A Conversation With Ben Shapiro
Eliyahu and Motti from Community Voice sat down with Ben Shapiro for a wide-ranging conversation about the growth of the local Jewish community, his love for America, his connection to Israel, and the challenges facing Jews today. From building The Daily Wire to the aftermath of October 7 and the future of Jewish advocacy, Shapiro shared his perspective on the issues shaping Jewish life in South Florida, the United States and Israel.
Community Voice: Let’s start with South Florida. When did you move here, and what brought you down?
Ben Shapiro: We moved to Florida in 2020. The first thing was that we wanted to leave California. Then we started looking at where we could realistically live.
As Orthodox Jews—and given my politics—we were looking for a red state with no state income tax, good schools, good shuls and good restaurants.
That basically narrowed it down to Dallas or South Florida.
We visited both, and South Florida just had a much more established Jewish community. We fell in love with it pretty quickly.
Community Voice: What do you like most about the Jewish community here?
Shapiro: It’s incredibly warm.
There’s a lot of diversity in terms of Jewish practice, but at the same time there’s a real alignment when it comes to values and what people think is important.
That was a big draw for us.
Community Voice: You’re very outspoken about both America and Israel. Do you ever see those two identities as competing with each other?
Shapiro: I’ve never seen them as being in conflict.
The idea that there should be a Jewish State of Israel—a democratic ally of the United States in the historic and biblical homeland of the Jewish people—was a pretty uncontroversial proposition until fairly recently.
It has obviously become much more controversial, particularly since October 7.
But I don’t see why supporting Israel would be in conflict with believing that America is the greatest country in the history of the world, with extraordinary founding documents and principles.
To me, those things go together very naturally.
Community Voice: Take us back to the beginning of The Daily Wire. How did it all start?
Shapiro: We were ambitious from the beginning.
We looked at the legacy media and saw something that was slow-moving, heavily biased against America and very far left in both the stories it chose to cover and the way it covered them.
So we saw an opportunity to build something different.
There also weren’t that many conservative outlets that we thought were moving quickly enough or operating in the way we wanted to operate.
We started The Daily Wire in a pool house in Southern California in 2015 with about $480,000 in seed funding.
After that, we basically operated off cash flow for the next decade and grew it into a company doing around $200 million in annual revenue.
Community Voice: South Florida has become a huge destination for Jewish families. Do you think this community has a special role to play right now?
Shapiro: Absolutely.
I think the South Florida Jewish community has taken a real leadership role when it comes to both pro-America and pro-Israel sentiment.
You can see how much of a magnet it has become. People are moving here from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, California, Chicago and other places.
And I think that says something about the kind of community that has been built here.
Community Voice: More broadly, what responsibility do you think American Jews have toward America and toward Israel?
Shapiro: Jews have been part of America since the founding.
The basic values framework of the United States is a Judeo-Christian one, meaning a biblical one.
The Founders cited the Old Testament extensively and saw in the Bible inspiration for how a nation should be built.
So I think Jews have an extraordinary obligation to uphold those ideals and principles.
And when it comes to Israel, particularly if you’re Orthodox, you’re praying three times a day for the safety and security of the Jewish people and the Land of Israel.
Today Zionism isn’t some theoretical question about whether there should someday be a Jewish state. Israel exists.
The real question is whether the Jewish state has the right to continue existing.
Community Voice: you talked about wanting to see more people step up publicly. If someone reading this wants to get involved, where should they start?
Shapiro: The first thing is to actually educate yourself.
You have to know what you’re talking about.
That means taking a lot of reps, sometimes for very little pay, and doing it over and over until you become good at it.
And not everybody contributes the same way.
When I say we need more people fighting, I don’t mean we need more Ben Shapiros. Everybody has their own contribution to make.
But I do think it’s unfortunate that there are so few visibly Orthodox Jews in major public spaces talking about these issues.
If Jews are supposed to be a light unto the nations, then I think there’s an obligation to speak about issues of public importance in a way that reflects biblical values.
Community Voice: What gives you the most optimism when you look at the next generation of Jews?
Shapiro: I think younger Jews are increasingly observant, increasingly connected to their Jewish identity and increasingly connected to Israel.
They have a stronger understanding of their Jewishness, and I think they take less for granted.
There’s also more willingness to speak publicly about important issues.
I think that’s a very good thing.
Community Voice: And what worries you?
Shapiro: I think one of the biggest concerns is the tendency to choose false unity over true principle.
Obviously, as Jews, we want unity.
But that doesn’t mean every principle disappears in the name of unity.
There still have to be certain boundaries around what Judaism actually means and what values we’re trying to preserve.
Community Voice: There’s been a lot of criticism online aimed at Orthodox communities, especially around issues like government benefits. How do you look at that conversation?
Shapiro: I think there are really two different questions.
One is what’s actually happening in those communities.
The second is the way some people take allegations involving a specific person or community and then use them to characterize the entire American Jewish community.
That’s obviously absurd.
The American Jewish community, broadly speaking, is one of the most highly educated and financially successful communities in the country.
At the same time, I’ve also been very clear that I don’t believe people should use public welfare simply to support full-time learning while everybody else is working.
If your family wants to support you, if your community wants to support you or if someone wants to donate money so you can learn, that’s one thing.
But I don’t think involuntary taxpayer dollars should be used that way.
And obviously, if somebody commits fraud, that should be prosecuted.
Community Voice: If you could invite a few major Jewish figures from history to sit with you in the sukkah, who are you inviting?
Shapiro: Moshe Rabbeinu, the Rambam and probably Abarbanel.
I’d also go a little more modern—Rav Soloveitchik, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein and Rav Hirsch.
And Jabotinsky would definitely be interesting.
You’d get some pretty spicy conversations from that group.
They certainly wouldn’t all agree with one another.
Community Voice: Do you think part of America’s problem today is that everybody is living in their own political bubble?
Shapiro: There’s definitely a lot of that.
But I think the bigger issue is that neither side is really talking to the middle.
Online, you basically have a hard-left bubble and a hard-right bubble.
Most normal Americans aren’t sitting on Twitter all day.
But for younger people who spend a lot of time on social media, those two extremes can start to look like the only choices.
And I don’t think most Americans are actually in either one of those places.
Algorithmic virality is a terrible substitute for rational judgment.
Social media rewards people for making extraordinary claims with extraordinary confidence, often without extraordinary evidence.
Community Voice: You’re a Harvard Law graduate. Would you still recommend the Ivy League to Jewish students today?
Shapiro: For many students, probably not.
There are still certain students for whom it makes sense—maybe someone who wants to be in that environment and fight those battles, or someone going into certain STEM fields.
But when I look at my own kids, I’d probably be more interested in schools like the University of Florida or the University of Texas than Harvard at this point.
And I say that as someone who went to Harvard Law.
Community Voice: Is that because of the antisemitism, or because you feel the education itself has changed?
Shapiro: It’s both.
There’s the question of cost and whether the value is still there.
But the bigger problem is the radical-left ideology and antisemitism that has become so prevalent on many campuses.
Community Voice: This interview will be coming out around the anniversary of October 7. When you look back at that day, what stays with you most?
Shapiro: At first, it was the shock at the failure of the Israeli security apparatus and the sheer size and scope of the attack.
But what really shocked people came a couple of days later.
Very quickly, the conversation became about Israel being the bad guy and concern about Israel’s response.
People were accusing Israel of genocide before Israel had even meaningfully responded.
The scale of the outrage directed at Israel was astonishing.
It almost felt like the larger the attack against Israel, the more outrage there was against Israel.
I also personally received an extraordinary amount of blowback after October 7.
My security risks have never been as high as they’ve been since then. For a long time, we had 24/7 security for me and my children.
That’s a direct result of the level of antisemitism that was openly unleashed after October 7.
Community Voice: Do you think the media battle for Israel is something we can actually win?
Shapiro: I don’t really look at it as something you completely “win.”
There are certain forces behind hatred of Jews and hatred of Israel that I don’t think you can eliminate entirely.
You can push back against them. You can influence people on the margins. You can delay them.
But I think a lot of antisemitism is driven by envy.
People say, “Why would anyone hate Israel? Look at everything Israel has accomplished.”
But sometimes that success is exactly what creates resentment.
Israel took a small population and built one of the most powerful and technologically advanced countries in the Middle East.
And the same thing applies to Jews in America. Jews are often attacked precisely because they’ve been successful.
Community Voice: On a much more personal note—people see you around Boca all the time. What’s the right way to come over and say hello?
Shapiro: Come say hi.
I’m always flattered when somebody tells me they listen to the show or enjoy what I do.
The only thing is, if I’m out in public, I’m usually with my wife or my kids.
So if we’re in the middle of dinner, maybe wait until the end of the meal.
Or if I’m wrestling with my five children, pick your spot.
A selfie is totally fine.
Just don’t come over with seven recommendations for things I need to tell President Trump, because I promise you I’m probably not going to be able to deliver them.
Community Voice: Last question. You actually read Community Voice every week. What do you think Jewish media like ours should be doing?
Shapiro: I think you guys are doing a great job.
I really enjoy it, and I read it every week.
I like the interviews, especially when some of the people being interviewed are friends of mine.
But honestly, one of my favorite parts is seeing the ads, because it tells me what’s happening in the community.
I like watching the community grow. I like seeing the restaurants and new businesses.
I actually think you should have a full restaurant-review section. The kosher food scene here has become awesome.
I mostly use the magazine to figure out what I’m missing in the community so I can get my family involved.
