Jewish group shoots back after Candace Owens accuses rabbi of bribing pastors to criticize her
Ohr Torah Stone President and Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Kenneth Brander responded that Owens’ accusation was ‘entirely false, baseless, and defamatory’
Candace Owens, conservative political commentator, speaks on stage during “Turning Point’s The Peoples Convention” on June 14, 2024 at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan. Photo by Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
(JTA) — Ohr Torah Stone, the Israel-based Modern Orthodox educational organization, rejected claims made by far-right pundit Candace Owens Thursday that the group’s founding rabbi had sought to bribe Christian pastors to criticize her in their sermons.
Owens, a provocateur who has previously embraced antisemitic rhetoric, made the allegations on her podcast and X account Thursday. Attaching the text of a letter she claimed was sent by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin to an unnamed pastor, she accused him of offering pastors Bitcoin in exchange for “preaching against” Owens and fellow far-right influencer Tucker Carlson.
“Noticing an increase in anti ‘Candace and Tucker’ content,” wrote Owens in a post on X that included screenshots of the alleged email. “Today we showed you verifiable proof that Rabbis in Israel are offering, among other things, BITCOIN to pastors to preach against us on Sunday. Read the email from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin! THIS IS DEMONIC.”
The American-born Riskin is the founder and chancellor emeritus of Ohr Torah Stone, which also established the Hertog Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation, an interfaith program that was named in the email.
In the alleged email, which Owens she had verified through “screen recordings,” Riskin offers an unnamed pastor “a donation of $2,500 in Bitcoin to your congregation” in exchange for a recording or summary of any remarks they might deliver “encouraging awareness, compassion, and caution when engaging with media voices that spread division under the cover of opinion.”
The quoted email refers specifically to Owens and Carlson, saying they’ve used language that “lately has crossed a line” and “veered into rhetoric that echoes classic antisemitic tropes.”
In a post on X, Ohr Torah Stone President and Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Kenneth Brander responded that Owens’ accusation was “entirely false, baseless, and defamatory.”
In response to Owens’ allegations, an Ohr Torah Stone spokesperson told JTA that Ohr Torah Stone “denies that email’s from the organization.”
In a statement emailed Thursday following an inquiry by JTA into the validity of the email, Brander lambasted Owens, writing that his organization “does not engage in smear campaigns.”
“Rabbi Riskin and Ohr Torah Stone don’t spend time thinking about Candace Owens,” the statement read. “We are entirely focused on our mission of educating the next generation, supporting agunot [women whose husbands deny them a Jewish divorce], and building bridges between all segments of society and different faiths.”
“We do not engage in smear campaigns, and we certainly don’t make unsolicited offers — Bitcoin or otherwise — to anyone. The claim is absurd and bears no connection to reality,” the statement continued.
Owens, once a rising star in the conservative movement, alienated allies on the right when she embraced what critics said was increasingly antisemitic rhetoric. She still maintains a large audience, with some 6.9 million followers on X.
Last month, Owens identified herself as the victim of a man who pleaded guilty to making death threats against a political commentator who had disparaged a famous rabbi. Last September, Owens caught fire after she derided Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.
