Uncategorized
Carrie Prejean Boller Traded in Anti-Jewish Libels — Not ‘Anti-Zionism’
Carrie Prejean Boller speaks during a White House Religious Liberty Commission hearing on Feb. 9, 2026. Photo: Screenshot
A hearing of President Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission ought to be serious. It should reward proportion and memory. It should be where people who invoke faith also remember what faith has done when certainty outran humility. Americans of different faiths and convictions are supposed to gather in such rooms to protect the arrangement that lets them live together without persecution.
Instead, the group’s session on antisemitism became a spectacle.
And in that spectacle, Carrie Prejean Boller offered something praised by her admirers as courage but delivered unmistakably as performance. Repeatedly, she returned to the line meant to thrill an audience already primed for confrontation: I will not bend the knee to Israel. Christ is King.
For Christians, those last three words are sacred. They are meant to bend the speaker downward, not aim him outward. They belong to prayer, to worship, to believers who placed divine authority above earthly rule.
But phrases gather histories. Their meaning depends on where they land — and at whom they are aimed. When “Christ is King” is hurled at Jews, at Jewish national existence itself, it crosses into different territory. What is presented as devotion sounds like warning. What claims to elevate faith becomes accusation.
Anyone who has watched Jewish public life online understands this. The phrase has become a cudgel, directed not heavenward but at Jews, frequently in moments of harassment. During the antisemitism hearing, Seth Dillon tried to say exactly that. Boller brushed it aside.
But history does not retreat because someone finds it inconvenient.
Boller, who entered the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil in April 2025, insists she stands squarely inside tradition. She invokes the idea that the Church is the “new Israel,” as if metaphor can erase Jewish continuity or cancel Jewish self-determination — as if theology can nullify a people and a country.
But modern Catholic teaching moved the other way. In 1965, Nostra Aetate rejected collective Jewish guilt and condemned antisemitism without ambiguity. Since then, popes from John Paul II, to Benedict XVI, to Francis, have reinforced that turn, affirming the enduring Christian covenant with the Jewish people and, in practice and diplomacy alike, recognizing the legitimacy of Jewish national life in Israel.
This was not cosmetic. It was civilizational.
None of it requires every Catholic to support every Israeli government action or policy. Israelis do not.
But it does close off something essential: the claim that the Christian faith demands hostility to Jewish sovereignty or that Jewish nationhood is itself an affront to God.
To advance that argument now is not preservation.
It is retreat — toward medieval habits the Church spent generations trying to escape.
Once that cover drops, the rest of Boller’s discourse becomes easy to understand.
The Jews as alien.
The Jews as dangerously powerful.
The Jews before whom one must refuse to kneel.
These ideas existed long before Zionism. They helped build a Europe in which Jews were permanent outsiders, tolerated in second class existence, until they were not.
People might use modern vocabulary. They call it anti-Zionism. But the grammar is medieval.
What gave Boller’s performance its charge was the insistence by many that it represented bravery. In the media worlds, where figures like Nick Fuentes and Candace Owens prosper, denunciations of Jews are packaged as resistance — as truth finally spoken against malignant power.
In reality, they are career accelerants. They bring followers, invitations, and notoriety. They manufacture prominence. In those markets, antisemitism is not punished. It pays.
And the market responded immediately. In the days following the hearing, Boller’s audience on X exploded into the six-figure range. What was described as backlash functioned instead as promotion.
That’s why this theatre is different from actual martyrdom. Martyrs give things up. Influencers acquire them.
Nor did her message cool once the cameras were off. Freed from the structure of the hearing, the rhetoric intensified. Praise from figures long associated with conspiratorial and demonic portrayals of Jews was welcomed and amplified. Distance from extremity did not grow. It vanished.
Boller told Dillon she listens to Owens every day and hears nothing antisemitic. That claim is staggering. Owens has invoked the phrase “synagogue of Satan,” trafficked in conspiracies of Jewish control, attacked “Talmudic” morality in language recycled from 19th-century polemics, and echoed Louis Farrakhan’s lie blaming Jews for the transatlantic slave trade. She has also connected Jewish belief to occult imagery and revisited themes that sit beside the medieval blood libel — the accusation that Jews prey upon children.
These are not subtle references. They are not policy critiques or debates over borders. They live among the most catastrophic accusations in Jewish history. To encounter them constantly and feel nothing is not innocence. It is adaptation.
It is also a sign of Boller’s apprenticeship — the process by which Owens’ mainstreaming of antisemitic extremity and outrage became Boller’s calling.
What disappears in moments like this is not just decorum. It is the long, difficult work of Christian-Jewish repair. Generations labored to uproot reflexes of blame that had once seemed natural. They built a vocabulary in which disagreement did not require degradation. That inheritance is fragile. And it weakens each time someone rediscovers how intoxicating it can be to hint that Jewish existence itself stands in defiance of heaven.
What happened in that room was not revelation. It was transmission — old suspicions moving through new circuitry. Medieval accusations formatted for the digital age, equally comfortable in far-right grievance, far-left agitation, Islamist supremacism, and populist resentment.
Different costumes. Same Jewish target.
And those deploying this rhetoric understand the mechanism. They deny animus while activating it. They profess reluctance while benefiting from the applause.
Carrie Prejean Boller did not design that engine. She stepped onto its conveyor belt. She clothed resentment in religious language and called it conscience. But vestments do not absolve what they carry. When faith becomes camouflage for hostility toward Jews, the act ceases to be theological. It becomes agitation with borrowed authority.
For a commission tasked with defending liberty, that matters. It teaches audiences that exclusion can sound devout, that hostility can masquerade as fidelity, that prejudice can be recited as creed. That’s why Boller was rightly removed from the commission.
And it teaches something else as well: that the quickest route to influence in certain American subcultures is to accuse Jews loudly enough while insisting you are merely being faithful.
The people applauding may imagine they are defending Christianity. But what they are defending is the permission to spread hate against most Jews while claiming virtue. That is the real spectacle.
Micha Danzig is an attorney, former IDF soldier, and former NYPD officer. He writes widely on Israel, Zionism, antisemitism, and Jewish history. He serves on the board of Herut North America.
Uncategorized
Yiddish has a long list of words for ‘cemetery‘
נישט אַלע ווייסן אַז אויף ייִדיש איז דאָ אַ גאַנצער וואָקאַבולאַר וועגן דעם, וווּ מע לייגט ייִדן נאָכן טויט.
וואָס טוט מען טאַקע מיט אַ מת? מע באַגראָבט אים אָדער מע באַהאַלט אים, אָדער מע איז אים מקבר, אָדער מע ברענגט אים צו קבֿר־ישׂראל. „באַגראָבן“ האָט דאָך אויך אַ פֿאַרשפּרייטן מעטאַפֿאָרישן טײַטש, „רויִנירן“. אָט איז דאָ אַ ווערטערשפּיל: „שטאַרבן איז נאָך ווי ס’איז, אָבער דאָס אַרײַנלייגן אין דר’ערד, דאָס באַגראָבט אַ מענטשן!“
וועגן דעם אָרט, וווּ ס’ליגן ייִדן נאָכן טויט, איז דאָ אַ לאַנגע רשימה ווערטער, כּמעט אַלע אייפֿעמיזמען. נאָך די הונדערט יאָר ליגן ייִדן און ייִדישע טעכטער, קודם־כּל, אויף אַ בית־עולם. אויף לשון־קודש איז „עולם“, פֿאַרשטייט זיך, טײַטש „וועלט“ און אויף ייִדיש — „אַ גרופּע מענטשן“; אָבער אויף לשון־קודש האָט „עולם“ נאָך אַ טײַטש, „אייביקייט“. איז אַ בית־עולם דאָס אָרט, וווּ מע בלײַבט אויף אייביק. דאָס אייגענע איז שייך צום אַרמיש־שטאַמיקע „בית־עלמין“.
אַ פֿאַל פֿון לשון סגי־נהור, דאָס הייסט וווּ מע זאָגט איין זאַך אָבער מע מיינט דאָס פֿאַרקערטע, איז „בית־חיים“, טײַטש „דאָס הויז פֿון לעבן“. אַן אַנדער וואָרט, נישט קיין אייפֿעמיזם, איז „בית־הקבֿרות“, דאָס הייסט, דאָרטן, וווּ ס’געפֿינען זיך קבֿרים.
אָבער נישט אַלע ווערטער נעמען זיך פֿון לשון־קודש. מע זאָגט דאָך אויך „דאָס פֿעלד“, „דאָס גוטע־אָרט“, „דאָס הייליקע אָרט“, „דאָס ריינע אָרט“. אַ טשיקאַווער משל דערפֿון: איך בין אַ מאָל געפֿאָרן אין דער שטאָט גער, נישט ווײַט פֿון וואַרשע, וואָס ביזן חורבן איז זי געווען דער זיץ פֿונעם באַקאַנטן גערער רבין. אין 2007 זענען אין דער שטאָט געבליבן גאַנצע דרײַ ייִדן, האָב איך געהאַט די זכיה זיך צו באַקענען, און צו כאַפּן אַ ייִדישן שמועס, מיט צוויי. (וויפֿל מאָל אין לעבן איז מיר אויסגעקומען צו שמועסן אויף ייִדיש מיט אַ ייִד, וואָס האָט איבערגעלעבט דעם חורבן און וווינט נאָך אין זײַן מיזרח־אייראָפּעיִשער היימשטאָט?)
איינער פֿון זיי, וועלוול קאַרפּמאַן, האָט מיט אַ פּאָר יאָר שפּעטער געגעבן אַן אינטערוויו דער ייִדישער ראַדיאָ־אוידיציע פֿונעם פּוילישן ראַדיאָ (צום באַדויערן, האָט מען די ראַדיאָ־אוידיציע דערנאָכדעם אָפּגעשאַפֿט). ווען די זשורנאַליסטקע האָט אים אַ פֿרעג געטאָן וועגן דעם גורל פֿונעם גערער בית־עולם, האָט ער זי איבערגעפֿרעגט: „איר מיינט ס’גוטע־אָרט?“ יעדעס מאָל, וואָס זי האָט ווײַטער געזאָגט „בית־עולם“, האָט ער געענטפֿערט „ס’גוטע־אָרט“.
אויך בײַ די אומות־העולם זענען די ווערטער דערפֿאַר אייפֿעמיזמען. דאָס פֿאַרשפּרייטסטע וואָרט אין אייראָפּע איז ס’ענגלישע cemetery, ס’פֿראַנצייזישע cimetière אד”גל, פֿון אַן אַלטגריכישן ווערב פֿאַר „ליגן/לייגן שלאָפֿן“. גאָר אַ מאָל, פֿאַר דער הײַנטיקער צײַט־רעכענונג, איז ס’גריכישע וואָרט געווען טײַטש „שלאָפֿשטוב“; בײַ די קריסטן בשעתּו האָט עס באַקומען דעם מאָדערנעם טײַטש. אַ ווײַטער קרובֿ פֿון דעם וואָרט איז ס’ייִדישע „היים“, אַ פּנים, ווײַל אין דער היים שלאָפֿט מען, אָבער נישט פּונקט אַזוי ווי אויפֿן בית־עולם…
דאָס דײַטשישע Friedhof איז דער „שלום־הויף“; און Kirchhof „קלויסטערהויף“ איז מגולגל געוואָרן אינעם פּוילישן Kirkut „ייִדישער בית־עולם“!
און אַזוי ווי מאַמע־לשון האָט פּאַראַלעלע וואָקאַבולאַרן פֿאַר ייִדן און פֿאַר קריסטן איז גאָר קיין חידוש נישט, וואָס אויפֿן אָרט, וווּ ס’ליגן קריסטן זאָגט מען „צווינטער“ אָדער „צמענטער“, מסתּמא, פֿון פּוילישן cmentarz פֿונעם זעלביקן גריכישן שורש וואָס cemetery.
The post Yiddish has a long list of words for ‘cemetery‘ appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
IHOP denies inviting Florida GOP candidate who said ‘Americans shouldn’t die for Israel’
(JTA) — James Fishback, the fringe GOP candidate courting the online far right in his long-shot bid for governor of Florida, had a bit of food-service drama this week — and it wasn’t about the “goyslop” he previously claimed was being served in the state’s school cafeterias.
Waffle House, he alleged, had banned him from every restaurant in the state after he announced his intent to campaign at the chain’s Florida locations. The reason, he claimed, was because he said that “Americans shouldn’t die for Israel.”
But not to worry, Fishback quickly announced: Another breakfast chain, International House of Pancakes, had extended an invitation to him personally.
“Hey, wanna come over?” reads a direct message Fishback posted to social media, a photo of which appears to come from IHOP’s official corporate account. An elated Fishback soon posted photos from a campaign stop at an IHOP, which he deemed “International House of Patriots.”
Not so, an IHOP spokesperson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Since our founding, IHOP and its franchisees have been committed to providing warm and welcoming dining experiences for all guests. We are not working with James Fishback or his campaign in any capacity,” the spokesperson told JTA in an email. “Additionally, we have confirmed that the image circulating on social media is not authentic.”
Fishback did not return a request for comment by JTA about IHOP’s claim. The former investment banker has used terms on the campaign trail considered dogwhistles to the online far right and boasts a large online profile that has included interviews with Tucker Carlson and antisemitic podcaster Myron Gaines. He has also praised the followers of antisemitic streamer Nick Fuentes.
Asked by JTA why he had made his earlier “goyslop” comments, Fishback replied, “Because it’s funny. Get a life.”
He then posted the exchange to his X account under the caption, “Journalists are insufferable.”
Earlier in the same conversation, asked about recently revealed racist and antisemitic messages from a Florida Young Republicans regional group chat, Fishback replied, “I condemn all forms of hatred.”
The post IHOP denies inviting Florida GOP candidate who said ‘Americans shouldn’t die for Israel’ appeared first on The Forward.
Uncategorized
Iran Names Khamenei’s Hardline Son Mojtaba as New Supreme Leader
FILE PHOTO: Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, visits Hezbollah’s office in Tehran, Iran, October 1, 2024. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader, signaling that hardliners remain firmly in charge in Tehran a week into its conflict with the United States and Israel.
Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with influence inside Iran’s security forces and vast business networks under his father, had been seen as a frontrunner in the lead up to the vote by the assembly, a body of 88 clerics charged with choosing the new leader after Ali Khamenei.
“By a decisive vote, the Assembly of Experts, appointed Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei as the third Leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the assembly said in a statement issued just after midnight Tehran time.
The position gives Mojtaba the final say in all matters of state in the Islamic Republic.
Mojtaba’s appointment will likely draw the ire of US President Donald Trump, who said on Sunday that Washington should have a say in the selection. “If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long,” he told ABC News. Israel, ahead of the announcement, threatened to target whoever was chosen.
Mojtaba’s father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was killed in one of the first strikes launched against Iran more than a week ago.
The US military on Sunday reported a seventh American has died from wounds sustained during Iran’s initial counter-attack a week ago, a day after Trump presided over the return to the United States of the remains of the six others who died.
The US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran’s U.N. ambassador.
As Trump pressed for an “unconditional surrender,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, said Tehran was not seeking a ceasefire to the war and would punish aggressors.
Israel continued to target senior Iranian figures, including Abolqasem Babaian, the recently appointed head of the military office of the supreme leader, saying he was killed in a Saturday strike.
BLACK SMOKE HANGS OVER TEHRAN
As fighting escalated on day nine of the US-Israeli campaign against Iran, thick black smoke hung over Tehran on Sunday, residents said, after strikes on oil storage facilities had lit up the night sky with plumes of orange flame.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the large-scale attack marked a “dangerous new phase” of the conflict and amounted to a war crime.
“By targeting fuel depots, the aggressors are releasing hazardous materials and toxic substances into the air,” he wrote on X.
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters the depots were used to fuel Iran’s war effort, including producing or storing propellant for ballistic missiles. “They are a legal military target,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government would press on with the assault and strike Iran’s rulers “without mercy.”
“We have an organized plan with many surprises to destabilize the regime and enable change,” he said in a video statement.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will visit Israel on Tuesday, according to Axios, citing a senior US official.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he was not seeking negotiations to end the conflict, which has driven up global energy prices, disrupted business and snarled air travel.
“At some point, I don’t think there will be anybody left maybe to say, ‘We surrender,’” he said.