Sheryl Sandberg, founder of Lean In and former COO of Meta, said at the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly in Washington, DC that she has come to embrace her Jewish and Zionist identities since the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel.

“I am female, I am a business leader, I am an American, and I am a Jew, and I sit on this stage as a proud Zionist and a proud Jew, in a way I wouldn’t have a year and a half ago,” Sandberg said.

During her conversation with friend and Jewish Federations of North America Board Chair Julie Platt, Sandberg discussed what led her to make the documentary “Screams Before Silence,” which focuses on giving a voice to the women and girls who were raped, assaulted and mutilated by Hamas terrorists during the October 7th Israel attacks.

For thirty years, she said, women’s groups and human rights groups took stands to ensure rape would be punished and prosecuted as a war crime. That didn’t happen after October 7th, Sandberg said.

“But if in this moment, our politics make us so blind that we are denying or facing with silence rape – clear rape of victim after victim after victim that was murdered, we lose too much. And so I was trying to say exactly one thing, which is that rape is not resistance. Ever. Under any circumstances,” Sandberg said.

Sandberg has since traveled the country showing the film, including on college campuses – including fraternities, including in Berkeley, where it was well received.

“There’s something about young Jewish men, men on campus, speaking out for Israel, speaking out against terror, and speaking out on sexual violence, that gives me hope,” Sandberg said, “and that should give all of us hope.”

Sandberg took the stage after Bari Weiss, founder and editor of The Free Press and host of the podcast Honestly, spoke to the General Assembly about the new era of antisemitism since the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel.

“The legacy press would have you believe that the hunt for Jews in Amsterdam was just a scuffle between football hooligans. That is no less a lie than suggesting that the phrase Sig Heil merely means hail victory. We need to say out loud that anti Zionism is antisemitism full stop,” Weiss said.

“We need to take the phrase ‘globalize the Intifada’ seriously. It is not a fun rally chant. It is a call for violence against our community. What this moment requires is the truth, the hard, uncomfortable truth,” Weiss said. “It means not backing down from telling it to yourself and to – others. It means holding your leaders to account when they fail to deliver, and not just following them blindly out of convenience or convention. It means realizing that good ideas and good people. They don’t just win on their own – they need others to elevate them, to defend them and to promote them. If all of this, if this moment that we’re in, feels deeply uncomfortable, that is because it is.

The General Assembly convenes Jewish leaders from across North America to address today’s most pressing issues, celebrate Jewish heritage, and set the agenda for the year ahead.