NEW YORK — Today, T’ruah, a rabbinic human rights organization that represents over 2,000 rabbis and cantors and their communities, called for the expulsion of Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Representative Lauren Boebert and other members of Congress who support the antisemitic and antidemocratic QAnon conspiracy theory.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, executive director of T’ruah, released the following statement:
“Support for QAnon should be disqualifying for anyone holding public office. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rep. Lauren Boebert, and other members of Congress who have indicated support for QAnon should resign or be expelled from Congress due to their support of this antisemitic and antidemocratic conspiracy theory.
“We also call on all members of Congress, particularly the Republican party who has tacitly welcomed conspiracy theorists into its ranks, to explicitly denounce these conspiracies for what they are: antisemitic and antidemocratic nonsense that is responsible for a rise in antisemitic violence and deadly antidemocratic insurrectionism aimed at overturning free and fair elections.
“In addition to her support of QAnon, a completely false conspiracy theory with antisemitic elements, Rep. Greene has indicated support for bizarre theories about Jewish-controlled space lasers being responsible for forest fires. It is not hard to draw the connection between the increase in public officials supporting such hateful nonsense and the sharp increase in antisemitic attacks and violence over the last several years. Jewish history, unfortunately, offers us too many examples of inflammatory language and conspiracy theories ultimately turning into violence. We must cut off support for conspiracy theories before they lead to even more violence than we have already seen.”
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of more than 2,000 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.