Jewish Federation of Broward County“Law and Leadership” Keynote Speaker: Att. Yael Vias Gvirsman, Fort Lauderdale, October 27, 2025

Thank you. What an honor to speak after Leonard Samuels and Ross Manila, the winner of the honorary prize today. And thank you, Philip Rosen, for the kind introduction.

Yael Vias Gvirsman, Keynote 'Law and Leadership', Fort Lauderdale, October 2025.

Greetings and Thanks

It is an honor to be with you this evening. I would like to thank Laura Peimer, Project Manager, and Sophie Abadi, Manager of the Business and Law Program, and the Jewish Federation of Broward County for inviting me. I also wish to thank Ms. Laura Goldman, who first recommended me.

We first spoke only months after the October 7 attacks in 2023. At that time, she was working with the Shoah Foundation, which came to Israel to take hundreds of testimonies. I gave my own testimony then—you can find it online if you search “Yael Vias Gvirsman” on the Shoah Foundation website: https://sfi.usc.edu/october7testimonies.

Many of the survivor testimonies there belong to victims we represent today at October 7Justice Without Borders, by individual Power of Attorney. I especially recommend watching Daniel Toledano’s testimony. His brother Eliya was taken hostage and killed—used as a human shield. The terrorists sent terror videos to the families, hoping to destroy them. But Daniel was strengthened. He said of his brother: “He was smiling—not just with his mouth, but also with his eyes. They killed his body, but they did not kill his soul.” I have the life privilege of representing Daniel and his family in criminal accountability proceedings, in Israel and abroad, as well as in civil lawsuits thanks to our partners and actions before UN mechanisms.

Topic – A Story of Darkness and Light

I am here tonight to tell you a story of darkness and light. A story of sorrow and hope. The story of the October 7 Trials—inspired by the Nuremberg Trials that followed the atrocities of the Second World War and the Holocaust.

Next month, in November 2025, we mark the 80th anniversary of Nuremberg.

I travel across the United States, and the world to bring this message of justice—on behalf of hundreds of victims. But this evening is especially meaningful: it is my first time back in the Miami Beach–Fort Lauderdale area, where I lived for three years as a child. I went to Lehrman Day School.

On the Power of Education

It was at Lehrman Day School that I first heard the names Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and my personal favorite, Abraham Lincoln. Three out of four—lawyers.

They all transformed the world they lived in. They proof that one person—just one—can make a difference. And we all can make a difference.

Nelson Mandela said:

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love,for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

These words shaped me.

We are born with a legacy, we are not always aware of. Sometimes it meets us later on. On my mother's side, my ancestors were judges or 'peacemakers' resolving disputes in the community. In Hebrew, we say Shofet Shalom—a Judge of Peace.

Law is a tool to resolve conflicts, to bring truth, and to build social peace. Our elders teach us: “Truth, Justice, and Peace are the foundations of the world. Without truth, there is no justice. Without justice, there is no peace.”

On my father’s side, Holocaust survivors, and the memory of Auschwitz and an unimaginable world turned to reality. Part of the family, including children were murdered —in Auschwitz.

There are many ways to change the world we live in doctors, social workers, filmmakers. I chose law—the law of humanity—the law that transforms lives and nations: International Criminal Law. The Never Again Law.

Sometimes, our paths choose us. It took me decades to realize that the Eichmann Trial, which transformed Israeli society, had a direct link to my family’s disappearance in Auschwitz. When that calling comes, it is our responsibility to say: “Hineni—I am present.”

My past experience was working on humanitarian issues in the Sudan-Darfu genocide, a young Prosecutor at the State Attorney's office working on judicial cooperation against cross-border crimes, a Defense attorney before international criminal courts and tribunals, as a lawyer interviewing asylum seekers fleeing atrocities committed in their countries of origin (COI), and as a Victim Representative, for e.g. representing Kurdish survivors of Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks against German and French corporate entities still living off the fruit of the crimes. In parallel, I teach international criminal law and related fields. I founded the International Criminal and Humanitarian Law Clinic at the Reichman Unviersity bringing students to empower Ukrainian authorities on collecting and preserving evidence of atrocities, in partnership with Ukrainian NGOs based in Kyiv, or supporting legal action with Canadian lawyers to hold Canada to its obligations based on the Convention of PReventing and Punishing Genocide, on behalf of Uyhgur victims—all these experiences converged.

They became one legal front I now lead on behalf of the victims of October 7. In France, Germany, The Hague, the U.S., Israel, and beyond—we pursue Strategic Litigation for Human Rights to end impunity, hold perpetrators and accomplices accountable, and secure truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition- these are the four main victim rights recognized in international law. There are different ways to implement them.

The Field – Why Justice Matters

So, what are the Nuremberg Trials? What is this field of International Criminal Law, and why does justice matter?

Justice transforms societies torn by war. The crimes we prosecute are those that shock the conscience of humanity.

At Nuremberg, Chief Prosecutor Robert Jackson said: “Civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it will not survive their being repeated.” And they were repeated.

Faced with atrocities: war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against peace- the Allies in 1943 declared in Moscow their commitment to end impunity. They knew justice was essential to transition from war to peace.

And so, eighty years ago, the first modern international criminal trial began. The Nuremberg Judgment was followed by twelve successive trials—of the doctors, lawyers, industrialists, and the Einsatzgruppen. It was judging the Nazi apparatus: targeting not only the direct perpetrators but those who sent them, commanded, created, the indirect perpetrators.

The youngest prosecutor was Benjamin Ferencz, just 26 years old, who opened the biggest murder trial in modern history (the Einzatsgruppen Trial at Nuremberg): “It is with sorrow and with hope that I stand before you today.” 70 years later, he stated to our students at an International IHL Clinic Exchange Program (with Emory, Leiden, Reichman and Roma Tre Universities), 'it is with sorrow and hope, I have done everything since” .

After the Nuremberg Trials, domestic courts held historical trials against high-ranking Nazis or accessories of the apparatus. These trials were based either on jurisdictional nexus to the commission of the crimes, or on a principle called universal jurisdiction, whereby domestic courts prosecute perpetrators of core international crimes regardless of where they are committed (no territorial jurisdiction) and the identity or nationality of the perpetrators and the victims (without personal jurisdiction).

Israel tried Adolph Eichmann in 1961 . It would have been easier to shoot him in Argentina. PM Ben Gurion ordered the Mossad to bring him to Jerusalem for trial. Eichmann received a fair trial. He was presented with all evidence including exculpatory evidence. He chose his Defense attorneys freely and all Defense costs were paid by the State of Israel. The Eichmann Trial transformed Israeli society, similarly to how the Klaus Barbie Trial in the 80s in France transformed French society, reckoning with its Nazi past.

In the former Yugoslavia—where Professor Catharine MacKinnon, a pioneer of strategic litigation for human rights, represented Bosnian women survivors of rape before the UN Inquiry Commission that led to the creation of the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for crimes commited in former Yugoslavia (ICTY). She also led civil lawsuits on behalf of the plaintiffs in the US.

Atrocities were repeated in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Darfur, Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, East Timor and Syria—with ISIS, Boko Haram, and other groups committing core international crimes, using terror to achieve power.

And yes—with the five Palestinian militias, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who on October 7, 2023, opened the doors of hell and brought devastation to an entire region.

It is on the shoulders of giants, 80 years of ending impunity for atrocities in court, that the OCTOBER 7 JUSTICE WITHOUT BORDERS non-profit organization was founded, leading action for criminal accountability, powered by civil and corporate accountability (with partners), in domestic and international courts and mechanisms on behalf of hundreds of victims- from the first days, Israel-based, bringing hands-on experience litigating international criminal law, implemented in different jurisdictions. It is an apolitical, independent initiative in the name of unconditional humanity.

The harm: October 7 – The Longest Day

October 7, 2023. The longest day.

7,000 missiles were launched. In one day, 1,200 people were murdered, 241 hostages, and there were 50,000 victims recognized by Israeli Social Security. 330,000 internally displaced from the South and North.

A hybrid attack was launched: five or six military fronts in Israel, attacking from the North, South, the East, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. The hybrid attack includes psychological warfare; It is not limited to Israel territory, it reaches every democracy, every Jewish community, with misinformation warfare, shaping narratives, spreading hatred, and antisemitism—in European streets and on U.S. campuses. Everyone was affected—and we can see freedoms are rapidly shrinking.

In this fog of moral confusion, our path remains clear: the legal front—the front we must win and victim rights as our moral compass, navigating political unrest.

How It All Began

On October 8 and 10, volunteers helping missing persons’ families contacted me, thanks to a human rights lawyer from the law clinics based in Israel universities. There were over 3,000 missing people—in one day. They asked, “Will you help?” They were displaced, knew nothing of the whereabouts of their loved ones, and authorities were overwhelmed with fighting terrorists out of Israeli soil for three days of combat, even before military operations in Gaza; and the priority, a multidisciplinary task force: forensically identifying the missing, dead, or hostages. Many survivors were left to their own fate. Civilans volunteers filled the gap and reached out. I answered, “present.”

By October 12, I represented 37 victims. Today, we represent over 425 victims, and with access to 1,550 more through our partners in civil lawsuits. On October 15, 2023, I filed the first communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Victims' Section, followed by the first communication to the ICC prosecutor on behalf of October 7 victims (called Article 15 Communication). Between 18 October and 3 November 2023, with 7 French attorneys, victims mandated me to engage on their behalf, and who were all acting pro bono - we filed four civil complaints to the French Antiterrorism and International Crimes Special Paris Prosecutors - in France and civil law systems, victims have a very different role than in the US, UK or Israel common law systems. By December 2023, we filed complaints to the German Federal War Crimes Prosecution Unit, for criminal investigations and prosecutions on behalf of German nationals, victims of the attacks, including survivors, hostages and bereaved families- this includes Shani Louk's family. Shani z"l, was dragged into Gaza as a 'trophy of war', that image became infamously known and featured in media worldwide. By May 2024, we opened a universal jurisdiction action with the same Federal War Crimes Prosecutor on behalf of hundreds of victims, regardless of their nationality. This action is made possible thanks to our German-based attorney specializing in accountability for atrocities including, core international crimes committed against Yazidi victims of ISIS crimes committed in Syria.

In each of these jurisdictions, and more, to include as an example, the US special DOJ taskforce established in Febreuary 2025, and the Israel District Prosecutor centralizing prosecution of direct perpetrators in Israel- we are actively engaged in building the evidentiary basis for criminal accountability, with evidence brought directly from victims, forensic reports, and experts on Palestinian terrorist militias and their networks based worldwide. Moreover, we identify solid civil initiatives that gathered and verified digital evidence.

Criminal Investigations will secure: arrest warrants, seizure of assets, and will lead criminal prosecutions where we will represent victims in courts. The path to accountability includes arrests, fair trials, convictions, and punitive, individual or collective reparations.

The Response – Light in Darkness

Our greatest achievement is trust—the trust of hundreds of victims and of prosecutors of war crimes where others have failed, because we bring prior hands-on, substantial experience and act in the name of unconditional humanity.

Our work secured the only international arrest warrant that recognizes Hamas as having committed extermination, murder, rape, torture, and sexual violence as crimes against humanity and war crimes since October 7, 2023. That warrant became one of three international sources on which the UN Secretary-General (UN SG) based his July 2025 report blacklisting Hamas among 68 entities weaponizing sexual violence in conflict. Two other sources mentioned in the UN SG Report are the March 2024 Report of the UN Special Representative on Conflict Related Sexual Violence, Ms. Pramilla Patten, and the June 2024, UN Commission of Inquiry report into crimes committed by Palestinian militia on October 7, 2023.

We are often asked about working with mechanisms perceived as biased—like the ICC or the UN. Our answer is simple: We show up. Everywhere. Anywhere. Because victims have the right to TRUTH, JUSTICE, REPARATIONS and NON-REPETITION and we refuse to be silent and we act on their behalf.

It is humanly difficult to look into the eyes of a survivor, a bereaved parent, a former hostage, and at times a person who is ‘all of the above’ and deny their rights.

The Yehud Family – Light and Memory

In closing, let me tell you about one family: the Yehuds.

Yael and Yechiel Yehud are parents of three children—Dolev, Netta, and Arbel. They lived in the kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the hardest-hit communities, on October 7. Yael is a poet and an artist; she later published a small collection of poems and drawings called “Missing DNA.” Each letter stands for one of her children.

D is for Dolev, their eldest. He was a young father, a husband, a man who volunteered as a paramedic with Magen David Adom, saving lives. When the terrorists invaded Nir Oz, Dolev left his wife and small children in the safe room and ran outside to defend the kibbutz. He was missing for months and believed to have been taken hostage. His family clung to hope. Only in June 2024 was his body identified on Israeli soil and brought to burial. He had been murdered defending others.

N is for Netta, the middle child. After the attack, he came out of the safe room to see the devastation. One in every four residents of Nir Oz had been murdered in cold blood—including Carmela, an 80-year-old grandmother, and her 12-year-old granddaughter Noya, who was autistic and loved Harry Potter. After days missing, they were found embraced—in death as in life. I wrote about them in our request to the French anti-terrorism prosecutor. Netta still searches for his brother’s traces, piecing together the fragments of Dolev’s story.

A is for Arbel, the youngest—their only daughter. She was taken hostage and held alone, with no other hostage in sight for months. Eventually, she was united, only minutes before release, with Gadi Moses—an 80-year-old farmer who had known her since she was born. Gadi paced his two-meter cell kilometers each day to stay alive. He promised his captors that one day he would come back and teach them agriculture when there would be peace. He also promised himself that they would never see him break, so he smiled as he walked through their mobs.

When Arbel was finally freed—after nearly 500 days in captivity—she walked through a screaming crowd her face clearly showing her distress. When she returned home, she fought every single day for the release of her partner, Ariel Cunio, who was released from Hamas captivity only recently. Ariel was released together with his brother David, returning straight into the arms of his wife and young children.

How can anyone look at this family—their courage, their pain, their humanity—and not fight for justice?

They are the light that guides me and my dedicated team, every day. Their individual justice will bring collective justice, so that our entire nation can once again look toward the horizon. This is justice for generations to come.

Closing – Rebuilding with Hope

We are not the same as before October 7. But with great sorrow—and even greater hope—we can rebuild.

Because they can kill our bodies, but they cannot break our souls. Because justice matters.

Thank you.

Jewish Federation Law and Leadership yearly event sponsors, October 2025

Ross Manila, Prize Winner, and Leonard Samuels, Jewish Federation of Broward County