Orthodox and other right-leaning Jews who attended the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, near Washington, D.C., last weekend criticized the Anti-Defamation League for its article attacking “anti-transgender hate” at the conference and for singling out an Orthodox Jew, Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, for criticism.
Raichik also returned fire at ADL in comments to The Daily Signal.
“The ADL, an organization purportedly founded to combat Jew-hatred, has now reached the new low of rebuking a publicly Orthodox Jewish woman for her defense of male/female biological and sexual complementarity, as it is reflected in Genesis 1:27,” Newsweek’s Josh Hammer, a religiously traditional Jew, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday. “We have reached peak parody. The left-wing hack Jonathan Greenblatt has taken the ADL through the looking glass.”
The ADL’s Center on Extremism published an article Monday titled “At CPAC 2023, Anti-Transgender Hate Took Center Stage.” The article’s featured image showed Raichik, the Orthodox Jewish woman behind the popular Libs of TikTok Twitter account that shares TikTok videos exposing teachers, doctors, and activists pushing agendas such as transgender identity in schools, hospitals, and elsewhere.
The ADL article did not mention Raichik’s faith, but described her as an example of the “anti-LGBTQ+ extremists” at the conference. It also did not quote Raichik’s remarks, but claimed that “the conference has previously welcomed white supremacists, right-wing nationalists, and other extremists” shortly after mentioning her name. It went on to describe a “dangerous trend of anti-LGBTQ+ extremism in the U.S.,” and described the notion of the “‘objective truth’ of womanhood” as advocacy for the “marginalization of trans people.”
“For me, this really crosses a line,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, an organization that represents more than 2,000 Orthodox Jewish rabbis in public policy, told The Daily Signal. “Just weeks ago, we praised the ADL, but to demonize biblical values and highlight an observant Jew as an example of ‘extremism’ and ‘hate’ is simply projection on their part.”
Menken, who was speaking in his personal capacity as a CPAC attendee, added that “the extremists are those who call it ‘normal’ to mutilate minor children and put [intact] biological men in women’s private spaces, and by siding with that, the ADL helps encourage antisemitism on all sides.”
Nachman Mostofsky, executive director and vice president at the Amariah, an organization dedicated to promoting Torah values, told The Daily Signal in an interview Wednesday that ADL has become “a self-fulfilling prophecy of the creation of antisemitism.”
He criticized ADL for creating “this mystique” that antisemitism is everywhere. “When you call young men ‘Nazis,’ and they’re not, and you keep doing that, they become ‘Nazis,’” he warned.
ADL’s promotion of transgender identity “has nothing to do with antisemitism,” he argued. “Clearly, the ADL either wasn’t there at CPAC or they were there and they’re lying. I didn’t hear any transphobia. What I did hear was anti-grooming.”
Mostofsky noted the irony that progressive activists—some of whom previously condemned circumcision as child abuse—now champion cutting “the whole thing off and turning it inside out.”
David BenHooren, publisher of The Jewish Voice and a CPAC attendee, called the ADL article “beyond deplorable.”
“Besides creating Libs of Tik Tok, Ms. Raichik … deeply cares about her family and families throughout this country,” the publisher told The Daily Signal in a Wednesday statement. “I can tell you that she is definitely not homophobic or anti-gay in any way, shape, or form.”
BenHooren warned that “the gay rights movement” is now “exploiting” its status “by fostering and supporting the trans movement and its nefarious agenda of attempting to groom young children for a sexualized lifestyle.” He cited the promotion of “Drag Queen Story Hour,” the growing push for transgender identity in schools, and Disney’s promotion of a transgender character as evidence of a “paradigm cultural shift” tracing back to the “woke, progressive movement.”
“They are interested in cultivating and indoctrinating the new generation of youth with a perverted set of values that flies in the face of the Judeo-Christian morality that has been the backbone of this nation,” he warned, condemning the ADL for jumping on this “woke agenda bandwagon.”
BenHooren said ADL has shifted from fighting antisemitism to advocating “for the rights of those who seek to poison the minds, hearts, and souls of our children,” which “can never be tolerated or accepted.”
Justine Murray, a Jewish producer for Newsmax, also condemned ADL in comments to The Daily Signal.
“The smug Tikkun Olamist JINOS (Jews in Name Only) at the ADL continue to do more harm than good for Jewish Americans,” said Murray, who attended the conference. She was referring to the concept of tikkun olam, the notion of repairing the world that left-leaning Jews use to advocate social justice causes.
“What used to be a noble mission to combat antisemitism has turned into an adoption of all the trendy left-wing causes,” Murray said, condemning the ADL for “patting themselves on the back for spending their entire day tying every single incident of a swastika etched in a toilet stall to white supremacy.”
“When it comes to actual threats from groups they refuse to name pummeling Jews in the streets of New York daily, the ADL remains silent because it doesn’t fit their political narrative,” she added. “The ADL is only successful at throwing fellow Jews under the bus in an attempt to virtue signal to some of the very people who wish for our extermination.”
Raichik herself also responded to the attack.
“The ADL is doing what every left-wing organization does; turning the people who are harming kids into the victims and calling the people pointing it out all kinds of slurs,” she told The Daily Signal in a written statement Wednesday. “What they’re failing to realize is that the children that proponents of gender ideology are targeting are themselves the real victims.”
“My children’s book, which teaches kids to never keep secrets from their parents, is triggering to the Left because they feel threatened by my attempts to join forces with parents of the children that trans activists are preying on,” she added.
“The media will always find a way to twist the narrative, and I will continue to fight back,” Raichik declared. “I encourage everyone else to do the same by teaching children to be able to spot predatory behavior. Use the tool I’ve provided, visit lottbook.com,” short for “Libs of TikTok book.”
ADL did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article included a quote that misrepresented Raichik’s marital and parental status. It has been corrected.
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