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By Grace Gilson
(September 10, 2025 / JTA) Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who through more than a decade in public life expressed staunch support for Israel while at times being accused of antisemitism, is dead at 31.
He was fatally shot while speaking at a Utah university in front of a crowd of roughly 1,000.
Kirk was the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, an influential youth organization in conservative politics. Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, he founded the group at 18 after dropping out of college. Over the following years, he played a crucial role in galvanizing youth support for President Donald Trump and came to represent a vanguard of Christian nationalism in the United States.
Kirk frequently characterized himself as a defender of the Jews and Israel, even as he faced criticism from across the spectrum over his comments about Jews and from the Anti-Defamation League and others over his role in the mainstreaming of the far right.
Politically conservative Jewish groups mourned Kirk’s death.
“Charlie has been a shining light in these troubled times for the American Jewish community, and we are deeply saddened at his passing,” the Republican Jewish Coalition said in a statement. “All people of good will must condemn this horrific murder and demand justice for Charlie.”
Morton Klein, CEO of the Zionist Organization of America, said Kirk had recently accepted an invitation to speak at the group’s national gala later this year.
“Charlie Kirk was a great man, a personal friend and an ally who loved Israel and the Jewish people,” Klein said in a statement. “I had the pleasure of walking all over Jerusalem with him and sitting for an incredible interview with him on his radio show where for over an hour, Charlie asked great questions to better understand the Arab-Islamist war against Israel, the Jewish people and the West.”
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