A Jewish-American journalist says she was sexually assaulted by a prominent Israeli journalist while she was interviewing him in the lobby of a U.S. hotel.
The writer, Danielle Berrin, published a column last week for The Jewish Journal titled “My sexual assault, and yours: Every woman’s story.”
“I’d agreed to meet him, an accomplished journalist from Israel, at his hotel around 10 P.M. He was in the United States only for 48 hours, and told me he was completely booked during the daytime. I believed him,” Berrin wrote, without giving the journalist’s name.
“Back then, the book he’d written was among several titles having an impact on the Jewish conversation, and many local community leaders wanted to meet with him.”
Berrin described how the journalist asked her personal questions including whether the man he saw her with at an event was her boyfriend.
“But after I answered one of his questions in a way that moved him, he lurched at me like a barnyard animal, grabbing the back of my head, pulling me toward him.
I turned my face to the left and bowed my head to avoid his mouth.”
Berrin then described how she felt unsafe even though she was in a lobby full of people.
“I have traveled the world alone without fear, yet this, not far from home, was one of a few moments in my life that I’ve felt both threatened and powerless,” she wrote, adding: “All I could think was: ‘Get away from me, get away from me, get away from me.’ I also thought: ‘Don’t insult him. Don’t embarrass him. He’s important.’
“In the end, I guess, I consider myself ‘lucky.’ Very, very ‘lucky.’ Because although I was groped and grabbed and pulled sexually assaulted I was not raped or otherwise harmed. Many women do not emerge from such situations still whole. Nevertheless, none of this feels like a gift.”
כתבת של העיתון היהודי הנפוץ בארצות הברית “Jewish Journal” טוענת כי עיתונאי ישראלי מוכר תקף אותה מינית. הכתבת, דניאל ברין, גוללה בטור את ההתרחשויות במהלך פגישה במלון בארצות הברית שבה, לדבריה, ביצע העיתונאי את המעשים.
ברין תיארה את העיתונאי כ”אדם מוכשר ומוערך שחיבר כמה ספרים”. לדבריה, המפגש ביניהם התקיים למטרת ריאיון בכדי לכתוב ספר חדש. הם קבעו להיפגש בשעת לילה במלון בלוס אנג’לס לאחר שלטענתה אמר לה כי לא מצא זמן אחר להיפגש עמה.
“הוא היה בארצות הברית למשך 48 שעות בלבד, ואמר שזה הזמן הפנוי היחיד שעומד לרשותו”, סיפרה. “האמנתי לו. הוא אמר שהוא רוצה להכיר אותי יותר טוב והתחיל לשאול שאלות אישיות שגרמו לי לאי נוחות. לא חששתי. הוא דמות מוכרת, נשוי עם ילדים. אחרי שעניתי על השאלות הוא נע לעברי, תפס כמו חיה בחלק האחורי של ראשי ומשך אותי אליו”.
“יש לי סידור עם אשתי”
בשלב זה ציינה ברין כי הרחיקה את ראשה מהעיתונאי, כדי להימנע מנשיקה. “אני לא מבינה”, אמרה לו ברין. “אתמול, כשדיברת מול אנשים, סיפרת כמה אתה אוהב את אשתך”. לדבריה העיתונאי הבכיר השיב לה: “יש לי סידור עם אשתי”.
לאחר מכן סיפרה ברין כי העיתונאי הציע לה לעלות איתו לחדרו במלון, אולם היא השיבה: “אני לא חושבת שזה רעיון טוב”. לדבריה, “הוא אמר לי: ‘אנחנו לא חייבים לעשות סקס, אני רק רוצה לתת לך חיבוק’. עד אותו רגע הוא היה מישהו שהערכתי, ששמחתי שהשגתי את הריאיון עמו. היום הייתי עוזבת מיד, אבל אז, לפני מספר שנים, הרגשתי לכודה על ידי שליטה גברית”.
ברין, שציינה כי חשפה את הסיפור לאור תלונות נשים נגד המועמד הפרובליקני דונלד טראמפ, סיפרה כי העיתונאי הציעה ללוות אותה לאחר המעשה למכוניתה – אולם היא סירבה. “בסופו של דבר אני בת מזל”, אמרה, “כי על אף שהותקפתי מינית, לא נאנסתי או נפגעתי פיזית. נשים רבות לא יוצאות ממצבים כאלה. זה לא היה המקרה היחיד שבו גבר שראיינתי התייחס אליי כאל כיכר לחם חמה”. בהקשר זה היא ציינה כי במהלך כתיבת המאמר המפורסם הראשון כי חוותה התעללות דומה מצד הבמאי ההולייוודי ברט ראטנר.
The Israeli media was abuzz Thursday following a Jewish Journal article in which reporter Danielle Berrin recounted her sexual assault by an unnamed prominent Israeli journalist.
Berrin’s cover story for the LA Jewish newspaper, “My sexual assault, and yours: Every woman’s story – How the Trump video launched a collective soul-searching over sexual harassment and assault” began to be circulated on Israeli twitter and Facebook accounts on Wednesday, a week after it had been published.
Media criticism website The Seventh Eye reported that Channel 10 said if Ha’aretz columnist and New York Times bestselling author Ari Shavit turns out to be the person Berrin hinted at, then he will be removed from their Friday night news panel. Ha’aretz, however, would not respond to “hypothetical questions,” The Seventh Eye wrote.
The Jewish Journal reporter wrote about an “accomplished journalist from Israel” who had recently published a book “having an impact on the Jewish conversation.” The journalist with “dark eyes…black hair…[and a] lecherous look on his face” invited Berrin to interview him at 10 p.m. in his hotel lobby, saying it was the only free time he had in his two-day trip to the US.
When Berrin met with him, he began asking her personal questions that made her uncomfortable.
“After I answered one of his questions in a way that moved him, he lurched at me like a barnyard animal, grabbing the back of my head, pulling me toward him,” she wrote.
The journalist told Berrin he has an “arrangement” with his wife and invited her up to his room, saying: “We don’t have to have sex…I just want to give you a hug.” He “continued to pull and paw” at Berrin despite her rebuffing his offer, she recounted.
“He was going to be spending a lot of time in the States, he’d told me, and wouldn’t it be fun if I met him in New York as his mistress?” Berrin wrote that he said.
Berrin described her feeling of feeling torn about whether she could walk away from “a really important interview – one I was lucky to get” with “someone so prominent” and a “distinguished reputation,” and wondering what she would tell her editors.
The journalist told her if she wanted the interview, she would have to come back again the next night.
Berrin described the incident at sexual assault – “I was groped and grabbed and pulled,” she wrote.
The article continued to describe how women feel emboldened to talk about sexual assault after a tape of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talking about grabbing women by their genitals surfaced.
Berrin wrote that she has been a journalist for 10 years, narrowing the possibilities to relatively recently published books.
Berrin, however, has not gone public with the name, writing on twitter “I believe the name would detract from the truth of the story,” presumably about women feeling inspired to speak about their experiences following the release of the Trump tape.
She also retweeted former Jerusalem Post writer Harry Rubenstein, who wrote: “This is awful. Won’t look at this journalist the same way again. He’s named without being named.”