Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we're live.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
We are alive. Good evening, Erica. Welcome back from the
great state of Florida. Nice to have you back.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Thank you, mister Turnin.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I appreciate it. We know what I thought you would
appreciate it. And let's and let's jump into you know
my favorite thing. Right, did you see that that the
Supreme Court just gave Donald Trump a big win about
transgender policy in the Pentagon.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Oh no, I missed this one.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Happening breaking news, right, And the thing I'm trying to understand, right,
what the uproar is about, because the truth of the
matter is, if the goal of the army or the
military is to fight battles and win, then it's not
like a judge should come along and say, well, here,
you should win, but you should only win with these assets. Right,
(00:49):
you're going to force the government to mean just makes
no sense to me. But then again, this is this
is politics, right, I mean.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
This is politics. This is politics.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
And you know, here's the thing. They got to make
those recruitment quotas however they can and if they'll, if
they can convince people, well we'll give you surgery for free.
As a US military officer.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Now, the quotas, by the way, since Trump took office,
quotas are off the charts. You know, they're exceeding quotas.
And you and I did a show I don't know
a year ago that they were so far under quota
and they were having this. Yeah, I'll step in any
minutes for our listeners, stay with us. We have Shabist
custing bound, huge activists college on college campus, just spoke
(01:31):
at the RNC and just really a fighter for against
anti Semitism. Western values were thrilled to have him with us.
But let's roll the monologue and then stay tuned for
shabus custing.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Bout all right, ladies, beginning.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Let's roll the table. Hello, and welcome to of the
(02:08):
people weaponizing the constitution. President Trump said it plainly this
week that illegal immigrants who come to this country unlawfully
should be deported swiftly, and no, they are not entitled
to full constitutional due process. No surprise, right on queue
(02:29):
that media and the Democrats went into meltdown mode and
off their pocket copies of the Constitution like suddenly they
care about rule of law, with headlines that screamed Trump's
going to ignore the Constitution. But here's what they won't
say out loud is that they're not defending the constitution,
(02:50):
they're weaponizing it. They want you to believe that anyone
who sneaks across the border has the same rights as
a US citizen, and they're wrong. It's just not the law.
And these aren't some confused tourists or innocent refugees. These
are people who deliberately bypassed every legal point of entry.
They ignored the laws, they ignored due process coming in,
(03:13):
and they ignored our sovereignty. And now the Democrats in
the media want to hide behind the very legal system
that these people chose to violate. In a word, no,
this is not how a serious nation operates, because let's
be clear, due process is not a global giveaway. It
(03:35):
is a legal principle rooted in the rights of citizens
for those who are here lawfully. It's not a loophole
for cartels or traffickers or the millions that flooded across
the border during the Biden Harris administration, who willfully ignored
our immigration laws. And now that Trump is cleaning up
the mess, now they're screaming human rights and rule of law.
(03:57):
The truth is that Democrats don't care. They're not in justice,
and they're certainly not interested in the rights of the
average American. What they are interested in is power. They
want the crisis. They need the bodies for the cheap labor,
for new votes, and for permanent dependency on the state
government and federal government. That's the game. And the media
(04:20):
they're not neutral. They're in the echo chamber of the
Democrats in power. They tried out these sodas called legal
experts who pretend that this is some authoritarian nightmare. But
when Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, silence,
when FDR In turned Japanese Americans during the War crickets,
(04:42):
when George W. Bush detained enemy combatants without trial after
nine to eleven, and now all of a sudden they're
screaming due process or death. I don't think so, because
the outrage isn't about rights, it's about control. The left
is using the Constant as a shield for lawbreakers, just
(05:02):
like Hamas uses women and children as human shields. President
Trump is right. Illegal entry is not a protected act.
Deportation is not cruelty, it's law enforcement, and restoring sovereignty
doesn't make you a tirant. It makes you a president
who puts America first by applying the constitution to defend
(05:23):
citizens and not the invaders. It's just that simple. And
that's the monologue, Erica, tell me where I'm wrong, because
you're good at that.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
You know, I am a woman. That is one thing
that I am good at is telling people where they're wrong. No,
I think you know this whole mess. It it's infuriating
when you see certain politicians and the left, we'll say demos,
(06:00):
who will claim that they care so much about people
and the health and well being and oh, we want
mercy for these people and all this stuff, and yet
they're incentivizing the very thing that's going to ensure these
people are victimized on their way here and very likely
to become enslaved people's or indentured servants when they get here.
And so you know why when they have cries of
(06:22):
who's going to pick the cotton? You know, and I mean, like,
good lord, you know, they are just showing their colors.
You know, you do not care that people are getting hurt,
You do not care that you know the circumstances. And
now we're going to cry racism if you don't want
people getting hurt. It is all they're all insane.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, well we are all racist now. I want to
bring in our guests though tonight, because I'm excited to
have with us Shavis Custombaum, an activist against anti Semitism,
Western value, Western fighting for Western values. He's all over
the news. He is also has a lawsuit I think
back in early twenty twenty four that's still going on
against Harvard for failure to protect Jewish students on campus.
(07:06):
And there's so much going on in college campuses. Bring
them on please. All right, Hello there, Shavis, Welcome to
the people.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
Thank you, good to be here, Glad to have you.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
So I want to jump into something that's current in
the news right and it has to do with your
alma mater, Harvard, which I'm sure it's what everybody wants
to talk with you about for starters, because there's a
lot of want to get to So Linda McMahon, the
Secretary of Education, as recently as yesterday, just wrote a
letter to Harvard and basically said there will be no
more federal grants right And as recently as today, Columbia
(07:44):
just announced that they are laying off about one hundred
and eighty employees because they're not getting any more federal grants.
So I'm trying to understand as someone from a college perspective. Right,
when you were in college, you graduated from the School
of Divinity, right.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
Yeah, last year.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Okay, why don't these guys spend their endowments? Why do
they have to spend federal funds?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, that's literally the million dollar question, or perhaps the
billion dollar question. I think there are two separate issues
going on. So back when I was on the far
left of the political spectrum, I remember marching with Occupy
Wall Street. I was literally thirteen years old, that's how
young and radical I was. And we would often say, really,
oh yeah, tax the rich, smash the oligarchy. That's one
(08:26):
of the reasons I was attracted to Bernie Sanders campaign,
both in twenty sixteen and in twenty twenty. And it,
to me is quite remarkable that the far left have
made martyrs out of some of the most bizarre examples.
Mahmu Khalil, a foreign student who has repeatedly stated he
believes in the eradication of Western civilization. Harvard University, which
is the embodiment of crony capitalism with a fifty four
(08:47):
billion dollar endowment, worth more money than most countries GDP.
But because Trump is now trying to do something against it,
then all of a sudden, you know, we put Harvard
on a pedestal. So the first point is leaving aside
the anti semitism and the violations of civil rights life,
just the fact that you have an institution where it's
so much money, but nevertheless the American people are subsidizing
it to the tune of eight hundred million dollars annually
(09:08):
with subsidies, and then nine billion dollars worth of federal contracts.
We really have to ask ourselves, well, there are fifty
five hundred colleges in this country, why is it the
overwhelming majority of these federal contracts are going to a
handful of elitist institutions. That's number one. That's sort of
the economic and political problem, and then we can talk
about the legal problem. I was very clear on the
campaign trail, and certainly President Trump was very clear on
(09:31):
the campaign trail that should these institutions of higher learning Harvard, Clumbia, Penn,
UCLA not clean up their act, not fulfill their mandates
under federal civil rights law, in particular Title SIKES of
the Civil Rights Act, there would be consequences. So I
always tell people, you know, don't tell Israel not to
bomb Hamas, tell Hamas to surrender and release the hostages.
(09:51):
So too, don't tell President Trump not to withhold federal
funds or to stop federal contracts, tell Harvard to stop discriminating.
The pressure should always be on the perpetrator and not
on the victim, simply responding, if you believe that these
cuts are unwarranted, if you believe that the federal fund
should continue to go to these institutions, then find but
your anger is misplaced. Your anger should not be on
(10:11):
a President Trump or Linda McMahon. Your anger should be
on President Alan Garber of Harvard University and the radical,
far left, anti American faculty who've created such an anti
American environment that we actually need the federal government to
intercede on our behalf. So if Harvard wants this problem
to go away, then they can quite easily fulfill their
mandates under federal law. What they're trying to do is
(10:32):
have their cake and eat it too. They're trying to
say we should have the right to discriminate. We should
have the right to only hire professors and admit students
who agree with our philosophy, and we want the American
people to pay for it. It doesn't work, that's not
that's not it.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
We're not with that.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
You know. The problem is and I'm an old guide now,
but you know, back when I went to school, they
used to teach you at a university or higher levels
of learning how to think. Now it occurs to me
that they're really trying to teach you what to think, right,
And you know, you have to be within this narrow,
narrow swatch of this is correct thought and everything else
(11:09):
is incorrect thought. And if you are an unbeliever or
you are an infidel, right, someone who is unfaithful, right
to well. But because to me, this is a this
is a religion that they're free, right, I mean, I mean,
it's got all the tenets of a religion. But let's
go back. So how long were you at Harvard for
your divinity degree at Harvard? Was it a three year program?
(11:31):
Two year program? What was it?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
You know, it's interesting it was a two year program.
And in September of twenty twenty three, I was speaking
to an admissions representative saying that I was thinking of
doing the three year program, extending it by a year,
and then, of course a month later is October seventh.
The largest single massacre of juice is the Holocaust, and
I sort of end the discussions there and I say,
I'm not planning on extending I'm certainly not planning on
doing the PhD program. And the last year of my
(11:57):
time at Harvard was the beginning of this just absolute
insanity from October seventh onward.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
And that's what I want to hear. So on the ground, right,
I mean, we talked to a lot of people that
fight against anti Semitism. I'm on the National Test Force
to combat anti Semitism. We all, we're all fighting this war.
But how bad did it really get? I'm not questioning
that it was, but you were there, you were on
the ground. I mean what we saw on the media
and you watched the news, I'm sure was they would
(12:23):
see protests, but they didn't. They tried to sanitize it,
much like they did the Black Lives Matter, you know,
the mostly peaceful protest kind of nonsense. How bad did
it get?
Speaker 4 (12:34):
Yeah, fiery, book, peaceful. I can tell you these stories
that happened to me and the students who've been trusted
me with their stories. I can tell you about the
Israeli student at Harvard who was told by her professor
to leave the classroom because her nationality made out others uncomfortable.
I could tell you about what undergrad at heart yep.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
I could tell you wait wait, wait, hold, I'm coming
back in on once. Okay, I got it, Hope, I'm sorry.
Did you just say that a student was asked to
leave class because her nationality made people uncomfortable?
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Yeah, And not only that, there's actually the Harvard Antisemitism
Task for Us released their report last week because the
Trump administration said, if you don't release the report, you
know we're cutting more funds. So I don't remember the
page number. But there's actually another story of a student
I believe at Harvard Kennedy School goes to their professor
and says, professor, you paired me with a study partner
who's Israeli and I don't study with Israelis. And the
(13:28):
professor says, no, worries, I wouldn't want you learning with
an oppressor, and then switches the study partner based on
their nationality. I mean It's a textbook case, black and
white of a Title six violation, and this was normalized.
That particular example was actually pre October seventh. So it's
a culture of the anti Semitism and of discrimination that
has been normalized, accepted, and tolerated for years. And what
(13:50):
a damning indictment on the state of higher education. That
the only reason there is this come up in is
because of the administration in DC. You know, had the
election gone differently, we would not be talking about these stories.
We would not have strong federal action. So that's just
one example. There was an undergraduate student at Harvard who
was spat on for wearing his Yamica. That there was
(14:11):
a Jewish student at Harvard Business School who was physically
accosted by two students. One of those two students was
just awarded a sixty five thousand dollars scholarship by Harvard
Law School last week, and the other is a class
marshal at graduation next month. I could tell you about
the Harvard employee who vandalized our hostage posters writing on
capear Beeboss. Who's the nine month old baby who was
(14:32):
kidnapped from Israel and murdered in captivity, he wrote on it.
His head is still on where is the evidence? He
wrote on Noah Argamani again is a Jewish civilian who
was kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival. He wrote, Jews
are best friends with Jeffrey Epstein, then challenged me to
debate him in his secluded underpasses to whether Jews orchestrated
at nine to eleven, and then posted a video of
him waving a machete saying it's to fight. He has
(14:54):
a plan to come after the Zionist mafia, and he's
coming after more than blood. And of the dozens of
phone calls and emails I sent to Harvard inquiring about
this individual's employment status, to this day, they've never once
responded to me. During the encampments, when students were intents
on the middle of the quad, Jewish students, not all,
but myself and friends of mine were followed on our
way to class by self impost safety marshals. These were
(15:16):
classmates of ours who operated their own security system on campus,
recording us and following us on the way to class. Again,
we told the president of university this was happening. Not
only did he never respond to us, he actually told
the encampment leaders, the people following us that if you
agree to pack up your tents, you can meet with
us and we'll hear your grievances. So it's just story
after story. And this is just Harvard. We haven't even
(15:38):
spoken about Columbia or Penn or UCLA or Yale. And
unfortunately I've been in this space for I guess two
years now, and day after day the story is just compound.
I'm actually on Capital I was on Capitol Hill today.
I'm in DC and we were meeting with policymakers from
both sides of the isle and a friend of mine, Michael,
He's from DePaul University. He spoke because he was physically
(16:01):
assaulted on his campus about three months ago, and the
university has begrudgingly only now have they actually released the
security photo. But his friend got a concussion, he had
a broken arm, and they were assaulted for being Jewish
on their campus. So the president of DePaul University finally
is being called in front of Congress that hearing will
happen tomorrow. But this is not issues of free speech
(16:23):
or academic discourse. This is an issue of Blaine discrimination,
violence and an outright anti Semitism on our campuses.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, the problem is that anti Semitism is now mainstream, right,
and and that's and that's really part of the problem.
So you filed the lawsuit, you're still a plaintiff against Harvard, right,
that goes back to January of twenty four. What's the
status of it? What's the basics? What's the basis the lawsuit?
That's obvious, but what's the status of the litigation?
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Every saying we didn't have standing, and our judge, the
Federal the judge of the Federal Record of Massachusetts, Richard Stearns,
He actually tossed out Harvard's double motions to dismiss. And
we're the first case of its kind, as I said,
to go to trial. Where we are currently is we're
in the midst of discovery, So I can't get into
the details of what we're looking for, but on a
broad level, we want to go and look into those
(17:16):
private correspondences. We want to understand what were the decisions
being made and by whom. Why is it that anti
Semitic professors, for example, we're continuously promoted. Why is it
that Jewish students' concerns were continuously ignored? Why is it
that there is this unchecked slush fund of foreign funding
and through those are the things we're looking at, and
(17:38):
based on the subject, we'll have deposition.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
We're having some audio problems over here, ladies and gentlemen,
so if you're hearing some buzzing or some echoing, just
bear with us as we figure out what the heck.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
What the heck it is.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
I love that you're in discovery because I think that
one of the things that people don't always understand is
that it when you file a lawsuit and you start
asking discoveries, when you have you you start asking for documentation,
you are now forced. Harvard is now going to be
(18:10):
forced to provide documents and information about what they've been
covering up, about what they've been up to. And and
I think the more that we go on and we
see that Qatar, like they've been funding these protests, we
see that they've been funding various news media organizations. You know,
(18:33):
I don't I don't know why they would need to
be sending money to US colleges. Doesn't that seem kind
of weird to you?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Shabas, Yeah, Yeah, you're you're totally nailing the the what
is it? Hitting the nail on the hammer. Yeah, there
was a Free Press article about I don't know a
week or two ago, and it documented how there's been
this unmarked twenty nine billion dollars in foreign funding going
to institutions of higher learning.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
That's crazy.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Yeah, it's crazy. And i'll sort of amplify just one donation.
One story. Twenty years ago, there was a student at
Harvard Divinity School and she was my age at the time,
Rachel Fish, and she discovers by total happenstance. Your listeners
can google this by total luck that Harvard received a
three million dollar donation from a Katari think tank that
was anti democratic, that was anti Semitic, that was anti American,
(19:22):
and the donation was a quid pro quo. They said
to Harvard, we'll give you the money so long as
you have an endowed position of Islamic studies and we
get to pick the professor. And as I said, this
is a donation discovered by total luck. And it took
Harvard about two three years to Number one admit they
received the donation, and then number two rescind the donation.
This wow donation uncovered by luck twenty years ago. So
(19:44):
we can only speculate how many more of these types
of donations have been given. And it's incredibly dangerous because
one of the things that separates the United States from
other countries is we really have an intellectual talent here
and the talent pool that that young Americans provide is
really encompass. And what we are now allowing, which which
(20:07):
is incredibly dangerous, is our foreign adversaries cutter China, Russia,
Saudi Arabia even to get that most to get that
precious resource, you know, the young minds, the young hearts
and minds.
Speaker 5 (20:20):
Of our own.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Yeah, why would we allow restrict, unrestricted access into these
young students. Why would we allow almost a totally unregulated
amount of money to come pouring into these institutions. It's
it's this.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Earning well, and that's what you know, you bring up
a good point. It's it's multiple countries.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
We've seen over the years all this trickling down of
all these Chinese folks stealing intellectual property from the colleges,
the universities working for Diane Feinstein and Feinstein and a swallwell,
and you know, it's like, oh my god, y'all are
not even taking the time to protect your own stuff,
(20:59):
and we're supposed to trust you.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
Yeah, I mean there was actually Again, your listeners should
can and should google all this. But there was a
professor at Harvard his name escapes me, but he was
caught spying for the Chinese Communist Party and now he
is working at a Chinese university. The Harvard Crimson just
broke the story this week. Well, there needs to be
(21:22):
some type of investigation or at the very least a
conversation about what are the interests of the professors and
the students, especially international students who are coming into our country.
We know China is not an innovator, it's not a creator.
It's a stealer. It takes our ips, it takes our patents.
And when you have, as I said, almost an unrestricted
(21:42):
amount of money from China and you have an unrestricted
amount of students who are coming who don't share our values,
then that really causes concern. And I always make this
point of why do we care about Harvard and Colombian
pen and all these other places. It's because, unfortunately, these
are institutions that purport to train the next generation of
American leaders, and by and large, at least historically they're
(22:04):
kind of right. It's not an exaggeration at all to
state I probably sat in a classroom with someone who's
going to be in a fortune five hundred company, who's
going to be a future congressman, who's going to be
the author of the books your kids and grands.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yep, doctors, lawyers exactly, you know, your future Supreme Court
justices exactly.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
And if they're being inculcated within an environment and within
a culture that is rooted in a system that is
anti American, is anti American, then we really have to
number one, ask ourselves, well, why are the American people
funding it? And number two, we have to ask ourselves
what are the long term implications and what can we
do to mitigate these risks? And that's why I'm pretty
ecstatic about what President Trump is doing now.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Yeah, well, and you know one of the other things.
One of the other things we can do to mitigate
risks is support our sponsor Israel Appreciation Day, So ID
is spreading.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
The world right here.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Thank you, get your merch, ladies and gentlemen, we've got
ID merch. Excuse me, you guys, I've got a little
frog in my throat. It's croaking over here.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
That's because you was traveling. We are back break Shavis.
Thank you for staying with us. So you also spoke
at the RNC convention. Right earlier in the show, you
said you were a hardcore you were a young teenage
marching for Occupy Wall Street, hardcore liberal. You know, tell
(23:29):
us about sort of that whole process of evolution. I
would call it culminating with your speech, which we have
with us because you know I saw I saw it
live at the RNC.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
Sure, yeah, I sort of call it a political conversion.
I was nine years old when I bought a Barack
Obama yard sign in Hebrew. I was twelve when I
was knocking on doors for then Newark Mayor Corey Booker
when he was running for Senate. And of course I
was at the twenty sixteen Democratic Convention for Bernie Sanders,
voted for Jamal, and volunteered for Jamal Bowman in twenty twenty.
(24:05):
So yeah, I can sort of compare my progressive credentials
any day of the week. I have the street cred
I have the validity for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I got the sign to prove it exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
And while I always knew that there was this undercurrent
of anti Semitism. I was sort of able to maybe
not rationalize but ignore it because in my mind, I felt, well,
the Jewish people are strong enough. The Land of Israel
is a Western country, and it's strong and it's independent.
And then October seventh happens and you realize, actually the
(24:37):
Land of Israel needs American support, and you realize, actually
American Jewy is very much being discriminated against, both on
our campuses on the streets. And I went to the
Democratic Convention after I spoke at the RNC, and I said, fine,
you don't want to have me speak because I'm this
maga fascist, So don't have me speak, but have a
Jewish student speak for three minutes. And I gave him
(24:59):
a list of of roughly a dozen young Jewish progresses
on campuses who wanted to speak about their experiences and
probably were going to support Kamala Harris. And when I
presented that plan to the DNC, they said, no, we're okay. Wow.
In front of the House Judiciary Committee actually about a
(25:19):
year ago in May, and the ranking member, who's Jerry Navid,
the Democratic Congressman from New York, as I start my testimony,
he kind of crosses his arms, he leans back, and
ear he falls asleep. He quite literally falls asleep. Wow.
At a certain point, as much as I was trying
to save my party from itself, as much as I
was trying to say, guys, you are bleeding, not only
(25:40):
Jewish folks, but the broader American people are really abandoning you,
guys over these very extreme positions You're taken. And the
Democratic Party was just so not willing and not able
to listen to those concerns. And while that was happening,
the Trump campaign, to their credit, they start a real
effort to reach out to young American Jews and to
the American Jewish community broadly speaking. So I remember accompanying
(26:03):
President Trump to the grave the Rabbad Labovich, Rabbi Menachamandel Schneerson,
where we prayed for the American hostages. Kamala Harris was
invited to come to she said, no. I was at
Trump's first when he outlined clear policies that he would
enact to rid campuses of this discrimination in anti Semitism,
and again the Democratic Party didn't offer anything. So I've
(26:26):
come to the unfortunate realization that American politics are almost
exclusively transactional. And while that may not comport with the
utopian society, it's the reality. And in the same way
the Democratic Party makes concessions political concessions to the African
American community, to the LGBTQ plus community, well, I sort
of felt that the American Jewish community should be treated
(26:48):
just the same. Make concessions to our constituency. Tell us
what you're going to do to bring home the American
hostages in Gaza, tell us what you're going to do
to help American Jewish students on their campuses. And they
were not even forget about willing to make concessions. They
weren't even able to have that dialogue. So why continue
to stay with the party that just genuinely doesn't want
(27:09):
you there? And as much as I was trying to
deny within myself that I was sort of leaving the
Democratic Party, it became readily apparent. And then, of course,
when I got this opportunity to speak at the Republican Convention.
While initially I was reluctant because I'm still a registered Democrats,
at the end of the day, I felt American electoral
politics are binary systems. Either he wins or she wins.
(27:32):
And when I look at those two candidates at face value,
there's really only one. When it comes to my number
one issue or number one, two and three, there's only
one who speaks to me, and that's President Trump. And
that doesn't mean I necessarily agree with him on everything.
I don't think anyone agrees with any candidate on everything.
But what it does mean is I have enough trust
in this candidate and now the president to do the
(27:55):
things that he said he was going to do. And honestly,
one hundred days in plus of this presidency, when it
comes to defunding the universities, when it comes to detaining
the foreign students, when it comes to ending the federal contracts,
when it comes to cracking down on DEI eight plus,
promises made have become promises kept. I've seen this in
real time.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
So let me ask Let me ask you this, because
I think I saw numbers after the election that approximately
somewhere between thirty five to forty percent. I think thirty
eight was the high mark of Jewish votes for President Trump.
That still means sixty to sixty two percent of the
Jewish community. And let's be honest, you know, the Jewish
(28:34):
community really only moves the needle. And because I ran
a Jewish outreach program in the early two thousands for
President Bush, oh really only moves the needle in Florida, Pennsylvania,
and Ohio. Right, you can play in New York, and
you can play in California, but it's not going to
affect the electro outcome. Having said that, it still means
nationwide that sixty two percent of the Jewish community or
maybe sixty percent, still, in the face of everything you've
(28:57):
just said, thought that their values were better protected with
a Biden or in this case of Kamala Harris. I
still don't get that.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Yeah, listen, you and me both, I'll tell you a
dirty word. And that's context. The context is, while it
is true that anywhere from I mean the polls that
we've seen, the same polls and exit data, it's probably
around thirty five percent of American Jews voted for President Trump.
That is the most votes that are Republican nominee at
Mountain since Ronald Reagan. I mean again, even though we
(29:30):
would say, well, hang on, you have seventy percent of
the Jewish community you didn't vote, Still thirty five percent
is quite high. That's pretty historic for the American Jewish community.
The broader question that you're getting at, you know, why
are American Jews, even in the face of what I
would say, is just mounting evidence that we didn't abandon
the Democratic Party, of the Democratic Party abandoned us, why
do they still stick with them? I think it can
(29:50):
be answered in two ways. Number One, Historically, the American
Jewish experience has won has been one whereby we don't
want to feel like an other, we don't want to
feel that we're different. There is a very high assimilation
rate within the American Jewish community, a significant amount of
American Jews having little to no affiliation with a synagogue,
(30:11):
with a Jewish day school, with a Jewish community. And
if you actually look into the data on a micro level,
you'll actually notice that the more engaged in the American
jew Is with their community, with their synagogue, with their
Jewish camps, with their whatever, then they actually overwhelmingly support
the Republican Party. So, as you can tell by the hayamica,
(30:32):
I'm an Orthodox Jew. I come from the Orthodox Jewish
American community, which is roughly ten to fifteen percent of
American Jews, and our numbers when it came to President Trump,
it was eighty five percent and above. When it comes
to the Hasidic or ultra Orthodox communities, you're also seeing
eighty five percent and above. It's the Jewish communities across
this country who are more isolated, who don't have a
(30:53):
strong background in Jewish education, who are way more assimilated
than they tend to vote for the Democratic Party.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
You're talking about the reform community, and the further the
further left you go on the spectrum in terms of
observance and religiosity, if you will, the further left that
you're going to. But I want to arg.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
With anybody, I think you know, the more secular you are,
the less the less connected you are to the idea
of the sanctity of human life.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
I mean, look, we can talk about the Hebrew Bibles
and Biblical values for for a moment. One of the
core tenants within that is this is a very strong
family unit, very strong in Judaism. There's a commandment, an
active present commandment, that you have to educate your kids.
I mean, education is a paramount concern, which is as
much as I said, I was on Capitol Hill today
(31:46):
and I was in a personal capacity there was actually
another Jewish organization there vouching for school vouchers and charter schools.
We believe really from that in that choice, and that
is a direct result of well, our particular Jewish community,
the Orthodox community, are super invested in education because of
our religious mandate. Well, if you are from a Jewish community,
(32:08):
especially the reform community, that don't really have an investment
in Jewish education, then it sort of stands to reason
you're not going to push for things like charter schools
or school vouchers. And we see that with how they vote,
who they vote for, and we see that in all
the exit polls historically.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
So I wanted to say, Erica, do we have a
clip of Jabas at the R and C. So I
want to play this clip real quick, and then I
have a couple other questions because of some of the
responses that you evoked in within the Jewish community after
you had the temerity and audacity just to speak at
(32:45):
the RNC. Let's raw that clip, Erica.
Speaker 5 (32:51):
I came to Harvard to study religion, the foundation of
Western civilization. What I found was not theology, but a
contempt for it.
Speaker 4 (33:03):
My problem with.
Speaker 5 (33:04):
Harvard is not it's liberalism, but it's eliberalism. Too often
students at Harvard are taught not how to think but
what to think. I found myself immersed in a culture
that is anti Western, that is anti American, and that
(33:24):
is anti Semitic.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
All right, I love the passion, I have love the fire.
But you caught a lot of flak for that, right
for you know, I mean, you know, you know, how
dare you leave the faith and go over to the
other side, right, I mean? And that was sort of
you're coming out now I have in front of me.
There was a Rabbi Michaelson after you spoke at the
r and C. You know the article.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
I know what you're getting at.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Okay, So I want your reaction to this because to me,
this is an encapsulation of the sixty two per sent
and I don't understand how to reach them. Right. So
what what he said, because his article was the convention
speech I'd given response to Shavis questabaum. So he goes
right after you, right, And what he says is it's
(34:14):
not the Jewish way to inflame anger, distort truth, deny science,
and stand with America Firsters and Christian nationalists. But the
thing here that that really I just have such a
hard time with with all of this. Is then he
goes on to say, by the way, he calls you
a right wing what does he call you a right
wing Jewish agitator? Well, you may be an agitator right
(34:38):
where I'm an agitator, but right wing you don't. You
don't fit the bill right. But so so what he
ends up saying here is that where is it here?
We go? At first, we defended Israel's right to defend
itself and secure the release of the hostages held by
the theocratic terrorist organization of US. But is the war
dragged on in Israel's tactics seemed out of proportion to
(35:02):
these goals, which harkens back to me, right, I remember
the first days after, you know, October eleventh, you heard
the Biden administration say, well, we just hope that there's
a proportionate response. And my response to that is, so
Israel should burn babies alive, rape women? And I mean,
how do.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
You are trying to get us kicked off of YouTube?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Come on, yeah, okay, So I mean this article, really,
it's not the Jewish way to support mass deportations of immigrants.
It's not the Jewish way to deny science, and it's
not the Jewish way to endorse Christian nationalism and the
embedding of fundamentalists Christian values into American law. I mean,
(35:43):
I read this, I throw out my hands because I
think we're losing the battle. With all the good work
out there, all the good work that you're doing in
so many organizations that so many people, we're losing the battle.
How do you fight that battle?
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Well, first, let me say about the author. About two
or three months after he wrote that actually an accurate
hit piece, he was actually given a Harvard Law School
fellowship where he's now the visiting professor at So I'm
not saying I live in Harvard's head, but the timing
is a little suspect. The absolute contempt that individuals like
(36:19):
that author and his colleagues have for people who dare
to think differently, that all of a sudden, you are
this fanatical right wing fascist because you're not voting in
line with my political priorities is precisely why Donald Trump
was reelected, because the American people are sick and tired
of the sense of elitism, of moral bankruptcy, and intellectual
hypocrisy that have been oozing out of the Ivy League universities.
(36:43):
And as I said, the fact that this offer, this
author was very quickly offered a teaching position at Harvard
Law School shortly after the publication of that article really
tells you everything you need to know about Harvard in
a broad sense. How do you deal with those types
of accusations and how do we wage this fight? Look,
they're going to call you a right wing fascist, they're
going to call you a Christian nationalist, They're going to
(37:05):
call you a this and a that. If I were
to spend all of my days and all of my
time worried about what individuals are writing about me or
what they were saying on social media, I wouldn't be
able to get that much done because it's all consuming
and it's all the time. What I instead have learned is,
I'm going to paraphrase and butcher a ligne from Winston Churchill,
which is, if you have enemies good, it means you're
(37:26):
doing the right thing, because you're doing something that is
of worth of value, something that is so important that
people want to stop you, prevent you from doing it.
And that article is a representation of that stoppage of
we don't like what you are doing, and we are
going to throw as much mud as we can to
get you to stop doing it. So in some respects,
(37:47):
I say, if the people who burn American flags, if
the people who have contempt for fifty percent of the country,
if people who believe that they are better then than
others who don't have a college degree, if they don't
like me, then good, I'm clearly doing the right thing.
And I take it as a badge of honor. And
by the way, just one last point again just because
you brought him up and it was a really silly article,
(38:10):
but to further bolster this point, and again your listeners
can google this. Jay Michaelson was a panelist on CNN
and Sure Michael, who's one of the CN commentators. Of
course he's an African American man. They talk about women's
sports and how Sure Michael did not think you would
be appropriate for biological women to be competing in male sports,
(38:31):
and Jay Michaelson. J Michaelson quite literally just starts barking
him down and shouting and saying I'm not going to
let you continue this conversation. So again it's symptomatic of
this far leftalism that Jay Michaelson really represents well.
Speaker 3 (38:45):
I have to tell you, you reminded me of one
of my all time favorite quotes by the illustrious and
infamous Rick of Rick and Morty where he says, your
booze mean nothing thing to me. I've seen what makes
you cheer.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Very good, Yes, I should I should have remembered that one.
That's a good one.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
Which, by the way, going back to mister Michaelson, he
does say that he's a writer, a journalist, a professor
in a rabbi and in the academic world. My world,
my work focuses on mysticism, sexuality, law, and psychedelics. So
I'm like, yeah, I want okay, I want the psychedelics.
So sorry, I'm a child. That a six so but
(39:30):
very serious note Jovis, there was a Gallup poll out,
and this is very concerning to me. There's a Gallup
poll out about a month ago that said that support
for Israel in this country is at an all time
lovel forty six or forty eight percent, as I recall,
and support for pro Palestinian two state Solution HAMAS is
at an all time high. I think it was thirty
two or thirty six percent. The problem wasn't even the numbers.
(39:53):
The problem was that they were trending in the wrong direction.
So my question to you, because you rightfully brought up
that the next generational leaders are coming off the college
campuses and we're losing the battle with all. So how
do you change the dynamics specifically on college campuses. Because
Harvard will not self reform, Yale will not self reform,
(40:13):
Colombia will certainly not self reform, right, and there's this
whole organized aspect to it. Anyway, but if we don't
win the battle on college campuses, then we're really losing
the battle because it's not about you, well, probably about
you because you're young, but old guys like me, it's
about next generation.
Speaker 4 (40:31):
Yeah. I would sort of answer that in three ways.
Number One, it really animates why podcasts like this, why
organizations like Israel Appreciation Day are so important to amplify
and to highlight those who are doing the good work
on the ground, the daily grind, and it's important and
it's noticed. The second thing I would say is in
Jewish thought, there's a rabbi, a documental Morganstern, who has
(40:53):
this great line where an atheist comes to meet him
and he says, you know, Rabbi, try to prove me wrong.
And the atheist talks about all reasons why he doesn't
believe in God, and the Rabbi says, you know what,
the God you don't believe in, I don't believe in either.
A God who is vengeful, a God who simply just
is out to punish people and cast them into the
eternal den nations of Hell. I wouldn't want to believe
in that God either. So too, if you are in
(41:15):
front of a TikTok screen, or you're in front of
the mainstream media day in and day out, and you're
inundated with Israel as an apartheid state of white Western
settler colonial Jews from Brooklyn, New York, who have a
bloodless then with surmise that you would have a bias
against the land of Israel, I wouldn't blame you, because
(41:37):
that's what the propaganda is all about, and it's working.
It's working. It really underscores the need for us to
reach the hearts and minds of young people, not with propaganda,
but with the truth. I always tell people, especially when
it comes to Israel, just go there. Just go there
for five days, you know, see the land for yourself.
Meet the twenty percent of the state of Israel that
(41:59):
are our of Muslims, Meet the ten percent of Israel
that are Christians. Look at the Old City of Jerusalem,
where you have all three Abrahamic religions who are able
to practice their religion in peace and prosperity because of
the land of Israel. Israel is the only place in
the Middle East where you can do that. And again,
what's so remarkable is the far left, especially on campuses,
(42:20):
they talk about the need of decolonization, They talk about
the need of progressivism and of bastions of democracy. Israel
is literally everything they want a Palestinian state to be.
Israel already is that think. It already is a bastion
of Western democracy. It already is a place of freedom
of worship and expression for all people. It already is
(42:42):
a place of emancipation for women and LGBTQ plus people.
Look less than what five hundred miles from Israel, you
have a country where women can't even drive. So I
encourage these individuals on college campuses. Ignore the TikTok algorithm,
ignore the social media hashtags, Visit the land yourself. You
can come with your preconceived notions, you can come with
your questions. You can come, and you should come with
(43:04):
your criticisms, but hear the arguments for what they are,
meet the people on the ground. And I have seldom
experienced individuals who have gone through that process, who've gone
to Israel, who asked those questions, who walk away with
a feeling of Yes, this is a white Western settler
colonial country that is deserving of annihilation. From the river
(43:25):
to the sea. They say, no, this is America's number
one ally and this is where the Biblical story comes
to life. And this is where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
Jesus and Muhammad walked. And I think that is an energy,
or that is a narrative that we need to be
expressing way more as opposed to simply being on the defense.
You know, Israel speaks for itself. It's such a wonderful
(43:47):
cause to promote because it has everything going for it,
and it is such a blessing that on the daily
I get to talk about why I, as an American,
believe so strongly in the land of Israel and in
the people of Israel.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
You know, I'm so glad you said that because and
by the way, ladies and gentleman, who is listening to
the show for so long, over several years, I did
not give him any of those talking points. I promise
you one of the things that we have always said here.
Part of the problem is right, there's so much good
work being done out there, but everything is defensive in
nature until you and you and you're using our vernacular,
(44:22):
until you win hearts and minds, until you exalt Israel,
until you get people. And it's not just about education, right,
because people buy an emotion and they justify on logic
what they've already bought. The logic is the education piece
of this. But things like stop the Hate, which is
a great campaign, but the term stop is defensive. The
defense stops the offense. In a sports game, right, the
(44:45):
offense needs to score to win. And until we shift
from defense to offense and unapologetically extol all the things
that make Israel special and the United States specialize, they're connected.
It's American exceptional zoo, it's values. Right. Until you extol
those things, that's where we're that's where we're losing this.
(45:05):
But I want to jump and can I just quickly
you can do anything.
Speaker 4 (45:09):
No, because it's such an important point. There are currently
fifty nine hostages still being held in the Terra tunnels
of Adzais. We have at least one American who's alive
in Gaza in captivity, and the bodies of at least
four Americans who are still being there. And the one
of the slogans for the hostages when we rally on
(45:30):
Capitol Hill won only march on the street is people
say bring them home. And many people, especially a year
and a half after, are a little upset with that slogan.
Why because it puts the onus on the Israeli government
that the Israeli government is the one who needs to
go and get them. Certainly, it's true, you know, a
government is responsible for its people. I'm not saying that
Biba Nataiao, who does not have an obligation to do it,
(45:51):
but what would have been far more effective let them go?
Because what why is or what is the reason that
the hostages are not back. It's because Hamas is refusing
to do it. So the pressure should not be on
the victims, should not be on the Israeli people. The
pressure should and must be on the perpetrators Hamas let
them go, because we have to stop with this defensive
mentality we go on the offense. There was only one
(46:12):
side that broke the ceasefire, and that was Hamas on
October seventh. There's only one side that kidnapped babies, and
that was Hamas on October seventh. Israel is simply responding
to all all of the actions of Hamas on October seventh,
and as I always say, if you so feel so
strongly that this war must end and that too many
innocent Palestins are being killed and enough is enough, then
(46:33):
you would join me and do everything in your power
to demand that Hamas released the hostages today and surrender immediately,
because that will end the war. Israel has said this
repeatedly for the last year and a half.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
You just hit a hot button with me because what
I say, you know, again, being from Jersey, I'm a
smart alec right, and I say to people there are
no hostages, and they look at me. I said, if
there were hostages. I lived through the Iran hostage trice.
Every day. It was in the news every day. There
was pressure to come home every day, and we knew
the names of the hostages. And it was on the
media every day. The media doesn't cover it. They're they're
(47:11):
what hostages, right, I mean, and I say that tongue
in cheek and very respectfully because because it's horrible. But
there's no preser they're forgotten. Then they're not forgotten by
their family, they're not forgotten by by by those who care,
but they're forgotten by the media. They're forgotten by the politicians.
And they've just they've been allowed to languish. But I
think your point is excellent. It's really not bring them home,
(47:32):
it is let them go. That's it. That's that's the
right distinction. Yeah, No, it's just it's it's it's horrible.
It's it's horrible, and it has to end. But it
ends when Israel defeats Hamas. Hamas isn't gonna let them go.
They have no they have no soul. Yeah, they have
(47:57):
no soul.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
I want one press really hear Robert turning speechless, But
it just happened. That is amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
It well, frankly makes me angry, and then said and speechless.
But yeah, having said that, speaking of fighting back and
going on offense, total segue away from the hostages on
college campuses. I often wonder what would happen if we
taught the Jewish students how to fight people's but bro
(48:30):
like so like is really selfless. So I'm an old
martial arts guy, right, I'm not advocating for violence defenses defense,
but to me, the battle really is on the college campuses, right,
the adults, you know, not the adults, the old people
like me. We can argue, but you know, our time
on this on stage is almost done, right, It's you know,
(48:54):
you know, hush, I'm willing. Right. But having said that,
do you think it would change? I don't know. And
I'm not advocating for violence on campus, but I am
advocating for teaching self defense on campus. And I just
as someone who's just recently on campus, would that dynamic
have changed anything amongst the Jewish students or those who
were or those who were I don't know the word,
(49:19):
but you get that, yeah, victim.
Speaker 4 (49:22):
It's funny because I lecture across the country and I
go on college campuses a lot, and I've learned this
new slogan where people say for every Jew of twenty two,
which I think is.
Speaker 1 (49:34):
I think that is not a big enough caliber No.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Five.
Speaker 4 (49:38):
Well, a thirty five doesn't rhyme. So look, I think,
broadly speaking, not only should the Jewish community, but yes,
I think Americans should be able to defend themselves.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
What does that I'm not talking firearms. I'm talking about
physical prowess.
Speaker 4 (49:54):
Right, physical prowess. I would probably agree with you, And
I just think that's just a good life skill to have.
It's certainly something that I'm more cognizant of post October seventh.
I think certainly vulnerable communities are more vulnerable. Communities should
be able to learn how to defend themselves and not
simply define themselves by their oppressors. At the same time,
(50:15):
so I agree with you. At the same time, I
don't know the numbers. I don't know what percentage, but
a significant amount of the indoctrination, of the anti Semitism,
of the anti Americanism, it's not thought in a physical battle.
It's fought in the war of ideas. It's fought in
the battleground of ideas. And the only way you can
fight bad ideas is with good ideas. And the only
(50:37):
way you can fight indoctrination is with education. And I
don't again, physical defense is important. And then there's the
intellectual defense. We need to be able to respond to
these accusations number one, and then really put the other side,
our ideological adversaries in the hot seat. How come you're
the ones you're adplicating defense exactly? How you're the excuse
(51:01):
me on defense? How come you're the ones who are
advocating for dictatorial tyrannical regime in Goza that throws gay
people off of roofs. You know, you're the ones who
have to be in the hot seat for that, not us.
So ultimately, the irony of all of this is Harvard,
for example, file the lawsuit against the Trump administration saying
that the Trump administration, by withholding federal funds, is stifling
their free speech. I think it is a very weak case,
(51:21):
but we'll see how the courts play out. Having said that,
the irony of all of this is Harvard, and so
many institutions of high learning in this country have become
bastions not only a political indoctrination, but also incubators whereby
they stifle free speech, academic discourse, and intellectual dialogue. These
are incubators of group think, and they dissent is stifled.
(51:46):
This is a known thing. So the argument that these
education centers are making now that the Trump administration is
stifling free speech, it's ludicrous because unfortunately we've lost the
art on our campuses to disagree with people, you know,
everyone has to agree with the same opinion. And I
think ultimately that is the best way we can fight back,
That is the best way that we can get ourselves
(52:07):
out of this culture whereby you turn on the TV
and you think to yourself, well, if you're an oppressed group,
if you're a victim group, you could do whatever you want.
You want to rape a bunch of Jewish women, Okay,
you want to kill United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Okay.
We have to get out of that mindset. It's incredibly destructive,
it's incredibly narrow minded.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
Yeah, the other thing is to get the other thing
is to get rid of tenure, which is the ultimate
safe space. Right, because my theory, Shabas, is that the
the Hippies of the sixties, right, you know, you know,
make peace not love, you know, that kind sort of
you know, moral relativism that permeated the sixties, that you know,
one man's you know, terrorist is another man's freedom fighter,
(52:50):
which is total crap and lack and the moral equivalence
of it just makes me crazy. But they needed a job.
They couldn't survive in the real world, so they go
where into academic where they're insulated, they have tenure, and
then they created safe spaces and then safe campuses and
it sort of rolled from there. Gross over simplification, I
grant you, but I think in part and tenure protects that,
(53:13):
so we will see. But ladies and gentlemen, we're talking
with Shabus custin bound Erica. We are at the end
of the hour. I want to thank you Shavis for
coming on. Please come on again. Where can people find
you social media? How do they contact you? Where can
they find you?
Speaker 4 (53:29):
Yeah, you can definitely follow me on Twitter and Instagram.
Just type in my name Shabus Kestenbaum. There is no
other Shabi is Kestenbaum. That is, so you'll be able
to find me pretty quick. And yes, by all means,
please message me and let's keep the conversation going.
Speaker 2 (53:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (53:44):
Yeah, check out his X page, y'all.
Speaker 3 (53:49):
Definitely make sure and you said you're on Instagram too, yep,
all right, excellent, excellent, All right, you guys so we
thank you for watching this evening. If you have been
watching this long and you got something out of it,
we ask that you like, share and subscribe to this channel.
And if you didn't get something out of it, or
(54:10):
you just came to hate watch, we thank you for
helping the algorithm. All right, and you know what, let's
let's say good evening. With a message from our sponsor,
American Center for Education and Knowledge.
Speaker 2 (54:29):
America came into being based on a shared belief and
a common set of values. Unlike other nations that were
bound together based on common ancestry, race, or cast, we
came into being based on a simple and shared set
of ideals that the power of government is based on
the consent of the governed, that life, the freedom to
(54:50):
live life on our own terms in our own way,
free from government interference, and liberty our most precious value,
and the pursuit of happiness, which means we are free
to pursue that which we choose with the knowledge encouraged
to know that nothing is guaranteed to us in this life.
Those values. America was founded on these basic inalienable rights.
(55:13):
Freedom to pray to God in our own way, freedom
to think and speak, freely without fear of punishment or harm,
and freedom to gather in our places of worship and
in our local taverns. And freedom to defend ourselves, our families,
our homes, and our neighbors as we see fit. The
American Center for Education and Knowledge is dedicated to protecting
(55:36):
American exceptionalism anywhere and everywhere it is threatened. AASAK is
a five oh one c three and depends on your
tax deductible donations. Please help us continue our fight