Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Make a Passover gift and support Jewish journalism. DONATE NOW
Fast Forward

Breitbart’s Jerusalem Chief Boasts Of ‘Major Influence’ In Trump Era

The man running Breitbart’s Israel bureau is a Yeshiva U. graduate from Philadelphia who runs the outpost of the influential far-right media operation from his sunsplashed triplex apartment in Tel Aviv alongside a dog named for a machine gun.

Aaron Klein also shares a deep suspicion of Muslims with his ex-boss, Steve Bannon, who now works as a top aide to President Trump.

“We have major influence right now politically,” Aaron Klein told McClatchy Newspapers, while tending to Uzi.

In a long-ranging profile, Klein tells McClatchy he grew up as the oldest of 10 children in a modern Orthodox family. He began his journalism career while editing a student newspaper at Y.U.

Bannon hired Klein because the two men share views about the rise of “radical Islamic terrorism.” Breitbart Jerusalem reports from a pro-Israel, conservative angle which a senior editor-at-large called “unabashedly Zionist.”

Klein sees his bureau as evidence that Bannon is a supporter of the Jewish people.

“I was so frustrated and even hurt, in a way, that somebody so close to my, like Steve, who I know to be the exact opposite of anti-Semitic….would be smeared in this way,” Klein told McClatchy.

This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.

This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.

With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.