Kirk was an outspoken opponent of anti-Semitism, saying hatred of Jews is ‘demonic’ and ‘should not be tolerated’
Just a day after an assassin killed Charlie Kirk at a speaking event on a college campus, the New York Times published a story in which the paper quoted a segment on Kirk’s podcast to brand him an anti-Semite. The Times corrected the story hours later after realizing the supposed “quote” was actually another person’s social media post Kirk had read—and disputed—on his show.
“An earlier version of this article described incorrectly an antisemitic statement that Charlie Kirk had made on an episode of his podcast,” the Times admitted. “He was quoting a statement from a post on social media and went on to critique it. It was not his own statement.”
That post, which Elon Musk replied to in agreement, said, “Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
You have said the actual truth
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 15, 2023
“Half of this tweet is true, half of it, I don’t like,” Kirk said before reading the post for his audience.
Kirk took issue with the “generalizations” in the post, clarifying many liberal Jewish organizations—not the Jewish people as a whole—”went all in on the BLM-type narrative.” Those groups, and liberals more broadly, “were okay with critical race theory, diversity, equity, inclusion,” he said. But he also noted, in the aftermath of Oct. 7, many of those same prominent Jewish individuals and organizations had begun to reconsider their advocacy and partnerships with progressive institutions.
The Thursday Times story was not the first time the paper had falsely claimed the words of an X post Kirk read on his show were his own, and it was not the first time the paper had attempted to smear the late conservative activist as an anti-Semite.
But an outpouring of reactions from Jews praising Kirk for his stand against anti-Semitism contradict the Times’s claim, as do Kirk’s own words.
As the Washington Free Beacon recounted on Wednesday, Kirk cautioned fellow Christians against antipathy toward Jews.
“I reject wholeheartedly this narrative, Christians who turn their back on Israel,” he said at a 2023 event. “It says in Genesis and Romans and First Thessalonians, Paul said, you will bless the Jews. If you bless Israel, you will be blessed, if you scorn Israel, you will be scorned.”
Several moments from the last few months of Kirk’s life further disprove the Times smear.
At a Turning Point USA event in July of this year, Kirk pronounced, “Jew hate has no place in public discourse, period, end of story,” and that the horrors of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack deserve more discussion than they’re given. This past May, he showed what disabusing a conspiratorial anti-Semite looked like in action.
A man stood up at one of Kirk’s events and began asking him questions about the Talmud and the supposed evil of Jews, which has become a common theme among a certain brand of anti-Semites. Kirk’s response was in keeping with his statements about the unacceptability of anti-Semitism.
My most recent exchange with a “Talmudic expert.” pic.twitter.com/MR0Litq70E
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 6, 2025
“What is your point here of dragging up a multi-thousand-year text that you don’t know, that you haven’t read?” Kirk said. “You have not even—have you purchased the Talmud? Have you read the Talmud? What is the Talmud? Tell me the difference between the Torah, the Tanakh, and the Talmud.”
When the person asking Kirk the question could not explain what the Talmud actually is, Kirk responded, “So what you did is you cherry-picked something on the internet that makes Jews look bad.”
Kirk’s ideas about the causes of anti-Semitism—and the psychological damage it can do to individuals and movements—were on display during an event only a few weeks before his murder and earned him scorn from his far-right critics.
“There is a corner of the internet of people that want to point and blame the Jews for all their problems,” he said. “Everybody, this is demonic, and it’s in the pit of Hell, and it should not be tolerated, period. And it goes to the problem of an entire generation that has economic resentment. They don’t own anything, they’re not getting married, they’re not having children, they’re depressed, they’re anxious, they’re staring at their screens all day long. And if, all of a sudden, your extrapolation of that is, ‘Well, it’s the Jews’ fault,’ that is sloppy and shallow thinking.”
He went on to explain the consequences of anti-Semitism.
“If you are blaming [Jews] for all of your problems, that is not going to be good for your soul,” Kirk continued. “It’s not going to be good for your psychology. It’s not good for your future in any way, shape, or form. And, so, I would just say this: That any young person who goes into this hyper-online brain rot, you are serving yourself over to your own demise. You are serving yourself into a suicide mission that will not make you happier and not make you healthier.”
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