongst his fel low hostages, according to those who lived, as the one who tried to keep them strong, holding them up, quite literally, physically and mentally.
Steven didn’t deserve his year of torture. None of them did. He was simply a quiet, courageous journalist striving for peace in an insane world, bringing the world the ground truth, inspired by his grandmother’s Holo caust stories.
Steven’s family has lived, in the past 100 years only, the death camps at Auschwitz, Steven’s tragic hostage year, his brutal mur der and the burning of his remains, daily news of antisemitism around the world, and the trauma-triggering daily news since Oct. 7, 2023 of the Israeli hostages also tortured, some alive, some deceased, and the suffering of the survivors and their families.
Since 2014, in place of Art and Shirley Sot loff’s grief over the decade, they have trained future journalists, given scholarships, provided speeches, presentations and museum exhibitions, and made sure to do their part to place his captors, “The Beatles,” in prison, while also being assured that his murderer Ji hadi John and ISIS leaders were killed.
His parents appeared in court to give vic tim impact statements just a few inches away from their Stevie’s killers, to whom his mother Shirley bravely yelled when they looked down at her, “Look up! You beheaded and burned our son! We’ve waited years to tell you this! You will look at me as I speak!” Surprisingly, one obliged and did look up.
Much of Steven’s work was published in pseudonym for his protection, or removed from the Internet by Israel to save him. How ever, some can still be found in his name and on video, such as his CNN coverage of the Benghazi story, which he broke and covered on ground with his knowledge of Hebrew, sev eral dialects of Arabic, and, of course, English.
Steven’s anniversary was approximately Sept. 2, as far as the information Washington, DC, was given. It is the day he was beheaded and burned. His Hebrew name for prayers is Steven Yoel ben Shoshana ben Abba.
Does this personal story of strength in grief really teach us to Never Forget? Does the world really learn from history? Because Never Forget is Now.
Steven Sotloff’s story is in his memory, and also in memory of the three other Amer ican hostages killed by ISIS that year— James Foley, Kayla Mueller and Peter Kas sig. It also is in memory of other journalists and aid workers from other countries killed by terrorist groups, in memory of the six mil lion Jews, the Jews currently killed or suffer ing from antisemitism around the world, the hostages killed in Israel on Oct. 7, and in honor of their suffering survivors and their families, and journalists and hostages wrong fully detained around the world.
For more information about Steven Sot loff, please visit the Steven Sotloff Memorial 2Lives Foundation website. Thank you for remembering Steven Sotloff on this 10th an niversary/yahrzeit. May his memory be for ever a blessing.
Tracy Ellyn is a board member for the Steven Sotloff Memorial 2Lives Foundation.
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