Steven Sotloff
| Steven Sotloff | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Steven Joel Sotloff May 11, 1983 Miami, Florida, U.S. |
| Disappeared | August 4, 2013 Aleppo, Syria |
| Died |
c. September 2, 2014 (aged 31) Syrian desert |
| Cause of death | Decapitation |
| Citizenship | United States Israel |
| Alma mater | Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Employer | Time |
Steven Joel Sotloff (Hebrew: סטיבן סוטלוף; May 11, 1983 – c. September 2, 2014) was an American-Israeli journalist. In August 2013, he was kidnapped in Aleppo, Syria, and held captive by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS).
On September 2, 2014, ISIL released a beheading video, showing one of its members beheading Sotloff. Following Sotloff's beheading, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that the United States will take action to "degrade and destroy" ISIS.
President Obama also signed an Executive Order dated June 24, 2015, in the presence of the Sotloff family and other hostage families, overhauling how the U.S. handles U.S. hostages held abroad by groups such as ISIS.
It was the capture and beheading of Steven Sotloff and James Foley that first made the general public aware of the ISIL group, when their beheadings were shown on international television.
Sotloff's legacy is, in part, that he broke the Benghazi story to CNN that there was no protest, and that he foresaw the massive Syrian Refugee Crisis as he reported on the everyday people's suffering in Syria, thus earning him the reputation as "The Voice for the Voiceless."
Steven Sotloff was the son of Arthur and Shirley Sotloff of Pinecrest, Florida, a suburb of Miami, and a grandson of Holocaust survivors, who inspired him to be "a voice for the voiceless." He was the brother of Lauren Sotloff. He grew up in Pinecrest, Florida, graduated from Kimball Union Academy, a private boarding school in Meriden, New Hampshire, and later attended (but did not graduate from) the University of Central Florida with a major in journalism from 2002 to 2004. He transferred to the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel from 2005 to 2008, graduating cum laude with a major in government studies and counter-terrorism.
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