The Jewish Museum of New York banned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from performing within its walls

In the column for Wall Street Journal Elliot Abrams and Eric Cohen - Chairman and CEO of Tikvah and co-chairs of the Jewish Leadership Conference (JLC) - reported that the Manhattan Museum of Jewish Heritage has canceled a scheduled JLC event. All because Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the guest speaker at the event.

“We have worked closely with the museum in developing the details of the event scheduled for June 12th. But at one point, the museum staff suddenly informed us that Mr. DeSantis did not correspond to the values ​​of the museum. Either we are not inviting the governor, or our event is not desirable for them,” wrote Abrams and Cohen.

The museum immediately stated that this situation was not about "issues of freedom of speech or censorship", noting that it was "simply a contractual and logistical decision."

It is worth noting that Tikvah regularly hosts many events at the museum, but only the one where DeSantis was scheduled to perform was cancelled.

To finally convince everyone it wasn't DeSantis, the museum posted a tweet saying, "We invite Governor DeSantis and other officials to visit the Jewish Heritage Museum for a tour of our new exhibit, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do." The exhibition will open this summer.”

On the subject: Anti-Semitism Incidents Reach All-Time High in New York and New Jersey

DeSantis is a Republican and allows himself rather harsh statements about the initiatives of the Democrats in America. However, he never expressed anti-Semitic ideas. Moreover, in June 2019, DeSantis signed into law a law to combat anti-Semitism, and in 2021 - to provide millions of dollars in funding for various Holocaust memorials.

The governor then said, “I am proud to sign these bills today to help protect religious freedom in Florida and increase the safety of our Jewish communities. I will continue to see that we eradicate anti-Semitism in Florida.”