Please sign up below to stay up-to-date on Elizabeth’s case and find out how you can help:
Elizabeth Has Been Held Hostage For:
Get the latest news on Elizabeth’s story
We are the family of Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton graduate student who was kidnapped in Baghdad by an Islamic terrorist group, Kataib Hezbollah. We are desperate to bring her home safely.
We created this website to tell her story and ask for help from people who care for her, the media, the broader Jewish community, and government officials.
Please, we need your help.
About Elizabeth
Elizabeth, 38, was born in the Soviet Union, to anti-communist Refusink parents. At age 4, Elizabeth moved with her family to Israel and grew up near Jerusalem. Elizabeth has lived and studied in the US since 2017. Elizabeth earned a BA from Hebrew University, followed by a MA from University of Chicago. Since 2019, Elizabeth has been pursuing a PhD in Political Science at Princeton University focusing on sectarianism in the Middle East and its impact on Iraqi women. In addition to her academic work, Elizabeth’s journalistic work was published in leading US media outlets.
Elizabeth traveled to Iraq to conduct fieldwork for her dissertation in political science at Princeton University. Elizabeth’s research, approved and funded by Princeton, focuses on Iraqi women’s understanding of the religious leaders who dominate their lives. On her last trip, she had to have emergency spinal surgery.
Just eight days after — on March 21, 2023 — she was kidnapped in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad, still with stitches in her back.
The Kidnapping
Who Has Her
We know Elizabeth is being held by Kataib Hezbollah (KH), a Shi’a militia whose members are often Iraqi government employees — through the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iraq government coalition of militias.
The fact that Kataib Hezbollah is the organization holding Elizabeth can be gleaned from the letters written by US senators and members of Congress who received a confidential briefing on Elizabeth’s kidnapping, and state KH are the ones holding her.
Kataib Hezbollah is a designated terrorist group that is de facto funded using US taxpayer dollars. The US provides military assistance to the Iraqi government. The Iraq government, in turn, funds the PMF. Kataib Hezbollah is the dominant militia within the PMF. So Iraq is acting as an undesignated state sponsor of terrorism, and they are doing it with US taxpayer dollars.
The same group that kidnapped Elizabeth has been targeting Americans since its creation in 2007. Kataib Hezbollah is responsible for the killing of three American service members in Jordan in January 2024. Elizabeth’s captors are also responsible for the disappearance of another American and multiple attacks on US military forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan.
Elizabeth is not a US citizen. She holds citizenship with Russia (where she was born) and Israel (where her parents migrated), but she is a US ‘interest.’ She has lived in the US since 2017, is a resident of New Jersey and is enrolled at Princeton, a prestigious US university. She was kidnapped while conducting research in Iraq for her Princeton-approved and funded dissertation.
Elizabeth’s sister, Emma, is a LPR and resides in California with her American husband and son.
Elizabeth’s groundbreaking work on Syria, Iraq, and the Middle East has provided valuable insights into regional dynamics and conflicts. Her abduction by Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia, represents not just a personal tragedy but a direct challenge to academic freedom and American interests. As a scholar at a leading U.S. academic institution who was advancing our understanding of critical regional dynamics, her kidnapping threatens the ability of researchers to conduct vital work that informs U.S. foreign policy. Elizabeth's case also highlights the growing threat of Iranian proxy forces to U.S. interests and citizens in the region.
In addition to Elizabeth’s ties to the US, the US government is uniquely positioned to pressure the Iraqi government, a US ally, who is also the employer of many of the terrorists involved in Elizabeth's kidnapping.
US Involvement
Iraq’s Complicity
The Iraqi government is responsible for securing Tsurkov's release, as Kata'ib Hezbollah operates within Iraq's borders and is part of the Iraqi Armed Forces. By taking decisive action to locate and free Tsurkov, Iraq's government can demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law, protect academic freedom, and show that it will not allow armed groups to threaten foreign nationals conducting legitimate academic research.
Iraq receives substantial financial assistance from the US government, most of which comes in the form of US military assistance. A large portion of this goes to fund the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an Iraqi government entity that coordinates a group of militias. The dominant militia within the PMF is Kataib Hezbollah, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US government in July 2009. Essentially, Iraq is using US tax dollars to support a designated terrorist group that targets Americans.
As recently as January 2024, KH has killed three American service members.
The Iraqi Embassy has recently hired the following three Washington, DC firms to help them improve Iraq’s image with Congress.
Squire Patton Boggs, $780,000 per year
Valcour, $540,000 per year
Cogent Strategies, $310,000 per year
They don’t seem to understand that the US government is not going to be bought and sold when the life of an innocent woman – a US-based academic and a journalist – is at stake, and Iraq has the ability to help her. Instead of paying lobbyists, how about working to bring Elizabeth home to her family?
How Can You Help?
1. Follow Emma Tsurkov on X to help amplify Elizabeth’s story to key government officials and journalists.
2. Like and repost the incoming Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Adam Boehler’s call on Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani to Free Elizabeth
Elizabeth Tsurkov is a Princeton student held hostage in Iraq! The @IraqiPMO consistently made false promises to the prior administration about releasing her. BUT NOW @realDonaldTrump 🇺🇸 IS ON TO YOU! If @elizrael does not come home NOW than @IraqiPMO is either incapable and… https://t.co/09FmgWt2sW
— Adam Boehler (@aboehler) February 5, 2025
3. Email your representatives in Congress and ask them to support Elizabeth
Bring Elizabeth Tsurkov Home
Dear [Member of Congress],
I am asking you to call for Elizabeth Tsurkov’s release. Elizabeth is a graduate student at Princeton University who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 by an Iranian-backed terror organization, Kataib Hezbollah. Elizabeth is a well-known academic and journalist with deep expertise on Iraq. A proof-of-life video was released in November 2023.
Elizabeth’s kidnappers are indirectly benefiting from US military assistance, which, as a taxpayer, I find outrageous. The group holding her, Kataib Hezbollah (KH), is a designated terrorist organization that has targeted American civilians and, more recently, military personnel. KH is able to act with impunity because it dominates the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iraqi government-sanctioned umbrella organization composed of militias. The PMF is funded by the Iraqi government, which in turn is largely funded by US taxpayer dollars. Therefore, the United States government has both the responsibility and the leverage to work with the Iraqi government to bring Elizabeth home and hold KH accountable.
Please tell the Iraqi Government and Embassy to stop funding the terrorist group KH and to make Elizabeth’s safe return a priority.
Please contact your member of Congress and both senators in support of Elizabeth.
Find out where to email and call your member of Congress and senators here:
Already contacted your representatives? Thank you!
Please email these influential Senators as well:
Thank you for your support
Support For Elizabeth in Congress and Beyond
“Troublingly, a U.S.-based doctoral student at Princeton University, Elizabeth Tsurkov, has also been held captive by KH since March 21, 2023, when she was in Baghdad conducting field work for her dissertation. In November 2023, KH produced a proof of life video of Ms. Tsurkov looking terrified while being forced to read a script written by her kidnappers. In more than a year of captivity, the Iraqi government has done nothing of substance to help free her… If you [President Biden] meet with Prime Minister Sudani regardless, Kataib Hezbollah and Ms. Tsurkov’s release should be at the top of your agenda.” - Representatives Michael Waltz (FL-6), Joe Wilson (SC-2), Keith Self (TX-3), Thomas H. Kean Jr. (NJ-7), Greg Steube (FL-17), April 2024
“Ms. Tsurkov is vocal and passionate about finding ways to foster peace in the Middle East, a region that she has studied and has written about in numerous publications. Despite the instability in the region, she bravely pursued her calling based on her conviction that there are concrete pathways to peace and security for the region… As champions of academic freedom, prisoners of conscience and hostages all over the world seeking release from captivity, we are sending this letter in the hopes that the [State] Department can continue to take advantage of all opportunities to resolve her case expeditiously and safely return Ms. Tsurkov to her family and friends. “ - Representatives Jamie Raskin (MD-8), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), Eric Swalwell (CA-14), James P. McGovern (MA-2), Adam Schiff (CA-30), Katie Porter (CA-47), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Dina Titus (NV-1), André Carson (IN-7), Brad Sherman (CA-32), Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-6), Andy Kim (NJ-3), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5), Donald Norcross (NJ-1), Emanuel Cleaver, II (MO-5), April 2024
“In July 2023, the Government of Iraq announced that it was launching an investigation into this matter. However, the outcome of this investigation and what steps the government has been taking to secure Ms Tsurkov’s release have not been made public. We call on you [the Government of Iraq] to publish the outcome of this investigation, release the information you hold regarding Ms Tsurkov’s disappearance, detail the steps you have thus far taken in response to her capture, and redouble your efforts to ensure her immediate release from captivity.” - British Society for Middle East Studies, March 2024
“Earlier this month, the Iraqi government opened an investigation into Elizabeth’s kidnapping, more than three months after she disappeared. The slow response and limited assurances of her safety are deeply concerning. To that end, I urge the Department to diligently work with the Iraqi government in coordination with our Israeli allies to ensure that Elizabeth is released and returned home as soon as possible.” - Representative Eric Swalwell (CA-14), September 2023
“The Facts are simple: Elizabeth was in Iraq to conduct research for her Princeton dissertation when she was abducted by Kataeb Hezbollah simply because she is Jewish and Israeli. Suggestions to the contrary are not only patently false, they are dangerous. We therefore urge the Administration to use our close and abiding relationship with Iraq to raise Elizabeth’s abduction and call for her release at every opportunity and level.” - Senators Booker and Menendez, September 2023