New York Democrat’s Speech on Israel And Anti-Semitism Goes Viral — Praised By Fox Host and Former Trump Ambassador
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), a Democrat from the Bronx, received widespread praise this week for his speech commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. in a Manhattan synagogue. Torres, a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, found praise from across the partisan aisle as Trump’s former ambassador to Israel and a Fox News host joined in sharing the speech online.
“It’s an honor to be here to offer a few reflections on Doctor King and the moral crisis that we’re facing in a post-October 7th world,” Torres began, adding:
Like all of you, I was profoundly shaken not only by October 7th, but by the aftermath. I found it utterly horrifying to see fellow Americans openly cheering and celebrating the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
“Doctor King once said that history will record that the greatest tragedy is not the strident clamor of the bad people. But it’s the appalling silence of the good people. Elie Wiesel once said that the opposite of love is not hate. It is indifference. And what we’ve seen in the aftermath of October 7th is appalling silence and indifference and cowardice from so-called leaders in our society, from institutions that we once respected and admired,” Torres continued later in the nearly 10-minute sermon.
“And if we as a society cannot bring ourselves to condemn the murder of innocents with moral clarity, then we must ask, what are we becoming as a society? What does that reveal about the depth of anti-Semitism in the American soul? October 7th has been an awakening for the Jewish community. But it must be a reckoning for all of America,” he declared adding:
We must confront the deepening rot of anti-Semitism on social media platforms, on college campuses and elsewhere in America. We must ask ourselves, what kind of society do we wish to be? Do we wish to be a society that affirms that every life, every Jewish life, every black life, every life has inherent dignity and value and worth that each of us is a child of God, that each of us is an equal creation in the image of God. Or do we wish to be a society that affirms that violence and terror, no matter how barbaric, can be justified and even glorified under the guise of quote unquote, ‘resistance’?
David Friedman, Trump’s Israel ambassador, shared the speech and wrote, “Bravo.”
Journalist and former first lady of California Maria Shriver added, “I’ve watched it a few times myself and I agree @JakeWSimons. I’m passing it on to anyone who hasn’t had the chance to listen.”
Fox News host Guy Benson, replied, “Superb.”
Below are some additional reactions:
Watch the full speech above.
