cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39220726
Brett Wilkins
Nov 19, 2025A speechwriter for prominent Democrats including former President Barack Obama and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Kerry faced widespread outrage this week after video emerged of her blaming Holocaust education for young Jews’ empathy for Palestinians in Gaza and revulsion at Israel’s genocidal war there.
Earlier this week, Sarah Hurwitz—who was also a senior speechwriter for former First Lady Michelle Obama and other Democrats—spoke at the opening plenary of this year’s Jewish Federations of North America general assembly in Washington, DC. The event featured speakers including Free Press staff writer Olivia Reingold, who implicitly attempted to absolve Israel from blame for the Gaza famine by noting that 12 of the at least 463 Palestinians who starved to death had preexisting health conditions.
This is a really grotesque take, becoming more and more so the longer she speaks.
The insanity isn’t emanating from the younger Jews, Sarah.
Hurwitz continued:
It’s also this increasingly post-literate media. Less and less text, more and more videos, so you have TikTok just smashing our young peoples’ brains all day long with video of carnage in Gaza. And this is why so many of us can’t have a sane conversation with younger Jews, because anything we try to say to them, they are hearing it through this wall of carnage. So I wanna give data and information and facts and arguments and they are just seeing in their minds carnage, and I sound obscene.
(…)
But I think [Holocaust education] may be confusing some of our young people about antisemitism, because they learn about big, strong Nazis hurting weak, emaciated Jews," she added, "…so when on TikTok all day long they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it’s not surprising that they think, ‘Oh, I know, the lesson of the Holocaust is you fight Israel, you fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people.’
Reaction to Hurwitz’ remarks ranged from incredulity to anger.
“I am (…) speechless,” American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee nation legal director Jenin Younes said on X. “She’s decrying the fact that kids’ takeaway from Holocaust education has been that we must protect helpless people from powerful people killing them. The real lesson from the Holocaust, it seems, is that Israel must be able to commit genocide if it wants to.”
What… Was the purpose of the education, then?
We stomped Nazis. What’s bad about teaching people to stomp Nazis?
Nothing a $20 million dollar consulting deal can’t fix!
Nah, that means it worked.
Watching the establishment freak out at younger generations rightfully laughing off their 9/11 fearmongering and unwavering dedication to Israel is the one bit of brightness dragging me through 2025. Some high school teen can post a 9/11 meme, denounce capitalism, and yell “Free Palestine” and it instantly does natural 20 psychic damage to everyone neolib or farther right.
I hope more rebellious teens catch onto this. I want the next Tinker v. Des Moines to be on a Twin Tower collapse TikTok thirst trap compilation.
Exactly! How can they draw that conclusion when it’s obvious common sense that they should be against genocide because of the horror stories they’ve been told.
So I wanna give data and information and facts and arguments and they are just seeing in their minds carnage, and I sound obscene.
These videos of reality are devastating to my attempts at dehumanizing rhetoric! Kids today are anti-literate.
A speechwriter for prominent Democrats including former President Barack Obama and presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John Kerry
The kind of people the old establishment fucking hire jesus christ we have such an uphill battle against these jokers.
I’ll probably be in my 50s or 60s by the time these old fuckers die out but I hope the world is still salvageable by then.
Unless you’re 48 and all these people have early heart attacks I don’t think that is very likely
insane this is real and not an onion headline
But I think it may be confusing some of our young people about antisemitism, because they learn about big, strong Nazis hurting weak, emaciated Jews,” she added, “…so when on TikTok all day long they see powerful Israelis hurting weak, skinny Palestinians, it’s not surprising that they think, ‘Oh, I know, the lesson of the Holocaust is you fight Israel, you fight the big powerful people hurting the weak people.’”
Yeah that’s 100% is the lesson of the holocaust. The lesson is of the genocide itself not the specific target of the genocide. The target is irrelevant for the lesson. Fucking psychopaths and sociopaths, the lot of them. We need to filter these mentally damaged fucks out of political power.
“Wait what the fuck? Oh so they’re being satirical and actually stating the exact opposite?.. Oh. No they’re serious. What the fuck?”
-My Internal Thoughts reading this.
What a staggeringly cold-hearted and sociopathic take.
Why are we giving nobodies a platform to spread hate? This is not news. She is no one of significance and her opinions are insignificant. She had a job writing speeches for Obama. That doesn’t make her a “top dem speechwriter”. As if that is a classification or badge of honor.
