Polaris National Security founder Morgan Ortagus, who previously served as the State Department's spokesperson, choked back tears on Monday's episode of "Outnumbered" on Fox News Channel while reacting to horrifying footage of a rabid mob hunting for Jews at an airport in the Russian Republic of Dagestan over the weekend before emphasizing why she and her family refuse to hide their identity — even as anti-Semitic hate continues to escalate at home and abroad.
"It's really hard to be a Jewish parent right now," Ortagus said. "I thought about you this weekend too, Harris, when I saw this. Because your husband is Jewish and, you know, whenever Hitler was going after [the Jews], they didn't care if your kids were half Jewish. And I thought about you as I was thinking about coming to Outnumbered and I thought, they would go after my daughter, they would go after yours as quickly as they would mine," she continued. "And it's- it's just terrifying to be a Jewish parent right now."
"My biggest prayer is that we don’t become anesthetized or blind to what's unfolding before our eyes," interjected co-host Harris Faulkner. "We haven't seen the hunting of Jews — if you could translate all of it, and I've looked at a transcript here from Dagestan, it's hunting, it's catch them — it's what Emily- it's hard to say, Emily's so right about what they wanted to do, and they were screaming it, proudly screaming it," Faulkner noted. "I think about that one Arab woman — I mean, what if there had been Israelis in there? That's a great question, what if there were and she helped — I have all the hope in the world that it's not going to be everybody against the Jews again."
"I know this time clearly who would hide us and who would watch us go by," Ortagus said before explaining how she's reacting to terrifying scenes like the one in Dagestan. "One thing I thought through all of this is I'm going to teach her to fight — I’m wearing my Star of David, I’m not taking it off, I'm not going to hide — and that's what I'm going to teach my daughter," she said. "As much as I look at college campuses and I look right here in New York City, kids not much older than her had to barricade themselves in a library, had to be escorted out the back. This is happening in America," Ortagus emphasized.
"I said this to a friend over the weekend: we are not protected, we are not immune from this in America," Ortagus continued. "We often, at our temple and I’m sure at many churches, have had security for a long time. We've had to up our security, we’ve had to cancel some events," she explained. "But the only thing I can tell to everybody watching, this is why — and Lisa just said it so eloquently in the last segment — this is why we have to fight them. This is why I refuse not to wear Jewish symbols, I refuse to try and hide our identity and who we are," Ortagus said. "I will not do that in America, and around the world, Jews are being forced to do that."
The full segment can be viewed below:
"I’m wearing my Star of David, I’m not taking it off, I'm not going to hide — and that's what I'm going to teach my daughter."
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) October 30, 2023
Powerful segment with @MorganOrtagus explaining how it's "terrifying to be a Jewish parent right now" and why her family is standing up to hate. pic.twitter.com/Z6Ktt12FL9