In the year since the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel there has been a lot of noise.

Howls of aching pain.

Wailing from families who have lost children, grandparents, mothers and fathers.

Shouting from protesters on all sides.

But the most heartbreaking sound?

Silence.

“Too many,” posted the American Jewish Committee, “have responded to Hamas’ use of sexual violence with indifferent deafening silence.”

Sheryl Sandberg, former Meta COO and founder of LeanIn.org, set out to break the silence surrounding the sexual violence perpetrated on women and girls on October 7 through the production and distribution of a raw documentary film, Screams Before Silence. In the film, Sandberg interviews multiple eyewitnesses, released hostages, first responders, medical and forensic experts, and survivors of the Hamas massacres.

The film bears witness to these atrocities to ensure they are not forgotten or glossed over in the wake of political rhetoric. It is not an easy watch. The viewer comes away stunned, almost numb. Anger is there in your heart but to get there you have to move past the shocking violence and anguish. Unimaginable soul-crushing pain.

Through a partnership between the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Foundation and Alpha Epsilon Pi, 66 AEPi chapters across North America have screened Screams Before Silence on their campuses over the last several weeks, many in connection with October 7 remembrance events. Some chapters partnered with their campus Chabads or Hillels for public or semi-public showings. Other AEPi chapters opted to invite Jewish women to view it with the AEPi brothers. Some chapters opted to view the film privately, with just the brothers.

“I’m most excited about this partnership with AEPi,” said Sandberg during a webinar introducing the documentary to AEPi brothers. “The idea that college aged young men would care about this and screen it, shows the kind of leadership that I think we need. I think this is just deeply important.”

No one who watched the film was unchanged. Following are accounts – in their own words — from three AEPi chapters and brothers.

Caleb Unterlack – University of Pittsburgh

“On Saturday, October 5, our AEPi chapter partnered with the AEPi chapter at Carnegie Mellon for a community service event. Together, we cleaned up an eight-mile stretch of the river near Squirrel Hill, a historically Jewish neighborhood where the Tree of Life synagogue was located. With the October 7 anniversary approaching and amid ongoing protests on our campus, it felt meaningful to unite with another chapter to strengthen our community through action, rather than witness its division.

On Sunday, October 6, we screened Screams Before Silence, a powerful and challenging documentary. We catered from a local kosher deli, providing Israeli comfort food to create a supportive atmosphere for attendees. Partnering with AEPhi, we held the event at Chabad, recognizing the importance of standing in solidarity with the Jewish community during this time. The film deeply impacted everyone in the room, regardless of background. The turnout was remarkable, with even the Chabad Rabbi commenting on the large crowd. The silence that followed the screening was profound, as many, especially those who had recently returned from Birthright or internships in Israel, were visibly moved.

On October 7, our brothers participated in various events held throughout the day by the Federation, Hillel, and Chabad to mark the anniversary. These events served as a way for us to reflect, connect, and engage with the broader Jewish community. Being part of these meaningful moments with our fellow students and community members reminded me of the importance of solidarity. I am incredibly proud of AEPi for leading by example and actively contributing to positive change on our campus, which has only strengthened my pride in my Jewish identity and in AEPi.”

Eli Kinel – University at Buffalo

“We showed the film for the entire chapter on Monday, October 7. We got some food catered and sat down to watch it as a brotherhood. It was really moving for all of us. It impacted each of us differently. One of the guys, during the film, just says out loud, “I know them. I know those people.” There was a family featured in the film who his family is friends with. I think we realized that we all have ties to Israel and that could be any of us. That made it even more personal and real.

It was a really gloomy room after the documentary, but it really brought us closer together. It was very meaningful for us as individuals and as a group. We wanted to keep the screening to just brothers so we could talk about it afterwards and open up to each other about how it made us feel.

When the movie ended, I got up from my seat to pause the credits and turn the conversation over to our Jewish Life chair, but I could barely get any words out of my mouth. I think we all felt that way. You could see the guys were just thinking and processing what we had just seen together.

Our campus has been very divided. There have been a lot of protests, and it feels very tense, especially for the Jewish community. Some of the people on this campus probably don’t even know that this documentary exists and, if they did, they’d probably refuse to watch it or even deny it.

We’ve been putting up with all of these protests and social media posts and, I don’t want to say that we’ve gotten used to it, but it can get you pretty down. But, watching the film together, it opened us up more. It brought us together.

I feel like now we know that we have stand together even stronger now. We have each other’s backs – and those of the rest of the Jewish community. We know how this film – how that violence – impacted us and it is good for our brotherhood to have each other during these times.”

Kyle Rakovitsky – University of Pennsylvania

“On October 7, working with Penn Hillel, the Gamma chapter of AEPi at the University of Pennsylvania organized an all-day screening of Screams Before Silence. Since the start of the conflict, the brotherhood has been a strong Zionist voice. We have raised tens of thousands of dollars to support healthcare and emergency responders, organized rallies and vigils and played an active role in Penn’s response to antisemitism and anti-zionism. We felt, however, that education surrounding the conflict was fundamentally lacking, which enabled abhorrent, violent hate speech to drown our campus.

The entire brotherhood came together to display the film and share the horrifying incidents of sexual assault and violence on 10/7. I was in the first filming of the day, watching with fellow brothers, Jewish students on campus, and individuals from the broader Philadelphia community. When the film ended, we all sat in silence.

We acknowledged each other’s presence and the traumatic stories we witnessed. We were truly speechless, heartbroken, guilt-ridden and angry. How could we allow terrorists to do this and stay silent? Where were the collective screams of society, calling this out? How could our elected officials remain so silent? Even our own institution, the University of Pennsylvania, had a hard time releasing strong statements condemning the atrocities of October 7th.

Over the course of the day, we were able to impact a lot of individuals with the film. I am proud of the brotherhood for organizing the event and thank AEPi International for its support in displaying the film.

The film must be a call to action for anyone who watches it. While our brotherhood has done a lot of admirable advocacy work over the past year, there is much more to do. We must not remain silent, and instead allow our screams for justice, accountability and action to be heard around the world.”