By Farley Weiss
Famously the Torah eulogies Moses as the most humble person. This is considered such a great character trait that Maimonides says one should err and instead of the medium that is usually best in regards to character traits in regards to humility one should try to be as humble as possible. It is striking that many people have eulogized Charlie Kirk by praising him as being humble.
Kirk at 18 started Turning Point USA in his garage. When he did not get into West Point he decided to skip college and made Turning Point his full time job. He showed an extraordinary ability to be the Mark Zuckerberg of politics in building up Turning Point to be on 3,500 high school and college campuses in thirteen years. Kirk had an amazing ability to fundraise and connect with the most powerful people. JD Vance credits Kirk for his becoming a Senator and Kirk advocated for him to be VP. Donald Trump JR said that his father may not have won the presidency without Kirk.
President Trump flew the flag at half mast and is giving him the Congressional medal of Honor.
Kirk has been at the forefront of advocating for Israel in his famous college campuses debates and even at Oxford. He financially donated military equipment to Israel after October 7 and he understood that there was a good and evil in the war between Israel and Hamas. Kirk made sure on his Turning Point board that only pro Israel voices would be part of the organization.
I met Kirk only once at the 2019 National Council of Young Israel dinner in which he introduced a Jewish honoree that was active in Turning Point. Kirk impressed me with his friendship to the Jewish people and his humility as he was already famous by 2019. He never let his success go to his head.
Kirk told Prime Minister Netanyahu that he was proud as a Christian to stand with Israel. Kirk was humble enough to admit if he was wrong telling Mark Levin he was right to support President Trump attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. When Kirk complained that some Jewish friends were not happy with him for not advocating for Trump to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities a pro Israel WhatsApp group Pens For Swords organized a campaign of sending thousands of letters to Kirk expressing their support for him. Kirk was overwhelmed with the notes of appreciation and wrote “Wow! I am speechless. Truly. Thank you. Give me a moment to process this. So kind. Thank you. Together we stand for civilization. G-d bless you. Charlie”.
The traveling exhausted Kirk and he decided to adopt the orthodox Jewish practice of going 24 hours from Friday night until Saturday night of having family time with his wife and two kids. He did not answer his phone calls and texts and did not watch television or go on his computer. He spoke publicly how he had to respond to like 600 texts Saturday night but he found the rest so beneficial for him.
Kirk understood the danger as he publicly spoke of the antifa death threats he received and being chased out of restaurants and assaulted. He advised an Israeli college student who complained about antisemitic harassed to learn to fight as Kirk told him that the university and campus police will not protect Jews on campus.
When asked about antisemitism Kirk called it demonic. Kirk remarked that Jewish doctors led the fight against tuberculosis that led to the antibiotic that cured it and that has saved about one billion lives. Kirk commented that many medical inventions partly by Jews like CPR and the MRI machine help save like 500 million lives. He said it is a brain rot to blame .2% of the world population namely the Jews for your problems.
Kirk showed how to argue with respect and with his deep intellect he was able to impact American youth in an extraordinary way. He lived a life of purpose and meaning and despite the danger and threats he persevered because he felt the need to make the United States a greater country. He achieved a great deal in his short lifetime and likely in the reaction to his death his achievements will continue to grow. In Judaism there is a belief that even if someone is physically dead their impact can still be felt as if they are alive and unfortunately many people are alive and yet they live a life of no consequence. Charlie Kirk legacy is such that not only is he still positively impacting the world but many people will in the future make a difference in the world because they were influenced by him. Charlie Kirk’s life will be remembered for a blessing for those fortunate not only to meet him but in today’s world many can be impacted by him by watching the numerous videos of him.
Condolences to his wife and his two little girls. Your husband and father was a great man. Thank you Charlie Kirk for making the world a better place.
Farley Weiss is past president of the national council of young Israel and co author of the book “Because it’s just and right”
the untold back story of the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. Website jerusalemrecognition.com
