Steven Sotloff, who was purportedly beheaded in a video released by ISIS on Tuesday afternoon, was not the first American-Jewish journalist to be executed by Muslim terrorists. In 2002, Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by Al-Qaida while reporting for the Wall Street Journal in Karachi, Pakistan.
Although YWN has been unable to independently verify if Sotloff was Jewish or not, it has been reported by multiple news agencies that he was in fact a Jew. Haaretz and the Jewish Journal are just two of them.
Sotloff went missing in Syria in 2013, but appeared in another video in late August that showed the apparent beheading of fellow US journalist James Foley, according to media.
(Chaim Shapiro – YWN)
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10 Responses
His Jewishness, it true, wasn’t reported until today most likely because not to give the terrorist another reason to murder him.
Interesting. President Obama was quick to condemn the beheading of Mr. Foley. Where are his comments of shock at this one?
I don’t understand. Why doesn’t the great John Kerry & Susan Rice just have a sit down “diplomatic” meeting with these Freedom fighters? I’m sure the great one can negotiate with these holy men of Islam. They did warn Obama that if the bombing continued they would execute another reporter. By continued bombing, Obama only “escalated” the tensions with ISIS. I was expecting a peaceful resolution. So the murder of Mr. Sotloff is clearly on Barak Hussein Obama’s hands. I call on Mr. Moon to open a war crimes investigation on Mr. Obama.
Absolute animals . Chaval
Yerahem b’shamayim. My only question is if he was a Jew what was he doing in Syria where the risks of being Jewish are multiplied. Sure he was a journalist doing his job but there are certain risks that one must not take. I do not in any way “blame the victim”. But in this atmosphere and culture,we must be ever vigilant and not take unnecessary risks. May Hashem comfort his family among the mourners of Zion.
The Obama is asleep for the next two years , when he will wake up he is going on strip to play golf then blame Israel for all his wrong doings and to tell them that the land belongs to PA
“My only question is if he was a Jew what was he doing in Syria where the risks of being Jewish are multiplied.”
I agree. This was very risky.
But the responsibility for this falls on IS and only on IS. The victim is not at fault. And neither is Barack Obama; the US government can not defend every American who goes to a dangerous area.
I saw this online:
seems he was Jewish
I called Temple Beth Am, the synagogue in Miami where we grew up and where Steven’s mother, Shirley, daughter of Holocaust survivors, has been a teacher in the Early Childhood Center for something like 20 years. I was desperate for answers and was told, yes, they were aware of the situation; no, they couldn’t say anything further. I reached out to friends and teachers. I left a voicemail for my rabbi asking him to call me back. I wondered how long he had known – rabbis can be very good keepers of secrets.
I hope President Obama learned his lesson that he must respond only with a proportional response to beheadings of American journalists. This time he must find one Jewish Islamic ISIS journalist and behead him on camera as a response. Proportion and restraint Mr. President, proportion and restraint.
amazing to me how this forum sits quietly by when a fellow Jew has his head cut off, and yet Lipa, yibadel lechaim gets plenty of lively comments!!!