Elizabeth Tsurkov is a Princeton PhD student who was doing fieldwork in Iraq on issues related to human rights. In March 2023, she was kidnapped by Kata’ib Hezbollah, a militia group affiliated with Iran. She has been in captivity for about a year now, but there has not been much progress in securing her release because she is an Israeli citizen (she was on a visa in the US for her PhD). Israel does not have official relations with Iraq, so her ties to the US are her best chance of being released. Elizabeth’s family believes that there must be pressure on the US government for it to take action, particularly because the US provides funding to the Iraqi government.
We are asking for your help by sending letters to members of Congress (particularly those in New Jersey) so they know that their constituents care about her case. At this website, you can find a template letter and links to email the relevant senators: http://www.bringelizabethhome.com/. It only takes a few minutes to send the emails. It would mean a lot to the Tsurkov family if you took a minute to help out. You can also sign up for email notifications on the website to follow her case and be alerted about future requests for advocacy emails.
You can watch/share her sister speaking about her kidnapping and the advocacy efforts at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mtp-JoH3-I
If you can also share this message and links with relevant listservs or Facebook groups that you’re part of (particularly Jewish groups), that would be very helpful.
Category: In the news
USCJ Announces Winners of 2017 Solomon Schechter Awards
Recognition of Excellence – Inclusion award was presented at 2017 USCJ Convention in Atlanta, GA for the Wheels to Israel program
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