The Short Vort by Rabbi Eisenman

I noticed today in the Israeli and Jewish media sources the following "news" item:

"(JTA) — Guy Christensen, a TikTok influencer with more than 3 million followers, came out in support of the shooting attack that killed two Israeli embassy employees.

"I do not condemn the elimination of the Zionist officials who worked at the Israeli embassy last night," Christensen, a Gen-Z influencer who goes by YourFavoriteGuy on TikTok, said in a video posted Thursday.

"I want to urge you first to support Elias' actions," he added later, referencing the alleged shooter. "He is not a terrorist. He's a resistance fighter, and the fact is that the fight against Israel's war machine, against their genocide machine, against their criminality includes their foreign diplomats in this country."

"The progressive radio show "Democracy Now" elicited comments likening Rodriguez to Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in December — reflecting a trend peeking out across the internet."

For years, we were "warned" that the biggest threat to our country came from the "right."

As former President Joe Biden said in 2023:

"President Joe Biden denounced white supremacy as the "most dangerous terrorist threat" to the nation in his commencement address to Howard University's graduating class Saturday.

"White supremacy … is the single most dangerous terrorist threat in our homeland," Biden said. "And I'm not just saying this because I'm at a Black HBCU. I say this wherever I go."

Maybe Mr. Biden is correct as far as "our homeland" goes; however, with regard to our Jewish homeland, namely the State of Israel, the events in the nation's capital on Wednesday night revealed what most of us always knew.

Namely, with regard to the Jewish people and Israel, the "left" is just as dangerous and lethal, if not more, than the "right."

If there is one thing the "right" and the "left" can agree on, it is that the most extreme in both groups share a common hatred of the Jews and Israel.

The terrorist who took two innocent lives led a left-wing-leaning professional life.



"Mr. Rodriguez, 31, led a life typical of a college-educated young professional in Chicago, residing in an apartment in a middle-class North Side neighborhood with friends and family nearby.

When Mr. Rodriguez was taken into custody after the shooting on Wednesday night, he told police officers, "I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,

Born and raised in Chicago, Mr. Rodriguez graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago.

He was a senior content associate for CouponCabin, a company based in Chicago that provides printable and digital coupons for discounts to consumers.

He later worked as an oral history researcher and production coordinator at a Black history site and then took a job at the American Osteopathic Information Association, a trade group for osteopathic doctors.

"He enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film, and exploring new places," one job biography read.

A post (by Rodriguez) on social media on Wednesday night…condemned the Israeli and American governments and what it called atrocities committed by the Israeli military against Palestinians…. sought to justify "armed action."

Mr. Rodriguez was registered to vote in Illinois, and in 2020 donated $500 to Joseph R. Biden's presidential campaign, records show."

Americans who feel marginalized and have contempt for the laws of our country, be they on the right or on the left, share one common ground: their hatred of Jews and Israel.

Thankfully, the majority of Americans do not feel this way.

However, we, as proud Jews, must do our best to debunk both those of the right and of the left who do feel sympathy for Mr. Rodriguez.

We must do our best through our actions and through our advocacy to stand up now even more for Israel and to reveal to the world that every single casualty of the war is because of Hamas and their actions.

We must be proud to be Jews and be identified as proud Jews.

There is no reason to hide your Jewish identity; quite the opposite, we have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide.

Hashem has promised us Eretz Yisroel, and the IDF is the most moral army in the world.

We will never succeed in convincing everyone about the correctness of our cause. However, that never exempts us from trying.

We have survived worse periods of anti-Semitism, and we will survive this period as well.

However, we must make an even greater effort to show everyone the beauty of Judaism and to proclaim proudly, as the first Rashi in Chumash tells us, "Eretz Yisroel is ours, as Hashem when he created the world He gave it to us.

With His help, we shall not only survive but also thrive and, together, return to Yerushalayim proudly with our heads held high!