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António Guterres’s remarks about Israeli actions are obscene.
Ruthie Blum
(JNS)
It’s one thing for terrorist regimes and their fellow travelers to condemn Israel for fighting back forcefully against the mortal threats in and along its borders. It’s even logical for those entities to bemoan the assassination of the mass murderers attempting to fulfill genocidal, hegemonic aspirations through the slaughter of Jews.
But when the knee-jerk reaction of self-proclaimed “human rights” champions with heavy titles and hefty budgets is to blame the Jewish state for defending itself, while making the free world a safer place, a more dangerous phenomenon is at work.
Nor does equating Israel with enemies bent on its destruction disguise the antisemitism at play. An expert at this transparent ploy is U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres.
Following the Israeli airstrikes on Friday night in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, Guterres expressed “grave concern.” What he didn’t do was mention the target of those attacks: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah—the mass murderer whose death was celebrated across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, by the victims of his brutality.
This “cycle of violence must stop now, and all sides must step back from the brink,” he said. “The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel, as well as the wider region, cannot afford an all-out war.”
The cycle of violence. That’s the classic euphemism employed by Israel’s detractors to deny its right—nay duty—to defend itself. And in case Guterres hasn’t been paying attention, an “all-out war” has been raging against the Jewish state for the past year, not including the ongoing battles imposed on it since its inception.
To make an even greater mockery of his role in the farcical international body, he proceeded to “urge the parties to recommit to the full implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 … and immediately return to a cessation of hostilities.”
A cessation of hostilities. Another catchphrase that erases the clear distinction between victim and perpetrator—between a democratic country and a terrorist organization serving as an Iranian proxy.
He failed to mention that the 2006 resolution, adopted to conclude the Second Lebanon War, was never honored by the latter; nor was its implementation safeguarded by the UNIFIL, the “peacekeeping” U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.
He conveniently omitted, as well, the fact that Hezbollah launched an unprovoked rocket, missile and drone assault on northern Israel on the day after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 men, women and children—as well as the abduction of 251 others—in the south.
Guterres got around this by concluding his statement-of-woe over the elimination of Nasrallah with a “reiterat[ion] of his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages held there.”
An immediate ceasefire. In other words, an Israeli capitulation to Hamas, which hasn’t agreed to anything short of a guarantee that it remains in power in the Strip—without a release of all the hostages in return. Still, Guterres seems to think he covered his bases by paying lip service to the captives.
His disgraceful reaction to Israel’s targeted operations to take out the terrorists responsible for the very belligerence that he and his cohorts profess to abhor was to be expected. After all, he can always be counted on to occupy the wrong side of history, as was illustrated last week during the 79th session of the U.N. General Assembly.
In his mendacious address at the opening of the gathering on Sept. 24, he called Gaza a “nonstop nightmare that threatens to take the entire region with it.”
Guterres wasn’t referring to the terrorists who destroyed the enclave, however. No, he went on to warn that Lebanon could be the next to fall to the fate of Israeli aggression.
That’s not how he put it, of course. He preferred innuendo.
“We should all be alarmed by the escalation,” he said. “The people of Lebanon, the people of Israel and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza.”
It would have been a reasonable remark had it been uttered to explain why Israel’s actions have been necessary for the benefit of humankind. Naturally, though, that’s not what Guterres meant.
In order to veil his true intentions, he gave a perfunctory nod to morality.
“Let’s be clear,” he began. “Nothing can justify the abhorrent acts of terror committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, or the taking of hostages, both of which I have repeatedly condemned.”
Then came the clincher: “And nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. The speed and scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza are unlike anything in my years as secretary-general. More than 200 of our own staff have been killed, many with their families. And yet the women and men of the United Nations continue to deliver humanitarian aid. I know you join me in paying a special tribute to UNRWA and to all humanitarians in Gaza.”
So, he still hasn’t acknowledged that UNRWA is an arm of Hamas or that many of its employees actively participated in the Oct. 7 massacre and held hostages in their homes.
That’s probably why he felt no compunction about subsequently declaring, “The international community must mobilize for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and the beginning of an irreversible process towards a two-state solution.”
The icing on the cake came in the form of rhetorical questions.
“For those who go on undermining that goal with more settlements, more landgrabs, more incitement, I ask, ‘What is the alternative? How could the world accept a one-state future in which a large number of Palestinians would be included without any freedom, rights or dignity?’”
Luckily for the people of the region and beyond, Israel has stopped worrying about the foul language of the likes of Guterres and begun exercising its might to defeat its enemies. While the United Nations moans at the Jewish state’s moves in Lebanon, genuine freedom-seekers everywhere are cheering.
Image: United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s 79th session on Sept. 24, 2024. Credit: Laura Jarriel/U.N. Photo.
The IDF soldiers with their certificates of appreciation at the office of Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer on June 12, 2023. Credit: Aliyah and Integration Ministry.
Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer on Monday hosted a group of new immigrants who enlisted in the army as lone soldiers. The troops received the President’s Excellence Award on Israel’s 75th Independence Day: April 25.
“I was very excited to meet the outstanding soldiers and hear their stories,” said Sofer.
A “lone soldier” is defined by the Israeli military as one without parents in Israel, or who is estranged from their parents.
“Each soldier has a unique and moving story that led them to this point, and behind them are parents who support and encourage their aliyah [immigration] and meaningful service in the Israeli Defense Forces. In my opinion, soldiers that have made aliyah exhibit an unparalleled uniqueness that combines aliyah and the protection of our nation, which is very special,” the minister continued.
The soldiers were presented with a framed certificate of appreciation and a special gift at the event, which was organized by Lt. Col. Oded Nahari, commander of the IDF Ceremonies and Events Unit, and the Aliyah and Integration Ministry.
According to the Lone Soldier Center, a total of 7,000 lone soldiers are currently serving in the IDF.
Image: The IDF soldiers with their certificates of appreciation at the office of Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer on June 12, 2023. Credit: Aliyah and Integration Ministry.
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At its core is a simple message: Jews don’t belong anywhere. At least not on earth.
Matthew Schultz
(Jewish Journal via JNS)
At a protest in London, scrawled on a small piece of cardboard and written with fewer words than a haiku, a masterpiece of antisemitism was lifted on high.
“The only place you’re indigenous to is Jahannam!”
Turn it and turn it, as Ben Bag-Bag said of the Torah, for everything is in it. The idea that Jews belong in “Jahannam,” or “hell” in Arabic, is part of the venerable tradition of religious antisemitism, whether Christian or Islamist, while the reference to indigeneity is a nod to left-wing university-style antisemitism.
At its core is a simple message: Jews don’t belong anywhere. At least not on earth.
And since we don’t have a natural, authentic connection to any place in particular, it’s perfectly justified to try and expel us from every place in general. Before the Holocaust, it was common for German Jews to be told to go back to where they came from. Today, after being slaughtered in Europe and chased out of the Middle East and Africa, we are still being told to go back to where we came from, but now they say it was Europe all along.
Like the myth of the Wandering Jew, who was cursed for taunting Jesus on the cross, our foot can find no rest as we drag ourselves over the horizon. We are conceived of as unwanted guests at best, dangerous infiltrators at worst.
Just as we have no true home, so too we have no true culture or history. Just last May, in a speech to the United Nations, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas asserted that there never was a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
“They dug under al-Aqsa…they dug everywhere, and they could not find anything,” he said. “They lie and lie, just like Goebbels.”
In this reimagined ancient Levant scrubbed clean of Jews, Jesus is recast as a Palestinian. Even Tel Aviv—the first Hebrew city—is given a fabricated Palestinian pedigree. In a video uploaded to YouTube by “The Ask Project,” a young Palestinian woman is asked if she believes Jews have a right to live anywhere in the land. She shakes her head.
“What about Tel Aviv?” the interviewer asks.
“There is no Tel Aviv,” she responds with a laugh. “It’s Tel Arabiya.”
Most virulent of all is the charge that Israeli cuisine is stolen from Palestinians—a claim which has gained major traction among American leftists because of its consonance with Western ideas about cultural appropriation.
Hence, Israeli restaurants in the United States have been targeted by protesters not only for their ties to Israel, but also for being culture thieves. In one widely shared video, a woman tears down an Israeli flag from a New York restaurant called “Hummus Kitchen” while shouting that hummus “isn’t even Israeli.”
“There is no such thing as Israeli cuisine,” writes one user on X. “It’s all stolen/appropriated from Palestine/Egypt/Lebanon/
Note that these countries are all places where Jews have lived for centuries. If Jews don’t live there today, it’s because they were aggressively expelled from those regions. Many of them resettled in Israel, and naturally they took their recipes with them. Had this X user done his research, he would have realized this.
Similarly, had our protester done her research, she would have learned that “Jahannam” is an Arabization of a Hebrew word found in the Torah. “Gei-Hinnom” originally referred to an area in Jerusalem. Today it is a beautiful place just outside the Old City, and for a single year I had the great privilege of seeing it each day when I looked out of my bedroom window.
In the ancient world, it wasn’t so scenic. It was a place of ill-repute. “Gei-Hinnom” thus became a watchword for all that was bad in the world, and by the time Jesus was preaching, the word had come to signify a supernatural netherworld instead of a bad neighborhood. This concept of hell was then adopted by Islam as “Jahannam.”
There is thus a profound irony in our protester’s sign. The very words she uses to try and sever the Jewish connection with the land conceal an etymological link to our ancient presence in Jerusalem. In her effort to call us thieves, she utilizes an Islamic concept which turns out to be derived from the Torah.
This isn’t so unusual. Those most eager to erase Jewish history are those who have been most profoundly shaped by it. For most of history, it was primarily Christians who—having built their religion and society on Hebraic foundations—scorned and abused Jews, claiming the Holy Land as their own and dubbing themselves the new children of Israel. Today these ideas are pushed by Palestinian leadership and activists.
Which is to say that the erasure of Jewish history, culture and connection to the land is best understood as an act of projection.
Hence those whose mosque sits on the site of an ancient Jewish Temple accuse the Jews of being foreign colonizers with no historical connection to the land.
Those whose sacred book is filled with stories and ideas taken directly from the Hebrew Bible accuse the Jews of stealing their falafel.
Increasingly, this campaign of erasure is winning hearts and minds in America and Europe. They believe that Jews have no culture, no history, and most importantly, no place where we belong.
Nowhere except “Jahannam.”
Luckily for us, we know where that really is.
Jerusalem.
Aka Zion.
Originally published by The Jewish Journal.
Image: View of a rope bridge crossing from the Ben Hinnom valley to Mount Zion, in the Old city of Jerusalem, on July 30, 2023. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.
Elijah teaches us a lesson for every generation, including our own.
RABBI YOSSY GOLDMAN
Rabbi Yossy Goldman is Life Rabbi Emeritus of Sydenham Shul in Johannesburg and president of the South African Rabbinical Association. He is the author of From Where I Stand, on the weekly Torah readings, available from Ktav.com and Amazon.
This week we will have the unusual opportunity of marking the leap day of Feb. 29. But Jews, who are characteristically generous, don’t have just a leap day. We have a whole extra month.
With a full 13th month of Adar II, the Haftarah read in shul this week will be a well-known biblical story from the First Book of Kings, which is not usually read in an ordinary calendar year. It is the famous story of Elijah the prophet, and his fight against the idolatrous King Ahab and his heathen wife Queen Jezebel, who actively promoted paganism in the Holy Land and had many of the Hebrew prophets put to death.
The Israelites were wavering between the worship of Baal and the worship of the true God of Israel. Elijah decides that dramatic action is needed to bring his people back from idolatry and confusion to monotheism and faith in the one God. He challenges Ahab to a duel, not with Colt .45s, but with prayer.
The 450 prophets of the idol Baal and Elijah—the one prophet of the one God of Israel—ascended Mount Carmel. Each side was to prepare an animal offering on an altar and pray to their deity. The one whose offering would be consumed by a fire from heaven would have proven the authenticity of their God.
“Give us two bulls and let them [the prophets of Baal] choose one bull for themselves and cut it up and place it on the wood, but fire they shall not put; and I will prepare one bull, and I will put it on the wood, and fire will I not place. And you will call out in the name of your deity, and I will call out in the name of the Lord, and it shall be that the one who will answer with fire, he is the true God.” (First Kings 18:20-39)
The prophets of Baal agreed to the challenge and many thousands gathered on the mountain to watch the dramatic showdown. This would be the final faceoff to determine who was the one true God.
The prophets of Baal went first. Naturally, their prayers and entreaties went unanswered. Elijah even taunted them: “Perhaps your god is sleeping or on a journey. Pray more loudly, perhaps he doesn’t hear you.” Of course, despite all their prayers, incantations and shenanigans, there was no reply from above.
As evening approached, Elijah took center stage. He built an altar, placed the animal upon it, poured water all around the altar and offered a short but powerful prayer: “Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel. Let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and at Your word have I done all these things. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, and this people shall know that You are the Lord God.”
As Elijah finished his prayer, a fire descended from heaven and consumed his offering: “And all the people saw and fell on their faces, and they said, “The Lord is God, the Lord is God.”
It is with these very words that, to this day, we conclude the sacred Neilah prayer at the end of every Yom Kippur.
This is a powerful, inspirational story. Just as it demonstrated to the Jews of that generation that the one God alone is worthy of our worship, so does its stirring message speak to us today.
But I am not here to marvel at God’s miracles. To God, miracles are nothing special, just an everyday routine matter. To me, the bigger and more moving miracle is how one mortal man of flesh and blood stood up to the most powerful ruler in the land. Ahab was the king and had an army at his beck and call. Elijah was one lone voice in the wilderness. He had been persecuted, was on the run and almost all his righteous compatriots had been murdered by the king and queen’s forces. Still, he spoke truth to power.
It would have been so much simpler and easier for Elijah to change his tune and go along with the popular thinking of the time. No doubt there were plenty of Jews who must have told him, “Don’t be such a fanatic. Why are you so rigid and inflexible? So what if they dabble a bit with Baal? Everyone is doing it these days. If you cooperate with the king, you may even become the chief prophet of the land!”
But Elijah remained faithful to his beliefs and stuck to his principles. In the end, his prayer was answered, the miracle happened, and he was able to inspire and turn his entire nation back to God.
So, to my mind, bigger than a fire coming down from heaven is the miracle of Elijah’s faith, fortitude, strength of character and courage of his convictions.
Today, the prophets of Baal are gone without a trace, but Elijah—Eliyahu Hanavi—has gone down in history as one of the greatest prophets of all time. He continues to be remembered at every bris and Pesach seder around the world, down through the generations. One dissenting opinion, one man of principle who took the long hard road, lives on forever.
Falsehood may be fashionable, but truth is timeless. Lies, like any fad, soon go out of fashion, but truth is eternal. Compromising principles for popularity works in the short term, but soon leaves us emptyhanded and chastened.
Elijah teaches us a lesson for every generation, including our own. No wonder we are told that Elijah will be the precursor to the ultimate Messenger of Peace who will herald the Messianic Age. He is the harbinger of Moshiach. Ultimately, principled living will bring peace much sooner than pandering to the whims of the moment, as popular as they may be.
We have seen the success of peace through strength. We also need peace through truth.
Image: “The Prophets of Baal Are Slaughtered” by Gustave Doré, 1866. Source: Wikimedia
There are more than 850 climate change startups in the country.
An initiative that encourages innovation to address the global climate crisis has awarded $1.3 million to Israeli tech startups, in the latest boost for the Start-Up Nation.
The funding offered by the Climate Solutions Prize Organization with the Tel Aviv-based Startup Nation Central was bestowed to Israeli early-stage startups developing innovative climate tech technologies.
“Channeling Israel’s ingenuity to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our times, the Climate Solutions Prize …aims to be a catalyst for climate tech innovation in both breakthrough research and the startup ecosystem,” said Jeff Hart, executive chair of the Climate Solutions Prize.
“It is vital that we mobilize and inspire the best efforts and best minds so that we can proudly leave a better world for future generations to come,” Hart continued.
The winners include BaTTeRi, which operates in the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging industry; Electriq, which works with hydrogen powder for auxiliary power applications and long-term storage; Envomed, which specializes in sustainable on-site waste treatment; Filo Systems, a data compression innovator; Nemo Nanomaterials, which provides industrially scalable nanotechnology solutions; TIGI, which provides turn-key renewable heat solutions to large heat users; and Biotic, which provides fully bio-based, fully biodegradable polymers (bioplastic) manufacturing processes.
“As a recognized leader in developing advanced solutions to global challenges, Israel is extremely well-positioned to take a central role in battling climate change and bringing solutions to the biggest shared challenge of our times,” said Startup Nation Central CEO Avi Hasson.
The Startup Track prizes include the premier flagship equity investment of $1 million from Capital Nature as well as a roadshow to Singapore from Temasek Foundation, an investment and incubation process with ESIL, and engagements with corporate business units from Continental, E.ON, Italgas and Takeda.
The news comes one month after a separate $1 million climate prize was awarded to three Israeli research projects seeking to solve global warming.
There are more than 850 climate change startups in Israel, according to Startup Nation Central, putting the nation among the global leaders in innovations on climate action.
Image: Israelis attend a rally calling for action against the climate change, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv, Dec. 20, 2020. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.
“People need to understand that language matters,” said Josh Reinstein, president of the Israel Allies Foundation.
Etgar Lefkovits
(JNS)
The head of a prominent group of American Christian media broadcasters on Wednesday urged members in the association to cease using the term “West Bank” when reporting about Israel’s biblical heartland.
The announcement by the National Religious Broadcasters during their annual Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, comes amid an intense media war of narratives in reporting about Israel as the war against Hamas in Gaza rages for a fifth month.
“NRB opposes the use of the erroneous term ‘West Bank’ to describe the biblical heartland of Israel and calls on its members to refer to the region by its historic name of Judea and Samaria,” a statement released by the organization read.
Two terminologies for the same place
The head of the Christian media group said that an educational campaign was needed for young Christians who know the ancient history of the Jewish people as recounted in the Bible but who are not as well versed in modern history.
“Words matter in how we control the conversation and the language,” said Troy Miller, president of the NRB, urging his constituents to reinforce the Jewish heritage of the land as recounted in the Bible. “Younger Christians don’t understand that the West Bank is within the biblical boundaries of Israel,” he said.
Today, about 500,000 Jews live among 3 million Palestinians in the territory, which much of the international community favors turning into a Palestinian state. A vast majority of Israelis oppose such a move, according to recent opinion polls, a view only reinforced by the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, which saw 1,200 people, mostly civilians, killed and about 250 others abducted to Gaza.
“People need to understand that language matters,” said Josh Reinstein, president of the Israel Allies Foundation. ”Language has been taken over and held hostage,” he said, adding, “Christians don’t understand that the West Bank and Judea and Samaria are the same place.”
Seventy percent of all the biblical places are in the biblical heartland, noted Rabbi Tuly Weisz—founder of Israel365, an Orthodox Jewish institution that works with Christian supporters of Israel.
‘Biblical Heartland’ resolution
The announcement, titled the “Biblical Heartland Resolution,” notes the charged and competing claims to the Land of Israel over the centuries, dating back to the Romans renaming it “Philistia” (or the Greek Palestina) in an attempt to erase the Jewish connection to the land, up to Jordan’s renaming Judea and Samaria the West Bank during its occupation of the territory between 1948-1967.
“It’s time to step up and be honest about the definition of this land,” said Miller.
Image: The Judea and Samaria security barrier as seen from Kibbutz Meirav, with Jalbun and Jenin in the background. Photo by Doron Horowitz/Flash90.
The Soho Theatre has issued an apology after Paul Currie cursed at and bullied an Israeli man into leaving.
(JNS)
At the end of a performance at the Soho Theatre in London, stand-up comedian Paul Currie brought out two props—Ukrainian and Palestinian flags—and proceeded to encourage everyone to stand and applaud them.
A young Israeli man seated in the second row at the Feb. 10 show chose not to, prompting the comedian to ask: “You didn’t stand, why? Didn’t you enjoy my show?”
The audience member responded: “I enjoyed your show until you brought out the Palestinian Authority flag.”
This prompted him to yell “Get out of my show! Get the f*** out of here! F*** off, get the f*** out of here!” Currie led the crowd in a chant to “get out” and “Free Palestine” until the man left.
The audience member has reported him to the police for an alleged hate crime.
“We are sorry and saddened by an incident that took place at our venue at the end of a performance of ‘Paul Currie: Shtoom’ on Saturday, 10 February, which has caused upset and hurt to members of the audience attending and others,” the Soho Theatre posted on X. “We take this very seriously and are looking into the details of what happened as thoroughly, as sensitively and as quickly as we can. It is important to us that Soho Theatre is a welcoming and inclusive place for all.”
Currie, originally from Belfast, posted a video to his Instagram account that same day appearing to be shot from his phone, featuring him chanting “Palestine” during an anti-Israel demonstration.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said regarding the incident, “These allegations are of deeply disturbing discriminatory abuse against Jews. Comedians are rightly given broad latitude, but hounding Jews out of theaters is reminiscent of humanity’s darkest days, and must have no place in central London in 2024.”
Image: Soho Theatre in London. Credit: Ewan Munro/Flickr via Wikimedia Commons.
The American singer and influencer speaks out about her “Bring Them Home” dress at the Grammys.
Raphael Poch
(JNS)
U.S. singer and actress Montana Tucker’s appearance at the Grammy music awards in Los Angeles this past Sunday was a powerful statement of activism and advocacy.
Wearing a dress adorned with a large yellow ribbon with the words “Bring Them Home” embroidered on it, Tucker, 31, brought global attention to the plight of over 130 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. In a special interview held a few days after the Grammys, Montana spoke to JNS and explained the motivation behind her statement.
“I’ve been to the Grammys before, but this was the first time that I was invited as an artist to be on the red carpet,” Tucker explained. “I knew that I would be surrounded by all of these celebrities, artists and people that I looked up to, and I realized that I had to do something and say something. I knew that most people wouldn’t make a statement about the hostages, so I needed to be the one to say something boldly.”
Tucker chose to make her statement by collaborating with a team of Israeli women based in L.A. Her dress was fashioned by Madebyila, a company run by Israeli designer Ortal Mizrahi, and her hair and makeup were done by Ortal Labrecque. “I told Ortal (Mizrahi) that I wanted to do something to honor the hostages with my look so I went into her shop, and we thought about it for a while and came up with this idea.”
The choice to wear her message on her dress left the TikTok megastar a bit apprehensive. “I was a bit scared because I was surrounded by so many people who are very high up in the industry,” she said. “I’m proud I had the bravery to do it. I knew my [Holocaust survivor] grandparents would be proud of my choice and that gave me the strength of mind to go through with it.”
The dress was quickly noticed and some of those running the event tried to stop Tucker from making her statement before arriving on the red carpet. “Someone from the recording academy came up to me and asked if I could remove the ribbon because it was too political, I told them no, and that it was sewn onto my dress,” Tucker recounted.
“I don’t see the symbol as anything political per se. There is nothing political about wanting the return of hostages who were taken against their will. They aren’t just Jewish hostages or even just Israelis. There are Arab hostages and foreign hostages as well. It doesn’t matter what your political opinions are, this is about the release of innocent people who were taken hostage, and they need to be released.”
Tucker was proud that she wasn’t alone. “[Producer] Harvey Mason Jr. came up to me and thanked me for doing this. There were also a few people wearing yellow pins on their jackets.”
Tucker’s move made waves around the globe as mainstream media outlets, as well as other social media influencers, picked up the photos and spread the story.
“What was meaningful to me was that shortly after the Grammys were over, representatives of the families of the hostages got in touch with me, as did some of the family members themselves, who I keep in contact with. They reached out to me to thank me and told me how supported they felt. That is when I realized that I succeeded at doing something important.”
Tucker is well known for her advocacy. She is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and said that her family’s story influences her activism. “Growing up I heard both of my grandparents’ stories from the Holocaust. Anyone who knows me knows how obsessed I am with my grandparents,” she said.
“When they went through the war they didn’t have a voice. But thankfully now we do have a voice, and we should use it and stand up to what is going on. I don’t feel that there is another option for me other than to speak up. I hope that I have inspired some other people, even people who are in way bigger positions than me, to go out and do something and say something. Harvey Mason Jr. deserves a lot of credit for what he said and his mention of the Nova festival,” she added.
Tucker doesn’t limit her advocacy to Jewish causes, she attests to standing up and fighting for many causes, including Black Lives Matter, participating in marches and spreading the word via social media.
She has spoken out vociferously against the war in Ukraine, and she uses her voice to fight antisemitism in all of its forms. “I will continue to speak up about major issues until real change is made and until all of the hostages are released,” she told JNS.
When asked about her music career, the “Sunday Funday” and “Hola” star teased a new song that she has been working on, without giving away too many spoilers. “I’m working on new music and I have been recording behind the scenes, but I don’t have any release dates yet.”
Tucker added that her video content creation is also continuing at full pace. “I am always recording new dance videos, and I have a new movie coming out where I play a supporting role. It’s called “Mob Cops,” and I’m very excited about it. David Arquette is in it. Kevin Connoly from ‘Entourage’ is in it as well.”
Returning to discuss her fight against antisemitism, for which she was featured on NBC’s “Kelly Clarkson Show,” Tucker encouraged people to follow her journey of remembrance last year in Poland, which revolved around a trip to the concentration and death camps. Tucker filmed the journey and turned it into an educational docuseries about Holocaust remembrance entitled “How To Never Forget,” available on YouTube.
Tucker’s multifaceted career and dedication to advocacy underscore her commitment to making a difference both on and off the stage. Her message at the Grammys of “Bring Them Home,” which transcends political boundaries, serves as a reminder of the power of using one’s platform for a cause greater than oneself, inspiring others to take a stand and make their voices heard.
Image: Social-media influencer Montana Tucker addresses an estimated 200,000 at the “March for Israel” rally in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 14, 2023. Source: Screenshot.