Jewish groups blast Torres challenger for featuring antisemitic activist in campaign launch
Major New York Jewish groups criticized former Assemblyman Michael Blake, who is running in the Democratic primary against Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), for featuring a clip of an influencer who supported the shooting of two Israeli Embassy employees at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington in his campaign launch video.
Blake’s video features a short clip from a social media video posted by Guy Christensen, an anti-Israel activist, accusing Torres of “investing in genocide,” one of the first clips in the video.
Christensen praised the alleged D.C. shooter, Elias Rodriguez, urging his followers to support Rodriguez and describing his “act of resistance” as “justified” and to respond with “greater resistance and escalation” in the face of a potential crackdown against the anti-Israel movement.
“I do not condemn the elimination of those two Zionist officials,” Christensen said on social media at the time of the shooting. “[Rodriguez] is not a terrorist. He’s a resistance fighter. And the fact is that the fight against Israel’s war machine, against their genocide machine, against their criminality, includes their foreign diplomats in this country and internationally.”
Christensen was expelled from The Ohio State University for the video, which was taken down by TikTok.
In a statement, the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York condemned Blake’s video, both for featuring Christensen and for its use of other antisemitic tropes.
“Hurling a bus load of antisemitic tropes and platforming bigots who cheer antisemitic violence in a launch video is not the pro-humanity flex one thinks it is. In the backdrop of rising hate, this only deepens division, further inflames an already inflammatory climate in New York, and makes us all less safe,” the group said in a statement.
The Anti-Defamation League of New York and New Jersey focused its criticism specifically on the Christensen clip.
“No matter what your views are on the candidates or the issues, we can all agree that Michael Blake’s platforming of anti-Zionist influencer Guy Christensen should be roundly condemned,” the group said. “Christensen is an activist who regularly touts Hamas and promotes antisemitic ideas, and he defended the shooter that left two dead at the Jewish Museum this past spring.”
UJA-Federation of New York said in a statement, “We strongly condemn any use of antisemitic vitriol and those who promote it to attack opponents.”
“Regardless of beliefs, actively platforming Guy Christensen, who regularly shares antisemitic ideas and pro-Hamas rhetoric — in addition to defending the heinous antisemitic shooting in Washington, DC, this spring — is absolutely unacceptable,” UJA continued.
