Mourning a Great American Hero & Champion of Israel, Charlie Kirk
A few hours ago, I received a series of text messages from several friends with the tragic news about Charlie Kirk as it was unfolding. Like millions of other people, I desperately turned to God and begged God for the greatest miracle of all. But it was not to be. A young man of only 31 years of age was viciously stolen from his two precious babies, his beloved wife, and countless family members who are now left to struggle through the most unimaginable grief. Like President Trump said, “I am filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk. All who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror.” We cannot simply go on with life as usual after a human being is assassinated in an act of political terrorism. We must begin soul searching and figuring out how we got to this darkest of days. For that, we must first acknowledge the greatness of the man we lost on September 10th, 2025.
By the age of 18, Charlie Kirk had already founded the politically conservative organization Turning Point USA, which over the last 10 years or so had grown to have stratospheric influence not only among the youth but reaching the White House itself. Here was a man who possessed an incredible amount of knowledge and wisdom—despite, or perhaps because of, dropping out of university. Though Charlie’s views were considered controversial by many, and simply common-sense statements of truth by many others, Charlie challenged and changed the world with his words, and never with violence. He was blunt and direct, but never crude, and actively sought out to engage those he disagreed with – something our society so desperately needs to relearn to do. Perhaps that is what many of us were trying to do as we flocked to his social media videos and his podcasts that attracted billions of views and millions of streams. We knew that preaching to the choir within our own silos of similar views was stunting our emotional maturity, making us unable and unwilling to engage with anyone who had differing views, always retreating to our self-created “safe spaces” among our allies. We saw the ever-growing demonization of “the other side” was destroying our ability to see our opponents as humans with worthy points of view, people with whom we might still absolutely disagree with but who would simultaneously help us strengthen our own views. Perhaps we watched Charlie engage in these debates because we vicariously lived through them, we learned through them, and hoped that one day we would be brave enough to rationally and articulately defend our points of view against those who opined differently.
Of the countless debates that Charlie Kirk engaged in on campus, many were about Israel. And Charlie was always a steadfast ally. As Prime Minister Netanyahu called him, Charlie was a “lion-hearted friend of Israel, he fought the lies and stood tall for Judeo-Christian civilization.” Debating anti-Semites / anti-Zionists could not have been an easy task by any means, yet Charlie wore his Evangelical faith on his sleeve and poured out his love of Israel on anyone who would listen. Defending Israel always put him at odds with the Left, but sometimes defending Israel meant even disagreeing with some on the Right, and he was not afraid to do so. In our world where true friends of Israel are few and far between, we must acknowledge the great moral courage Charlie displayed and thank him for the countless hours he spent trying to turn young minds to the truth about Israel. Rabbi Burg, chairman of Aish, movingly stated that “the Jewish people, and the pro-Israel community deeply mourn the senseless assassination of Charlie Kirk. He was a steadfast ally of Israel and a courageous advocate for our people.” Charlie also made a deliberate effort to ensure that young Jews were an integral part of the conservative movement, developing Jewish-focused programming at his Turning Point USA conferences and engaging with Young Jewish Conservatives—a group that only a few years ago might have seemed a misnomer.
Dear Charlie, now that you are undoubtedly in Heaven, what do you see from up there? Will we ever triumph over evil people who only seek destruction and death? Will those who wish to silence reason and moral courage with bullets ever realize they have not succeeded in anything at all, and have instead amplified your voice and your mission across the world? Will we ever feel safe at schools and college campuses, at political events and religious gatherings?
As you did, we must look to God to help us find these answers, to give us strength to loudly win the battle, to raise our voices especially when we are threatened with silence. We must argue. Debate requires deep self-analysis – it requires us to probe why we believe what we believe, to analyze how our values shape us, and to humbly consider the possibility that we still have more to learn. We need to find that point of humility once again and start there. Before the upcoming Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we must search the depths of our souls for our worst sins, we must be willing to confront the worst parts of ourselves and we must be willing to ask God to help us change for the better. We cannot blame inanimate weapons if we refuse to blame the perpetrators themselves, the evil monsters who choose to pull a trigger as an act of destruction, and the media and politicians who fan the flames. And, as Ben Shapiro said, “we must pick up the baton where Charlie left it, fighting for the things he believed in so passionately. And we must fight for a better America – an America where good people can speak truth and debate passionately without fear of a bullet.”
Rest in peace Charlie Kirk, our great American hero, and may your memory be a blessing to us all.
