When Charlie Kirk was murdered on Sept. 10 of last year, I expected reactions ranging from grief and fury to righteous justice and jubilation. What I did not expect was that, 12 days later, sitting down for a religious service on the Jewish New Year, I would hear a German rabbi proclaim that Charlie Kirk was a hero of the Jewish people.
This past fall semester, I studied abroad in Freiburg, Germany, a small university town in the country’s southwest, near the French and Swiss borders. The town is dominated by medieval architecture, and locals amuse themselves with day trips to the Alps or the Black Forest. I recommend everyone visit. At Brandeis, it is easy to forget that much of the world has little exposure to Judaism. We have breaks for Jewish holidays, and Jewish students who want to attend religious services can choose from four different communities on campus alone. That is not the case in Germany. So imagine my delight at discovering a Modern Orthodox synagogue in Freiburg with a thriving community still worshipping more than 80 years after the old Freiburg synagogue was burned down on Kristallnacht. This year, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, instead of driving to New York to celebrate with my grandparents and cousins, I took the U-Bahn to a small cement building with bulletproof windows in downtown Freiburg for an unforgettable service. The community spoke almost no English. I got by mostly in German, though I heard at least as much Hebrew and Russian. We sang the same songs we sing at Brandeis, dressed the same way with prayer shawls wrapped around our shoulders, and despite being halfway around the world, I knew exactly what was happening around me. When it came time for the rabbi’s sermon, I leaned in so as not to miss a word as he spoke in German from the pulpit. I have never heard a more disturbing speech.
The power of the German language lies greatly in its harsher sounds, which, when used well, can touch emotions in a way I have found difficult in English. This may be intuitive to any of you who, like me, were made to watch clips of Nazi speeches for history class. The anger that echoed from the rabbi and his German prose was eerily familiar. He spoke of his personal grief, of the horrors committed on Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, of the hostages who were then still captive in Gaza, and he spoke of the very real rise of antisemitism around the world. The Palestinian people were never mentioned. But in my experience, this is all run-of-the-mill for modern Orthodox Jewish communities. Then, the rabbi turned to the murder of Charlie Kirk.
He described the attack as an antisemitic assault on the Jewish people. Despite knowing exactly who committed the murder—a Mormon boy raised in a right-wing family—the rabbi blamed the left-wing anti-Israel movement. He named Kirk a hero of the Jewish people. There are many great Jewish heroes: Samson, Einstein, RBG and Paul Simon, to name a few. When did the Jewish community start to name Evangelical Christians as our heroes?
Whether or not you sympathize with some or all of Kirk’s political opinions—I know I sometimes do—you must grapple with his ideological standpoint. In his book promoting a right-wing revolution, Kirk enthusiastically encourages conservatives to “chase a clear-cut, black-and-white, Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader attitude toward every issue possible.” In addition to its catastrophically inadequate understanding of Star Wars, this quote reveals the central tenet of Kirk’s political movement: authoritarian thought. It is this kind of anti-nuanced thought that led to fascism in Germany in the 1930s and ’40s. It is this kind of thoughtless rhetoric that is now leading to the murder of American mothers in Minnesota by a legally immune private army. It is this kind of black-and-white belief that leads to violence and genocide everywhere it takes place.
Later on that Rosh Hashanah evening, thoughts of the speech pushed to the side, I went to the synagogue social hall to nosh on apples and honey and chat with a crowd of curious older women who had immigrated from Russia and Ukraine. There, I joined a conversation with two older men who spoke German so perfectly that I asked them what it was like to be Jewish and live in Germany over the years. They laughed and told me that they weren’t Jewish—they were actually Evangelical Christians who were there because they loved Israel.
It is well understood that many Evangelicals support the return of the Jewish people to Israel because they believe it will bring about the second coming of Jesus. What is less often acknowledged is that many of these same believers also hold that, when Jesus returns, Jews who do not convert will be damned as nonbelievers. According to Pew Research Center, 85% of White Evangelical Protestants voted for Trump this past election.
This campus is full of brilliant Jews, and brilliant Jews with a strong and admirable love of Israel. I am friends with many of them. This article, this story, is meant to be a reality check. Is Charlie Kirk the kind of person you want to be your hero? Are Evangelical Christians the kind of supporters you want at your back? When will we stop accepting help from anyone who supports the Israeli state, no matter their other beliefs? At what point will the rogues’ gallery around us make us think twice about our course of action? This article and these questions may be overstated and harsh—but that is the point.
Just before leaving the synagogue for the last time, an Israeli man on vacation pulled me aside and said in broken English, while brandishing two thumbs up, “America now, greatest country in world!” Having just invaded Venezuela and levied tariffs on our fellow NATO members because they won’t sell us Greenland, I ask you: are we?
