Michal Herzog

'Vast and systematic': Israel's First Lady Michal Herzog breaks silence on Hamas sexual violence

Michal Herzog speaks out on denial, antisemitism, and the global reckoning over Hamas’s use of sexual violence

Israel's First Lady Michal Herzog has used her global platform to confront denial and keep the issue of Hamas’s systematic sexual violence on the international agenda since October 7.
First Lady Michal Herzog, the cover story of this issue, greets schoolchildren during an official visit to Australia.

Two years after October 7, Israeli women still battle for equality - from the editor

An IDF orphan, wearing a beret from the Nachal Brigade, celebrating his bar mitzvah at the Kotel in Jerusalem, October 20, 2025.

Forty-eight IDF orphans mark bnei mitzvah at Western Wall

Released Israeli hostage, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, held in Gaza since the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, kisses his mother after being released, as part of a prisoner-hostage swap and a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Reim, Israel October 13, 2025.

Freed hostages reveal torture, fight for survival while under Gaza


'Heroes and heroines': The Herzogs host Israel's Olympians

 You brought some happiness to the nation and we were all united in our affection for you. You represented us with honor, and you brought us great pride."

 PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG, with his wife, Michal, and Israel Olympic Committee Chairperson Yael Arad, takes a selfie with the Israeli Olympic Team.

Israel's First Lady in Time Magazine: 'Hamas is weaponizing women's bodies'

Weaponizing of women’s bodies, sexual assault, and rape since Oct. 7 has taken the human race backward, Michal Herzog wrote.

 Michal Herzog speaks during a ceremony for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Rosh haShana (Jewish New Year) at the president's house with representatives of the diplomatic delegations to Israel in Jerusalem.

Michal Herzog, wife of President Herzog, addresses absence of women at hostage negotiation table

Michal Herzog at the Herzliya Conference advocated for female representation in hostage negotiations amid concern over Hamas's brutal assaults detailed in a recent report.

 MICHAL HERZOG

Israeli president's wife hosts the Israeli premiere of documentary Screams Before Silence

Both Herzog and Sandberg have made it a mission to promote global awareness of the sexual violence, murders, kidnapping, and other atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on and since October 7, 2023.

 PRESIDENT ISAAC Herzog speaks with Pramila Patten, UN special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, as the president’s wife, Michal, looks on, at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, in January.

First Lady Michal Herzog: Silence from women in UN is 'deafening'

Israeli women have been at the forefront of presenting the realities of the Oct. 7 atrocities on the global stage, and no one has been a more prominent advocate for Israeli women than Michal Herzog.

 MICHAL HERZOG

Grapevine, March 8, 2024: The voice of Israel

Movers and shakers in Israeli society.

 ILANIT MELCHIOR (left) with Michal Herzog.

First Lady Michal Herzog slams global women's rights organizations for failure to act

Michal Herzog said that Israeli and Jewish women felt "betrayed by the deafening silence" of human and women's rights organizations around the world, which chose not to respond to or address Oct.7.

 (L-R) Michal Herzog and President Isaac Herzog light Hanukkah candles with family members of people taken hostage in Gaza., at Hostage Square in Jerusalem.

Deborah Lipstadt: Only difference between previous rapes, Oct. 7 is Jews

Lipstadt said that she was “amazed” how far the denial of Hamas’s sexual violence reached and other October 7 atrocities.

The United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Deborah Lipstadt speaks during a press conference during a meeting of Special Envoys and Coordinators on Combatting Antisemitism on January 30, 2023 in Berlin.

Israel's Michal Herzog, UN's Patten unite against sexual violence in conflict

In a call to action, Under-Secretary Patten urged survivors, families of victims, and witnesses to break the silence, emphasizing that silence only empowers the perpetrators.

 Israel's First Lady Michal Herzog meets with United Nations officials on January 30, 2024

First Lady Michal Herzog talks amid Israel-Hamas war - interview

The conversation revolved around the realities of the war with Hamas, the lack of world response to the violence against Israeli women, and her priorities as first lady at a time of great need.

 The Media Line's Felice Friedson and Israeli first lady Michal Herzog, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Jan. 2, 2024