Charlie Kirk fearlessly defended the truth and what he knew to be right. At his famous public debates, he invited strangers - some ferociously hostile - to “prove me wrong.” Charlie knew that there was always a risk to taking a clear public stance at a time when public discourse has frayed in America. He did it anyway. And on September 10, 2025, while taking questions at Utah Valley University, he was senselessly gunned down, leaving his young wife, Erika, a widow and his two young children to grow up without a father.
Charlie often ended up face-to-face with objectively terrifying interlocutors, low on information, high on anger and resentment, making comments like “Trump’s cabinet is Jewish. Israel did 9/11…Israel is the synagogue of Satan.” Charlie was a vicious opponent of the platforming of antisemitism, saying of anti-Jewish hate: “it will rot your brain. It’s bad for your soul. It’s bad. It’s evil. I think it’s demonic.”
Sadly, Charlie knew we live in an era where the ancient plague of Jew-hate has made a terrifying resurgence, with global antisemitic incidents more than tripling between 2022 and 2024. The reinvigoration of this dark ideology is directly linked to the culture of shutting down public debate through the use of force, in particular on college campuses, by anti-Israel mobs. At some schools, like Columbia University, classes were canceled for weeks as the University lost control of its own campus to the mob.
Charlie spoke publicly about receiving death threats “all the time,” saying: “You should not have to walk around with security for your entire family and for myself just because you support a politician or political candidate or certain values.” He took the risk for the same reason that American soldiers fight for freedom, or police officers serve and protect: because without exceptional people leading the way to protect the rights of the rest of us, those rights would be taken by people willing to use violence to get their way.
It shouldn’t have to be this way. America is founded on the open exchange of ideas, and Charlie loved ideas. An avid reader and writer of many books, Charlie became a thought leader through self-education. Charlie lived by the concept of open debate, traveling from campus to campus across the country to engage people with his words, despite calls from those opposed to open dialogue - many of them university professors - that he be cancelled.
Charlie knew that the higher education system in the U.S. had been corrupted by pernicious forces. Charlie founded his nonprofit, Turning Point USA, at 18, and never saw the need to graduate from college. He wrote that “[u]niversities are indoctrination zones where free speech is crushed… Radical students and faculty coerce and persecute their nonconforming peers through ‘cancel culture’ and threats.” A man who lived by words, not violence, lies silenced by an assassin’s bullet - the ultimate expression and inevitable logic of cancel culture.
So how safe is the campus, or the public square itself, in America anymore? Charlie’s death was not an isolated act of violence. Since October 7, 2023, Jewish, Israeli, and pro-Israel students have found themselves targeted for their beliefs or heritage, as the anti-Israel mob has engaged in violence instead of dialogue - with Hillel International identifying a bloodcurdling tenfold increase in antisemitic incidents last school year compared to just two years prior. And after Charlie’s murder, free speech has been chilled everywhere in America, with lawmakers and activists of every political stripe avoiding public events and increasing security.
Jewish religious and community events are threatened more than any other. In May, a young couple about to be engaged - Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim - were shot dead in front of the Capital Jewish Museum by a killer shouting “Free Palestine”. They were attending a networking event intended to bring young Jewish professionals and the diplomatic community together.
Leo Terrell, head of the Department of Justice’s Task Force on Antisemitism, has astutely observed that Jewish organizations must spend vast sums on security, which amounts to a “Jewish tax” on community institutions. A typical Jewish organization has to devote 14% of its budget to security costs. Now that one of the bravest defenders of the Jewish people was murdered for his beliefs on an American college campus, the Jewish community is even more afraid for its safety.
Outrageously, prominent online antisemites are now accusing Israel of orchestrating Charlie’s murder. Bizarre as the claim is, in a society already so inundated with anti-Jewish conspiracies, the blood libel has found a receptive audience. One senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Extremism wrote that “it took me about five seconds to find… examples of people using the Kirk shooting as an excuse for antisemitism.” These villains are trying to generate a double tragedy for the Jewish people, robbing the world of one of their greatest defenders while simultaneously riling up hatred against a people Charlie famously defended as part of his broader defense of Western Civilization.
Charlie is tragically no longer with us, but the truth of Charlie’s words and the courageous example he set are immortal. For every person who cherishes and believes in the values of Western Civilization, Charlie’s legacy will live on forever.
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