Welcome to Judaism Demystified, a podcast for the perplexed.
Join us as we explore some of the most fascinating Jewish and
Torah related topics with our esteemed guests.
By tackling some of the biggest questions you likely won't find
addressed elsewhere, we aim to shed light on important issues
and inspire a return to the fundamentals.
Enjoy the show. Thank you for joining the
Judaism Demystified podcast. We are joined by Jacob Falash.
Thank you so much that we've been trying to make this happen
for a long time, so we really appreciate you making the time
to start. Thanks for having me on, I
appreciate. It to start, could you tell our
audience a little bit about yourself, your connection to
Judaism and your work at the Daily Wire?
Yeah, yeah, sure. So I am I am a political
activist, I am a writer and associate producer for the large
conservative company the Daily Wire have been since 2020.
My connection to Judaism. I was born to an Israeli father
and a non Jewish mother whom by the way, I love and is is a is a
she loves God as much as I do. And I wanted to be helleckly
Jewish. So I converted with Chabad about
two years ago now took me about three years.
My father is of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic lineage.
His father was from Libya's, mother was from Poland.
They came over after the war. So I've had, I've had quite the,
quite the Jewish experience even when I even before I converted
my, my dad, the, the faith in the household was Judaism.
Even knowing, you know, I wasn't a part of that yet.
Grew up going to Shoal, Hanukkah, Pesach, all that but
it wasn't until a few years ago I decided to put the stamp down
and and then make it make it real.
Very cool and and your work at the Daily Wire, how did that
come about? Yeah, so I was, I was in high
school. I got into politics like a lot
of people nowadays who are into politics.
It was the 2016 election, you know, all the stuff going on
with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump it.
Was like not to be into politics.
It was it was hard not it was like everything people were
talking about that more than they were talking about, you
know, the latest scandal with whatever celebrity like it was
the talk of everything. I grew up in a in a very it was
like a 99.9% Hispanic city in California is called Downey.
So naturally, because of what I was hearing from my friends, I
was very anti Trump until my dad kind of sat me down.
He was like, these people that you're siding with, you know,
how they feel about about Israel and about the Jewish people and
about this and about that. And I was like, no.
And he was like, you know what, just listen to what your friends
are telling you. Come to me and ask me what if
it's true what they're saying or not?
Let me answer for you. And then in your own time, kind
of look into what they're saying about you and your people.
And I was like, oh, OK, so I did my research and my senior year
of high school, that was 2019. So it was, it was well into into
Trump's term. I was obsessed with Ben Shapiro.
So all of his stuff online was was regurgitating his arguments
out of my friends who weren't happy that I leaned the way I
did. And I was in history class one
day and I was like, you know what, let me let me see if I can
find their e-mail and send them an e-mail and say I want to work
for Ben Shapiro. Whatever.
So I find, I think on LinkedIn, the personal e-mail of the HR
manager at the Daily Wire at the time, it was a much smaller
company then that it was now. And I sent the most
unprofessional e-mail ever. Like, hi, I'm a big fan this and
that I gave like my political ideology.
I was like, I'm Jewish. You know, I love Ben.
I want to be just like him, whatever.
And I didn't hear back and six months passed and I'm in my
first semester at university. And then I just, I'm, I remember
I was sitting in class and then I get a ping on my phone.
I'm like, I'm like trying to make the professor like not see
him on my phone. Like I look and it was an e-mail
from, from the HR person say, Hey, you still want a job.
So I immediately I just like, I like just walked out of class.
I was like, Oh my gosh, I walked straight out of my lecture.
I called my dad. I was like, dad, I got an
interview with the Daily Wire. Let's go.
My dad was like jumping up and down.
Awesome. And then I went and by by
Hashem's grace, they love me. And I, I started off as a very
low, low position. There I was, you know, it was
COVID. I was like cleaning door knobs.
I was watching, wiping off the tables, whatever it was,
involved a little bit in the production side helping like
move cameras and equipment or whatever.
And then we moved to Nashville in 2020 from LA because LA is
just awful, especially for a business trying to survive.
A producer was needed. So they threw me on to Michael
Knowles a show. It was a big jump, huge jump
from what I was doing to being a producer.
I had to learn on the fly, but you know, I got really close to
Michael and I worked my way up over the years and started
writing for them as well, opinion pieces about everything.
And yeah, it was, it was a big for, for one, I did not expect
to get the job. I, I didn't deserve the job.
My only job experience was being like a, a bar bartender at some
bar in my own city. Like they had no reason to hire
me whatsoever. So how did you have like the
chops to handle being like a producer?
Like what? What do you need to figure out
or learn? Did you learn in your few years
before? That it's, it's very, you know,
I thank God. So I am a, I'm, I'm an associate
producer. So it means that there's a main
producer and then I, I, I like, I produce with him and I take
over the stuff that, that, that he doesn't.
And when I got the job, the producer was teaching me
everything. He was, you know, kind of
showing me the ropes and everything like that, But a lot
of it I did have to learn on my own.
And it's really just, you know, you, you go on YouTube and you
look at what works for other channels and you try to
incorporate that into your talent.
You know, whether it be the thumbnails, whether it be the,
you know, how you write the description or how you write the
titles or what the videos should be.
You know, it's, it's definitely a learning and you still learn
everyday because trends online change all the time and you want
to incorporate that into, into your, into your channel.
But it's, you know, it, it was tough in the beginning, but I'm
used to it now and I, I love what I do so.
Amazing. Yeah.
So now that you mentioned that, you write as well.
There's an article that you wrote in 2023 called for
pervasive myths about Israel and why they're wrong.
And you pointed to the far left as the loudest critics of the
Jewish state. But since October 7th, you've
seen arguably the loudest hostility coming from parts of
the populace, right? Figures like Tucker Carlson and
so on, and increasing ideological confusion among
young Americans who simultaneously champion human
rights and support regimes that violate them.
Have your views changed since writing that piece?
And what do you make of this growing left, right horseshoe
convergence against Israel? It's a good question.
So as far as if my views have changed, I think the left and
the right, I think they're both loud, standing against, you
know, with their anti-Semitism and standing against Israel in
their own way. I think the left is loud as in
on the streets, taking to the streets and doing all these
protests, whereas the right is loud primarily online.
And I think a lot of that is empowered by, you know, XX is
just a now it's just a cesspool of, of Nazism and radical Islam
and just everything in between. So I think they're both loud
and, but I think there's AI also think there's a distinction.
I'm not going to say, I'm not going to say 1 is more evil than
the other between the different types of anti-Semitism on both
sides. But the distinction is that the
left, they try to hide their anti-Semitism under a, under a
kind of political like, you know, we want decolonization.
We want this because they try to mask it under some very flawed
moral ideology. They try to hide it and there's
a lot of, there's a lot of like, sorry for my, there's a lot of
idiots who are just like thinking that they're morally
correct and they, and they're not hating Jews and their
activism on the left. You know, I've, I've been to
many college campuses, I've spoken to many college students
even my age about this stuff. And they're, they're saying
everything from, yeah, we need to basically saying without
saying we need to ethnically cleanse the entirety of Israel.
We need to, you know, impose this against Zionists in the US,
this and that. But then I asked.
But then when you ask them about Jews specifically, they're like,
Oh, I have nothing against Jews. Like they hear all the things
they're saying about how like hating Jews and then they say,
no, but I don't hate Jews. So that's like the I think I
think a lot of it is like ignorant hatred there.
There is definitely some like legitimate Jew hatred.
But then you have the right and this anti-Semitism that's crept
up on the right over the past few years.
And I think it kind of kicked up a lot with the Kanye stuff.
And then after October 7th, you know, the IT just blew up.
The thing about the right wing that you'll see, you know, you
have these larger pundits who try to hide it in a similar way
to the left about they're trying to act like isolationists or
whatever. You have a lot of the, the large
populace of people who don't support Israel on the right
online, you see all these accounts, they just straight up
say, I don't like Jews. They say that.
They say that, you know, Jews are doing usury, Jews are doing
this and Jews are doing that. And they're they're, they're,
they're like not to use their language, but they're like
they're naming, they're naming the Jew, you know, so they
don't, they don't hide it. So I think it's two different
types of hatred, more deceptive on the left, more in your face
on the right, more more to it on the right.
And you are correct that it is a horseshoe in the sense that both
both complete polar opposites are getting to the same.
But when you say horseshoe, I think I think when you're
referring to because both sides are both hating Jews at the same
time. I would even take it a step
further and I'd say it's also a horseshoe for not only the
hatred of Jews, but the support of radical Islam.
You have both sides doing that, which is very interesting.
You know, you have, you have the right from like 15 years ago who
was like, very not anti Muslims, not the right word, but anti
Islamic empire because of 911, because of all the wars we
fought over there and everything like that.
There was a sense of knowing that the Islamic Empire is not a
friend of the West and we've been at war with them because of
these reasons. They, they, you, you, you had
politicians citing, citing Quranic, you know, Quranic
prophecies about all of the, all of the like non believers in
Islam dying in the West and, and stuff like that.
You know, but now you have the right who is like kind of being
sympathetic to it because they don't like Israel and they think
Israel is like, they're you have the Christians and the, the, the
not Christians, but the, what's the right word, the far right
fake Christians like just holding hands with radical
Islamists and their hatred of Israel.
And they don't realize what they're doing.
You know, they don't, they don't understand that the, the the
Islamist will hold their hand in hating the Jew until it's time
for the Islamist to also come after them.
You know, so it's, it's really interesting that you have both
sides doing that. The left supports them because
they're brown. I mean, they say that the more
brown you are, the more morally just and correct you are.
So, yeah, it's really interesting to see.
But I'm definitely very surprised from the right how
it's gone in this direction so quick.
I I five years ago I would never have expected it at all.
And you brought up X, the fact that it's accessible.
Do you, do you consider that to be true?
Because the monetization of like engagement, like people are like
more it reinforces this behavior like, oh, let me keep going down
rabbit holes and making up conspiracies or like, because I
can make money off this And people seem to be, you know,
engaging in it. So they have like the motivation
is that, is that what you're trying to say?
I mean, it's like, you know, it's, it's, it's a very hard,
it's a very hard topic to grasp as a conservative because, you
know, up until, I can't remember what year Elon Musk took over X,
Maybe it was like 2023 or 2024 or something like that.
Yeah. Not long ago I was one of the
people who was like, yeah, get those libs out of out of
Twitter, put in someone who's going to respect free speech and
stuff like that. It's like, you know, to an
extent, I, I believe everybody should be able to say what they
want. You know, there's some people
they'll push back and they'll say, but it's not, it's not
infringing free speech to censor on X because it's not, you know,
it's, it's a private company and, and whatever.
The thing is, though, when it comes to the main social media
platforms of the age, like this is the public place.
Like like social media is the public space.
If you were to just mute every single conservative account
overnight, we would have a liberal, an extremely liberal
society in a year. You know, it's like, so it's,
it's a very hard question to answer.
If I, if I think it's, you know, if I think it's because of all
that and you know, the implied question, do I think it should
be stopped? I don't know, it's hard, I
think. I don't think I would censor the
people doing it because I think that would just put fuel in the
fire, you know, there, I know you've seen the memes.
The Jew made the call, you know, to shut this person.
Down. Feed into their they don't don't
feed into it. I don't think I don't think you
should censor them. But man, all the people that
realize how stupid these people are need to be vocal like
myself, like you guys need to be vocal in like combating it
because if you're not going to censor it and shut it down,
people need to shut it down by using their speech as well.
You know, it's like all of these conspiracy theories and all of
these things, they fall apart with like a 32nd Google search.
Nobody wants to do it. People in their replies are just
screaming anti-Semitism, but they're not saying why it's
wrong. You know, that's like the thing
that makes me the most upset. You'll see.
I'm not going to name any names, but there was this there's this
big anti-Semitic account on it. His name is Jake Shields.
He's an MMA fight. Yeah.
Now, I'm not going to name any names about the person that was
replying to them, but there was a, there was a Jewish person
with a really big following who I know for a fact knows how to
reply to one of the conspiracies he was pushing.
It was about the, the dancing Israelis conspiracy about 911.
And instead of quote tweeting it and putting, you know, all of
the different, you know, he just quote tweets it and says this
guy's an anti-Semitic piece of garbage or something along those
lines. Like I'm like, what are you
doing? Why are you doing that?
This guy's on the right. He doesn't care if you call him
a bigot. He doesn't care, you know, if
you if you tell him something that'll shut him up, that'll
shut him up. But call him Andy something,
he's not going to shut him up. He's going to make it do it even
more because he likes being called that.
So, yeah, it's it's a really, it's really tough as a
conservative to talk about that on X because I kind of advocated
for it to be how it is now. But but yeah, just people need
to speak up more, man. That that's why, that's why I
started doing the stuff I did. I I was making videos, but not
at the rate that I did after October 7th.
I was just sitting there before October 7th.
I wasn't really talking about Jewish stuff all that much.
I didn't have any videos about the war in in in the war in
Gaza. I wasn't talking about
anti-Semitism, anything like that.
And then I was like, well, I kind of have to like, why am I
going? To, I'm starting to sense, maybe
I'm wrong, but I'm starting to sense there's a little bit of a
fatigue talking about, you know, the Jewish issue.
Even even people like Andrew Tate, who like, you know, he's
a, he said some terrible things about Jews.
Even he's like, are you going to blame Jews for the not going to
the reason of the gym? And like, I think, I think it's
just like tiring people are like, OK, we when you do it too
much, it almost becomes like the boy who cried wolf.
Like seriously, like you're still you're going to blame this
on the Jews. It gets a little ridiculous
after a while. So in a way, like they're doing
us a favor by continuing to go down those rabbit holes.
Well, in a way it seems like I. Feel like it's getting more
powerful, not not less. Powerful.
Maybe. Could be.
I don't know. It's yeah.
I, I kind of, I, I saw the video you're talking about with Tate
and I and I understand the point that you're making about the
fatigue, but I also think you should look at the response that
Tate received online from that. It wasn't a bunch of because,
you know, just like this one test guy, Tate also has a cult
behind him. Tate has a cult.
He's following our cultish and his own people were going after
him saying, oh, take out the call.
Oh, how many shekels did you take to say this on camera or
Tate's going soft. Tate's doing that.
I don't know, man. I, I, I don't think people are
fatigued just yet. I think it's still ramping up.
They were calling Alex Jones like a Zionist shill at one
point, because he was. Saying exactly nobody.
Nobody. It's like a competition to see
who could be the most anti-Semitic, and if you're not
in first place, you're getting called.
It's in fashion, right? Now it's in.
Fashion to be anti-Semitic and what I'm trying to understand
is, and I've been asked I I I see everything that's going on
on X and everything it's it's a disaster.
I'm trying to understand how we got here the the war on Gaza.
I get it yes, that is the perfect springboard for for for,
you know, anti semites or or to to to creep out of their room.
Yes, but it's just it's it it it feels like it's kind of it's
it's taken a life of its own and the speed of which it's taken a
life of it. It's it's, it's like, it's like
it's as if it's a feeling as if like you would think that it's
been going on for 30 years. You know what I mean?
They're like, it's like such a ingrained, you know, like, you
know, it's, it's and I'm trying to understand like what happened
over here, like what happened the left.
I'm. Sure.
I'm sure bots have a lot to do with it.
You know, there's, there's a lot of that.
There's a lot of, there's a lot of bots, but I'm going to be
100% honest with you. I, I do think the majority of it
is legitimate. I do think there's a lot of
people who are not sympathetic to the Jewish people right now.
And you know, it's the country over the past decade, 2 decades
really has been, has been going through a very hard time, very
hard time. Don't quote me on this, but I
believe it was Theodore Herzl who wrote that.
It might have been Theodore or it might have been someone else
from his time, but they wrote when nationalism rises, so does
anti-Semitism. Every single time I.
Was. Thinking.
When it it's when a cause. Look, as a conservative, I love
nationalism. I think nationalism is a good
thing. You should be a nationalist and
a patriot for the country. I'm an American nationalist
100%. You know, you should be.
But when you get that nationalist mindset going, it's
very easy to look for a scapegoat for your problems.
And historically, the Jew has always been the scapegoat
always. And whether whether it be
because they were all too rich or whether it be because they
were all too poor, whether it be because they were all religious
fanatics or because they were all degenerate, degenerate, you
know, atheists, it just every, they're always the scapegoat.
I, I believe I, I have reasoning for why I think that is.
I think it's the, the, the curses from the book of the
bottom. That's my, that's my
interpretation of it. I think it's a playing out of
that prophecy, but it's the IT is the, you know, I don't know,
man, it it it grew so fast that you almost have to think that
it's like biblically. Yeah, the speed is alarming,
shocking and like and. It's not and it's not just, and
it, this repeats itself time and time and time, you know,
throughout history. Do you, do you guys know the,
the, the certain chapter I'm talking about?
And I believe, I believe it's tavodim Where, where, where
Hashem is warning, Hashem is warning.
What will happen if the if the commandments are not obeyed and
it says he'll spread you to the four corners of the earth,
You'll never be, you'll never live in peace.
And it's not if you really read it, if you really read it and
you think about Jewish history, it lines up 1 to one.
It is extremely. And that was, yeah, I always
get, I always get asked by people.
I always get in conversations with people that are not
religious. And they asked me like, what
proof do you have that this is true?
And that's always the verse that I bring them up because it is
what you want to do is show Bible next to history, because
you can prove history happen and you're trying to prove that the
Bible will tell you ahead of time what happened in history.
And I always point to that. So I think it's biblical.
I think these risings up of anti-Semitism, whether it be in
the Reich or whether it be in the US now or whether it be in
the Soviet Union, whether it be whatever it's risen up, I think
it's fueled. I think it's fueled because of
the biblical punishment. That's my not everyone will
agree with me on that, you know, but.
But that, that's the only thing I can think of because it's
you're right, it's irrational. It's irrational how quick it's
it's big. That's the problem.
It's. It's no sense.
It's not, you know, OK, there's OK, anti OK, anti-Semitism.
We're not we're talking this is like like, and and I actually
would, would, would tell people don't go on X and don't see it
because it's it's it's hard to stomach.
It is it is mind boggling what's going on in there.
It's mind boggling, but in a sense, in this like weird way,
it kind of in a sense like, and and I agree with you.
It almost makes you think like, you know, there's something
biblical going on from just just from the it's, it's not natural
what's going on. It's not it's it's irrational
and it's. Exactly, Exactly.
And it it, it supersedes whatever the Jewish people do
it. No matter what the Jewish people
do, it always happens. It doesn't matter if we all get
into banking. What'd you say?
It's like supernatural like. Exactly.
It's like it doesn't matter if if we all become bankers,
they're going to go after us for being bankers.
If we all become poor, they're going to get after us for not
being bankers. If we don't have a state,
they're going to be mad at us for being a wandering people.
If we have a state, they're going to get mad at us for
having a state. That's that's the, that's,
that's the new, the new one, you know, so it, it has to be there.
There's no other, there's no other explanation.
And there's going to be some person that's going to watch
this, some, you know, person that's from that fringe right
conspiratorial thing who's like, oh, you know, and they always
say you got kicked out of 109 places.
And you're saying, how could that be?
And you don't want to blame yourself.
That's a very exaggerated number, but.
Yeah, yeah. It's not, it's not.
It's not even an accurate number.
They say 119 if I'm not mistaken.
No, it's, it's, it's the reason I, the reason I have to memorize
is because there was a hashtag that went viral like a year ago
saying make America hashtag 110. So say, I mean, you just have
to, if you look at it, if you look at it and these people try
to say every time when they the people that make that argument,
they say, oh, it's you guys OK, what did we do?
What did we do? Tell me, oh, you guys were all
doing usury. OK, What about here where we
weren't doing usury? Why'd we get why'd we get kicked
out of there? Oh, well, you guys were just
wandering people. OK, then why are these people
crying that we have a state now? You know, it's like, oh, you
guys were all degenerate people that were funding trans stuff.
They say that about the Third Reich.
He's like, OK, then why did we get kicked out for being
religious over there? You know, it's, it's not that.
It's not that. I don't know you.
You, you get the point I'm trying to make.
It's. One of the things that they'll
say if we'll get like DMS from anti semites also, sometimes
they'll, they'll say that we, you know, they were Jews in the
last few, you know, presidents cabinets that were very
influential in, in the president's ear and all that.
I'm like every single president was Christian and and like most
of the banks and and most of the powerful people in America are
Irish, if I'm not mistaken. And you know, like, how come
we're not talking about them? Like, why why is this?
There's such an obsession. It's it's really like, it's
cool. Yeah.
And you know, we we actually we're talking about this on
Friday, but the Deuteronomy Devarim 917, I think that it
says that the reason. This week's Yeah.
This week's partial. I don't know when we release it,
It's not going to be this week's partial anymore, but talking
about how when we basically earn the land of Israel, it's not
because of our righteousness, but it's because of the
wickedness of the nations or the wickedness of the nations or the
the promise given to our ancestors.
But the fact is it's not it's not due to our righteousness.
And that should tell us a lot like after the Holocaust, we got
the land of Israel because the the nations reached such a level
of wickedness that, you know, This is why we need our own
place to live. We need our own it's.
Very interesting that the Torah seems to constantly, it's almost
like we're getting knocked in the head constantly throughout
the Bible and the prophets. Like we're getting knocked in
the head. You would think for a the chosen
people. A lot of the rhetoric going on,
of course, is like, you guys think you're the chosen people.
Look how you act. You guys think you're the
chosen. Please look at well, actually
the Torah, the Torah is the one that says we're a stiff necked
nation. You know, we've done terrible
things, you know, like for, for a chosen people, the Torah is
not exactly giving us our roses. It is actually constantly
hitting us over the head and telling us we have to be better.
I wish people would read like read with with with with read
carefully these verses and see what the Torah itself says about
our chosenness that that it is. It's not about us being better.
It's it's about it's about having extraordinary
forefathers, yes, that that did some some incredible things that
changed the world. And it is also about, you know,
wickedness of others, not the righteousness of of of our own.
So these are important points that when you when you look at
these, especially this this week's parsha, it really, really
hammers at home. And I wish these would get
presented to the public like like, it's as if like they think
like the the Torah is like, you know, putting us on a pedestal,
but the Torah actually does not put us on a pedestal.
It is constantly hitting us over the head.
But what's? Interesting is that if you're
trying to, if you're inventing a religion, you would never try to
sell this religion to this audience.
They'd be like, why would we want this?
We have to keep all these laws and everyone hates us and God
hates us it seems. Like, you know.
Like that, that doesn't make sense.
So the fact of the matter is we, we understand the value of being
introspective. You know, I, I was actually my a
rabbi right on my roof made this point about, you know, the Nakba
is something that you know, the that's the the tragedy that the
Palestinians bring up about their their history.
It's also it's. Also fake but.
You know, whatever that's separate, separate issue.
But the point is, is that they're they, they identify that
as the biggest tragedy of their history and, and the Zionists
are the cause and it's constantly being brought up.
It's the Zionists, it's the Jews and so on, on our saddest day in
our history is that's to Shabba AB.
We don't, we don't ever talk about like the Romans.
We're talking about what did we do wrong?
Why did we deserve this? We're we're not, our identity is
not tied into, you know, blaming some other nation for our
problems. The same goes with the with the
naveen. Yeah.
Throughout the prophets, it's always about what we did wrong,
not about Assyrians, not about, you know, very little talk about
that. Excellent point.
OK, let's move on. Many have criticized the
traditional Hazbara model, pointing to gala centric
advocacy, ADL style institutional responses and a
failure to win hearts and minds on campuses.
Do you agree with that assessment?
And if so, what kind of messaging or approach do you
think would actually resonate with young people in the broader
cultural moment we're in? And it has been shown
statistically that with the younger generation is where
we're really feeling the most, right.
Now so. So, yeah, the first thing that
has to be done is you got to stop calling everything
anti-Semitic. You have to.
I understand that it might be true sometimes, maybe most of
the time on the stuff that people are saying, the people
are not going to stop having the opinion that they're having
because you're calling it anti-Semitic.
That's not that's not how how people's minds work.
Maybe that was that worked 10 years ago, you know, before I
got into politics. The thought of somebody calling
me a racist make me shiver, you know, like, Oh my gosh, no, I'm
not racist. Please, stuff like that.
And then I went and I spoke out against BLM and I could and I
started caring less about being called racist, you know, because
I know that I'm not. And these people, they believe
what they believe. You call them an anti Semite in
their minds, they don't think they're anti-Semitic.
For the left more, this goes to the left more.
So that's the first thing. Stop calling everything
anti-Semitic and only attacking the person and not attacking the
idea. I think the best approach to
doing it. You mentioned campuses.
You need to find people that knows their stuff, that knows
you know all of the responses to all of the common arguments.
And you got to do similar to what Charlie Kirk has done.
You got to sit someone at a table, have a line, and just
shoot down every single one and push those clips everywhere.
Because right now, it doesn't matter if you're talking about
the millennials, it doesn't matter if you're talking about
Gen. Z, doesn't even matter if you're
talking about the young Gen. Alpha.
Everyone is getting all of their information from a screen.
And the only way you're going to be able to do that is if you
match where these people's news are coming from and you put your
content in front of their eyes. So I think I think the first
thing would be to have people debating people with these ideas
and taking away the, the demonizing of the people and
instead the the demonizing of the demonizing or not even the
demonizing, just the, the dismemberment of their ideas.
I've seen way too many, way too many, you know, people just
attacking somebody and not attacking their idea.
And that gets us nowhere. AD.
Hominem, ad hominem ad hominem. Exactly.
It gets us nowhere. It gets us nowhere, you know, I
think. I think that you got to fight
ideas with ideas. I would always cringe like I
remember years ago when, when the whole Kyrie Irving thing
happened and they were like, basically, I think it was the
Adli forget, but basically like the the response is always we're
going to take, we're going to you're going to have to go to a
Holocaust Museum and you know, donate to, you know, whatever
cause or to me, that's like, first of all, it seems like
sounds like Disneyland, like for an anti semite to take him to
the Holocaust Museum. You know, like that, that
already in itself is like how, how is that going to help?
So that always made me like, you know, feel strange.
But besides for that, I think I I agree with you.
I think we need better people, But I actually think that and I
think Israel needs to do a better job with their PR because
the old, the old Hazbara system isn't working.
I find that the most effective voices on campus that I've seen
as like people like Rudy Rachman and people like Abraham Hamrah
and Tal Oran, the traveling clot, like, why them?
Because they are brown Jews. Let's be, you know, I don't
know, I'm also Persian, You know, I think that that kind of
messes with people's heads. Like, what do you mean Jews can
look like this? They don't, for some reason,
everything. 'S contradict the narrative that
every Israeli is from Poland. Correct and then these and
they're, you know, they're from we're from Iran, where people
have to leave and and most people in 1979, people had to
leave from from many Arab countries.
And people like Gad sad these people who are speaking out.
They he comes from experience of, hey, we were we had a huge
thriving Jewish community in Lebanon and look at us now.
Those voices are hard to argue with because people have to pay
attention. Like what exactly such a thing?
Well, when people hear, I've heard many people be like, I
didn't even know they were black Jews.
Like I I was shocked. Like, you go to Israel.
Like how many black Jews everywhere?
I also, I also think it would be beneficial, and I'm only going
to say this because you brought up the Adli also think it would
be very beneficial to put left left wing leaning conservative
pages and advocacy groups. I think it would just the
disbandment of them completely would help us quite a bit
because they don't really do anything anything good for us.
They do most of the crying about the anti-Semitism whereas the
people on the right they're more pro attacking the ideas head on.
I would even just because you mentioned the ADL.
I'll give my my little rant off. I don't think there is any
organization I despise more than the Adli.
Do not like them. I do not like them one bit
before I, before I, I remember when I was younger, before I was
into politics, they would post something here and there and I
might share it to my story about something that was like
legitimately anti-Semitic. But you know, when you dig into
them, I think they cause a lot of anti-Semitism groups like the
ADL saying like I think they said, like I think on their for
defamation reasons. You got to look this up.
Don't don't take me in my word. I think on their website it says
it says that being white is OK is an anti-Semitic slogan.
Or they also say that abortion is a Jewish value.
So right. So right then and now that one I
know is true, abortion is a Jewish value.
They've openly said that. I've responded to that.
And it's just in those two things alone, you have the
entire white populace of the United States seeing us as an
enemy saying that the Jews, the ADL who purports to represent
Jews is now saying it's not OK to be white.
And then you also telling them the Jews think it's OK to murder
babies. You know, So I think as far as
Bara goes, if you move away from the left wing people who are
trying to push us to something that we're not, and he gets a
real decor of attacking the arguments with a logical more
right wing way. I think at least for the right
wing critics, we'll do a little better, you know, because when
you when you have when you have these far right wing people,
yeah, they'll attack Ben Shapiro and yeah, they'll attack get
sad. But a lot of the people that
they're attacking are like the CEO of ADL or not CEO, the owner
of ADL or stuff like that. So I think if you push those
people out of the space, we'll be doing a lot better too.
I remember a few years ago, Bradley Cooper was playing some
Jewish musician in a movie and they had like he had like a
prosthetic nose to look more like him and they were crying.
They were crying anti-Semitism and I don't know if it was them.
I remember which group was was, I don't want to say it was ADL,
but and I was just like, he's playing a character that looked
like that. Like exactly problem.
Like why? I don't understand, why aren't
we? Because, wait, I have a question
for you now. Yeah, if you think that's OK, Do
you think blackface is OK too? I got to ask.
Do I think blackface is OK? That's a good question.
Now that you know, we know how people feel about it.
Obviously not, but like I think when I remember what's his name
was playing Jimmy Kimmel was playing Karl Malone.
So if he's playing Karl Malone, he like he has to wear the Karl
Malone costume, I guess, but he wasn't being racist when he was
doing it. I think he was just making fun
of Karl Malone. So it depends what you're doing.
If you're wearing blackface just to be like like Howard Stern
wearing blackface or whatever it is, obviously that's different.
You know that that's you're trying to I.
Have the. I have the same take.
Yeah, I have the same take as you.
Yeah, just don't if you're doing it depends why you're doing it.
And like, is it about the person or are you making fun of the the
black part of it? You know, so that's kind of how,
how I feel about it. But yeah.
So moving on to the next question.
As an observant Jew working in a largely Christian and secular
conservative space, how do you navigate tensions or
disagreements on issues like religion, Israel, and moral
values with colleagues or influencers who don't share a
worldview? It's a good question.
So I will say that most of the
first, first we'll start about, you know, I'll start with
Christianity. Most of the people I work with,
you're right, they're Christians.
And the Christians, they believe that in order for me to achieve
salvation after death, I need to accept their Savior.
When I was first getting into the movement, I would get
offended because the first area of contention that you're asking
me about came from them trying to convert me all the time.
I would get kind of offended, like, why do you not?
But I kind of moved away from that.
And you know, every time that it happens to me now, I kind of
just have this lens in my head. This person loves me.
And because of their religion, they believe they want me, that
I need to believe a certain thing or else I'm going to be
punished for eternity. It comes from a good place in
their heart, you know, even knowing.
So I, I, I, I don't get mad at them for that.
It does happen quite a bit with people that I work with everyday
or people that I don't work with so often.
It's just they, they believe that they want to, you know,
save me. But with the difference of
religion in specific when it comes to Christians, you know, I
am a conservative and, you know, my long term ambitions are I
want to be a senator in this country.
I wanted to since I was young. I'm going to be working with
mainly Christians in the Senate and I have no issue with doing
it because Christian moral ethics and Jewish moral ethics
are very closely aligned. I mean, if you go to the golden
rule in Christianity is I think it's like treat others how you
want to be treated, right. And then Judaism doesn't
necessarily have a golden rule. That's just like as like boom a
statement as that is Christianity's.
But I mean, you have you have Rabbi Hillel, who was who was
alive and, and, and what did he say?
Or on one foot. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Exactly, you know, so even even at the most base, do not.
Do it to. Others that you don't, we don't.
Want Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's it it's what what is
hateful to your neighbor is hateful.
What is what is hateful to you is hateful to your neighbor.
And he said if you if you know that, you know the entire Torah.
The rest is commentary. Yeah, he said that yeah.
And so even in the most, even in the most like basic level, you
know, you, you have that, you have that alignment.
Do we agree on some different theological points?
Of course. But when it comes to like
morals, if they're very closely aligned, especially when it
comes to what the conservative movement wants, I'm anti
abortion. The Christians are anti abortion
on the right. You know, I do not want to see,
I want to see gay marriage reversed in this country.
They same thing, you know, I, I do not think that men can be
women. They're opposed to that as well.
They share the book of Genesis with us.
You know, the it's just we're, we're in line with a bunch of of
the same stuff. So I you know.
One of the best, oh, sorry, I just want to say one of the best
interfaith voices in the Jewish world was Rabbi Sachs.
May your resume his memory be a blessing.
Yeah. So I, I was going to say we
should probably gobble that up because that, that, that will,
that gives a lot of direction in terms of, of the goals that
you're aiming towards and how to, I'm sure you probably
probably have gobbled it up, No. Oh my gosh, yeah.
I, I watch him all the time and re read his books.
It's phenomenal. Rabbi Sacks is a he was a he was
a blessing not only to the Jewish people, but to the world.
Exactly. And I was just, we were, we were
talking about it the other day. I, I find myself wondering what
would Rabbi Sacks say about everything that's going on
today? It's one of the, the, the, it's
one of the hardest things about being in the space and time that
we're in is that I don't, we don't, I don't, we can't, We
can't, I can't, We don't have that full back of Rabbi Sacks's
voice to illuminate in these extremely unnatural times that
we're in a way. I also feel like I don't even
know if you'd get invited to like a Piers Morgan country or
if you would go on because the type of rabbis that they find
they put on these. Shows OH.
God. Rabbi Rabbi Shmuli Boutique.
All of these, forget about him. There's there's a bunch of other
ones that that he brought. Up.
They're actually really. Yeah, yeah, that's.
It but but The thing is bring forget about that you have other
rabbis that like Candace Owens brought to someone I forget who
else some other people brought up I.
Remember that I was there for that interview.
Yeah, like they bring on these rabbits.
I'm like, I don't think these people have a following.
Like I don't. I've never met anyone who's
like, I follow this guy, you know, like, where do they find
these these people? And unfortunately, I don't think
they would put a microphone in front of Rabbi Sacks today, but
he would obviously still his voice would be heard because he
had a big platform. And I just think that his.
I was even just saying it in terms of myself.
I just would like to hear his thoughts from my sanity.
You know what I'm? Saying 100%.
You know who I would love to go for him to go on?
Piers Morgan. Someone like Amy Kozak would be
fair. Because I've met met him very
nice guy, very smart guy, We. Had him on the.
Park yeah, it's very thoughtful things to always.
Say, but yeah, so as far as the religious, religious aspect of
your question, no issue because we align on pretty much
everything. We have the same goals.
We have the same view of where we want the country to go.
Now you also asked about am I am I correct in remembering you
also asked about Israel and their opinions on Israel.
So listen, as a conservative and American conservative, I do not
believe might get some pushback on this.
I do not believe you necessarily need to to support Israel
enthusiastically to be considered a conservative and
for me to work, work next to you.
But I'm going to put a very specific frame around this,
extremely specific. I'm talking about people who do
not want to give American tax dollars to Israel because
they're isolationists. You know, isolationism is a,
it's, it is a brain dead political ideology.
It does it, it's just imagine what would happen if the, if
the, if the isolationists in the 30s prevented the US from
getting involved in World War 2. You know, it's like it's, it's a
dead ideology. But if somebody holds that, I
don't mind working by them on the other issues that we, we
have in mind. However, if it's somebody that
doesn't support the state of Israel because they don't
believe that Jewish people deserve a state, or it's like
something rooted in the disapproval of the Jewish
people. Or if it's something rooted in
sympathy for radical Islam, like you see a lot of these people on
the right who are probably funded by Qatar.
If it's like that, those two groups of people I'm not going
to work with and those two groups of people I won't, I
won't touch because they're either sellouts or dishonest.
You don't want to work with work with dishonest people.
Or two, they hate me because I'm a Jew, you know, So those two
people I won't work with. But if you are a, if you are a
type of right winger who just believes that America and tax
dollars should just stay within our domestic borders, I'll
probably have a conversation with you about how, you know,
unwise that is. But I, I won't refuse to work
with you on stuff we agree on. You know, and in my plan and in
my time, I've run into a couple people like that.
And I've, I've worked with a couple people like that who have
had, I won't name them. And we've had long discussions
on isolationism and stuff like that.
But there are people that express to me, hey, man, I have
no beef against Israel, man, I don't want, I don't, I don't
have, why would I ally, ally with Iran or Hezbollah?
Or are these groups over Israel? Israel's more western than them.
But I just don't, I don't think it's our business to do that.
And you know, obviously I have my retorts to that, you know,
all the American interests in in having the leg in different
parts of the world, but. $3 billion a year, whatever it is,
that that Israel. Exactly.
If they if, if they're just, if they're just thinking, they're
yeah, if they're just thinking with their pocketbook, I'll work
with them. You know, I, I that's that the.
Thing is also just one of the most frustrating things about
the arguments they make is that America fought like a bunch of
regime change wars since 9:11 and they were fighting, you
know, Arab countries. And naturally there's going to
be blowback. And of course the little Satan
is going to get the brunt of it because they're right there.
So you can't just be like, OK, see you later, peace out Israel,
you know you don't want. To go down this hole, because
then they're going to tell you that they fought all those
regime changes forward, you know, But you know, you had.
Israel was against the Iraq war and and you know, they'll
they'll beat me in A tag no had. No influence exactly, but it's
also you don't even need to go as if you really want to get to
the root of it, you can just make the generalized point that
Israel, I mean, not Israel, the the Islamic empire.
You refer to them as like Arab states.
I just call it the Islamic Empire because that's just what
it is. All the all the Muslims, whether
they enter fight or not, it's one big empire.
They all have one common goal, which is the conversion of the
entire planet. It's Islam, not only the US,
it's just the West in general has been fighting the war for
1000 or fighting the Islamic empire for thousands of years.
You know, I mean, you can just the Crusades is the first
example that comes to your mind. You know, they, they tried to
take over the entirety of the West and since then it's just
been non-stop fighting. They, you can't, the West ends
in the, in the Islamic Empire. They can't, they can't coexist
without conflict. So any Westerners who are
advocating on behalf of the Islamic Empire is doing so to
the detriment of their own country.
You know, so, so that that's the type of person I wouldn't, I
wouldn't, I wouldn't deal with because I don't, I don't think
that they're, you know, aligned with me in any way.
So for the 5th question I wanted to ask you, do you have hope for
the future? Do you, what do you see in terms
of trends among young Jews or other movements that would,
would, would, would make you have hope for the for for the
right direction? In the future, yeah.
I, you know, it's very, it's very interesting.
October 7th was obviously a tragedy, right?
And all of the lives that were lost, may they rest in peace and
maybe remember them every day that we live.
But something, I guess good that came out of October 7th.
And it feels so weird to say that is the amount of secular
Jews I see coming to Habads and the amount of Jews that I see
are actually acknowledging their heritage and coming together
because of it. You know, that gives me hope
because we are as the Jewish people, we are in the most
trouble when we put aside who we are, when we don't want to
acknowledge who we are, when we don't want to adhere to the
covenant that all of us are a part of.
It was made by by Abraham and Hashem and then later Moses and
Hashem. That that gives me hope.
The type of unity I'm seeing in our people.
You know, you obviously have some of the stragglers that are
advocating for the enemy and the people that don't like us.
But I see a lot of people that, you know, pre October 7th
wouldn't have ever really identified with anything
remotely Jewish, never been to a Khabad, never posted anything
about Israel, never thought of going to Israel, never thought
of doing anything like that. And now these are people that
have golden ribbons in their Instagrams going to pro, going
to the pro Israel marches, doing all this stuff.
I think that's a good thing. I think when the Jewish people
are united, I think that makes Hashem happy.
And I think when Hashem is happy, we live a better life.
So that that gives me hope. But just as we are doing better,
so is the enemy. You know, opposition to us is
growing at a rate that you mentioned earlier is just
irrational, inconceivable. So, you know, I'm optimistic
that we can raise to match and fight it.
We haven't yet. Well, I mean, let's, let's just
be honest with each other. We're getting pummeled right
now. We're getting pummeled.
As you mentioned, Khasbara is failing, but if we if this
pattern of Jewish unity and Jewish speaking out continues
and it goes into OverDrive, I'm, I'm optimistic of the future.
I think that we can, I think that we can, you know, push back
against it to get us to a good point.
But even even you asked me if there's anything I see that has
me optimistic. The one thing that I will say
regardless, it doesn't really matter what I see in the now,
the Jewish people have always been OK and we're always going
to be OK. You know, every Pesach, when you
read the Haggadah, it talks about every single person that's
come after us, every single powerful and how none of them
exist. I don't know what's going to
happen tomorrow. I don't know if a nation is
going to invade Israel. I don't know if a nation is
going to do another show. I don't know.
But what I do know is that when it all ends, we're going to be
OK because it's biblical and because that's been the pattern
of history. So I'll always be optimistic.
It doesn't matter how turn it down in the dirt.
If, if the war ended tomorrow and you know, Israel was the
richest country in the world, I would feel just as optimistic as
I did on the day of October 7th. That can't shake because we will
always be OK. We have always been OK and we
will always be OK. You know, I was with my cousins
were visiting from Israel with Shabbat and I asked some similar
question like what are you seeing?
Because obviously there's fatigue from the war and all
that, but are you, what are you optimistic about?
And they said something interesting that they're
noticing a lot of. There's a lot of renewed spirit
and interest in Judaism, even among celebrities.
Celebrities in Israel are like becoming outwardly proud of
their Judaism. It's, it's just like an
interesting thing that's happening.
It's fascinating. It's true, Yeah.
You know, there's something like to feed into what you're saying.
Just a personal experience I had, you know, with the at the
Daily Wire, a lot of people, a lot of people say that the Daily
Wire is like a, you know, completely Jewish company and,
and stuff like that. But in reality there's like 3
Jews that work at the entire company out of hundreds of
employees. And a few of them are just
completely secular. You know, they're Jewish,
they're conservative, but they don't, they don't keep post
October 7th. I've had more than one of them
come up to me and ask to rap to fill in for the first time.
It has to ask me where the Hibat is.
And I even have one of them. His name was Ira and he came to
Shoal with me and he started rapping to fill in every day.
I gave him a pair of my to fill in an extra one that I had raps
every single day went to New York, got his own pair, came
home and now he goes to goes to Shoal every single Shabbos.
It's it's a good, it's a good trend when it's coming to when
it come, when it's coming to secular people turning over
because I think they realize the real danger of being a Jew alone
in the world. You know, they see really what
we're up against and they want to turn to their own people for
comfort. So it's, it's a really, it's a
really good trend. I will just say back circle back
to the anti-Semitism hope in regards to anti-Semitism, it's
different. My example that I'm going to
give is very different for many reasons.
But there was a time not long ago that we thought that
liberalism and woke ISM is like, is like an immovable object
that's just going to continue to like, you know, swallow
everything, swallow everything up.
What happened? Well, kind of like what you
said, right? Conservatives mobilized boots on
the ground. You see Charlie Kirk going to
going to colleges, the online space, all that's and and all of
a sudden things flipped. It's different, of course, but I
do think that it does serve a model that we should think about
that things do change. You know, there are times, you
know, where, where, where we thought that the country's like,
you know, 100% go in a certain direction and things change and
it changes because of actions taken.
You can't just leave it and you also can't feel like it's
hopeless even if you were to do something.
What we really need to do is do something and let the chips fall
and see what happens, because things can and do change.
Yep. And I want to also just add,
it's a beautiful message, but I want to add to that, that one of
the positives that I see that we should, you know, give a shout
out to are the many friends that we never knew we had that are
coming out to speak on our behalf, you know, from from the
non Jewish world and from the Jewish world, but who are
speaking out like, you know, and they're taking up a big risk in
many ways now. And, you know, it's funny if it
says Jews control the media, If that's the case, you know, why
are we seeing that everyone's against the Jews in the media?
The thing is. When people say you're not
allowed to talk about against the Jews and that's all that's
happening, it's like you're not allowed to say anything good
about the Jews at this point. But.
I'm not allowed to. They always, a lot of them say
like I'm not allowed to talk about this, but but you're
talking all the time. Literally all the time.
Sorry to interrupt. Yeah.
So, so, you know, I want to just give a shout out to, to those
people who we find, you know, constantly online who are so
courageous and speaking up for us and they're seeing what's
happening. Righteous among the Nations.
Yes, absolutely. Just one of them that comes to
mind. I see like Patricia Heaton, the
actress from Everybody Loves Raymond, like I never thought
that she would be like politically active.
And this is the one thing she's very, you know, adamant about
and she's constantly defending the Jews and she sees it for
what it is. And I'm like, that's really nice
to see that someone like that is like, I would never expect it.
So it's really, it's a nice thing to see at the same time.
And just to finalize the last question I wanted to discuss,
and we kind of touched on it a little bit, is, you know, the
fact that you're grounded in Torah values.
How do you think Jewish tradition can offer moral
clarity in today's cultural chaos?
Are there specific teachings or frameworks that you think young
people, Jewish or not, need to hear right now?
That's a really good question. You know, when it comes to
values from the Torah, you know, we, I'm going to give, I'm going
to give my advice specifically to the Jewish people since we've
been talking about, I know you asked for those who aren't and
those who are. I'm going to give, it's going to
sound kind of cliche because you asked me about which values
specifically, but I'm going to say all of them.
And the reason I say all of them is because the Jewish people
fall apart when we don't adhere to the entire book that our
ancestors were given. That's been the case throughout
all of history. We fell short during the time of
the second base summit Dash. We got kicked out throughout all
of all of Jewish history, not adhering to the entirety.
You can follow parts of it. You can follow certain things.
If you don't do all of it, you fall apart.
You know Deuteronomy 4/2, it says, it says you shouldn't add
or take away anything from what I'm giving.
You can't follow some and not others.
So, so I think every single value, every single word in the
Torah is divine. Every single word was put there
for a reason. Every single sentence has a
meaning and every single Jewish people, Jewish person should go
through it and read it and live their daily lives by the words
in it. And I just, I, I can't emphasize
that enough. You know, I, there's so many
secular Jews in the world wondering this hate.
What am I supposed to do about it?
You know, I, they're living a completely directionless life
because they don't know what direction to go.
But if they had grounds in their faith and they would at least
have a direction and they would at least know how to turn to
their community. And, and so, yeah, I would say,
I would say all of it not to sound cliche.
I would say no. I would say pick up a Torah and
instead of instead of listening for one specific value to live
by, listen to the the thousands and thousands of them that you
can find inside of the Torah. So I actually want to add to
that today I was sitting next to one of my friends who's a
traditional, not, not a shomer Shabbat guy in our communities,
Sephardic community. So we have a lot of people who
don't observe everything, but, you know, in the shul, we are,
we're all, you know, the same. And he, we were, I was sitting
next to him and he was reading the, he was just reading the
parsha and he was like, this is unbelievable.
You know, I noticed that every time I'm, I'm hearing the Torah
and I'm, and I'm reading inside he, he's only, he's reading the
English. He's like, I, I really feel like
this is speaking out. This is speaking to me about
what's happening right now in the and you hear that from so
many people, but I, I experienced it myself.
I see all the time you're like, wow, this is, this is something
that, and, and you can, you can take.
It's not just like a cool thing. So I'm like, wow, this is what a
coincidence. But there's actually like a lot
of, there's a lot of advice you can take from the Torah and how
to how to respond to what's happening.
So it's very interesting. It's.
True. I mean, how many times does it
say, does it say in the Torah that these words are eternal?
He doesn't say this. The Torah wasn't written just as
a message of the people for the people that were alive when it
was given. It says the words are, are, are,
are ever living and they'll ring truth throughout all of history.
So, yeah, it makes sense that he was thinking that.
I think that when I read it, you know, Yeah.
Yeah, 100%. I understand why he was like
that. Well, Jacob, we really want to
thank you for coming on the podcast.
It was an absolute pleasure. We, we would love to have you on
again once sometime. Obviously, you, you don't we,
we, we think that what you're doing, speaking out for our
people is such a, you know, important thing and we value
everything that you do. And we hope that many people who
are not familiar with you know, your work should be turned on to
it after listening to this podcast.
So thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Thank you guys for having me. Keep up the good work and we
appreciate everything. Thank you.
Cheto cheto of you too.