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Ted Cruz Deemed ‘Defender of Israel’ by Shmuley Boteach

Presidential hopeful to receive award in May for ‘unwavering support’

by
Jonathan Zalman
April 30, 2015
Ted Cruz speaks at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition 2015 Spring Kickoff on April 25, 2015. (Scott Olson/Getty Images )
Ted Cruz speaks at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition 2015 Spring Kickoff on April 25, 2015. (Scott Olson/Getty Images )

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, an iron-faithed opposer of same-sex marriage, has gathered additional support as he continues his “exceptional” run at the Republican nomination in the 2016 Presidential election.

On May 28, at the Third Annual Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala in York City, Cruz will receive the ‘Defender of Israel’ award from Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the so-called “Most Famous Rabbi in America” and founder of The World Values Network, an organization “dedicated to disseminating the light of the Jewish people and promoting and defending the State of Israel as the supreme embodiment of a nation founded on these principles.”

The gala will commemorate 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz.

In 2014, as keynote speaker for the In Defense of Christians conference in Washington, D.C., Cruz provided a clear stance on Israel, for which he was bood, Newsweek reported:

“Christians have no greater ally than Israel,” Cruz said. “Those who hate Israel hate America… Those who hate Jews hate Christians. If those in this room will not recognize that, then my heart weeps. If you hate the Jewish people you are not reflecting the teachings of Christ. And the very same people who persecute and murder Christians right now, who crucify Christians, who behead children, are the very same people who target Jews for their faith, for the same reason.”

“If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you,” he said.

At last year’s gala, Sean Penn was given ‘Defender of Israel’ award for his role in sneaking Jacob Ostreicher, “an American entrepreneur and Orthodox Jew who was arrested in Bolivia in 2011 while overseeing a rice growing venture and held as a suspect in a money laundering investigation,” Boteach wrote in The Jerusalem Post, back stateside.

Also in attendance will be Elie Wiesel, Ben Kingsley, Sheldon Adelson, New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, Newt Gingrich, and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer.

And to see Cruz and co., it’ll cost you: Student tickets begin at $150 (plus one of those weird internet handling fees, of $9.24), while a “Diamond Benefactor” ticket, which comes with three tables of ten, ten VIP tickets, goes for $25,000.

Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.