I Was Raped Because I Am Jewish

In June, three teenage boys in France dragged a 12-year-old girl into a shed in a park not far from her home. They made death threats and antisemitic comments, called her a “dirty Jew,” beat her, and gang-raped her.

While news of the hate crime circled the globe, I recognized myself in her story. One of the French girl’s attackers, her former boyfriend, confessed to have been seeking revenge because she allegedly did not tell him she was Jewish. While she was raped for hiding her Jewish identity, I was raped for sharing it. Both of us were raped for being Jews.