On the night of April 27, the Israel Heritage Foundation hosted a dinner at Tabernacle Steakhouse in New York City with former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in celebration of Israel’s 75th birthday.
“It was an honor to have Mrs. Lake speak about her childhood, growing up with eight siblings in rural Iowa, and her past career as a news anchor in Phoenix, Arizona for over twenty years,” the Israel Heritage Foundation said in a statement. “We were honored to have a number of wonderful friends and supporters in attendance at Tabernacle.”
Lake stepped down from her anchor role shortly before announcing her gubernatorial candidacy and won the Republican nomination with an endorsement from former president Donald Trump.
The Israel Heritage Foundation described how Lake “has been working tirelessly to fight what she calls ‘one of the grossest miscarriages of justice’ when referring to her loss to current Governor of Arizona, Katie Hobbs. In a hotly contested election, Mrs. Lake lost the gubernatorial race by roughly 17,000 votes, although many on the right, including Lake, are trying to prove voter fraud led to her election loss.”
During her speech, Lake discussed the need to “tell the truth” when describing why she ended her career as a newscaster.
“I wanted to tell the truth, but it started to feel like I couldn’t and I was not ok with that. I had to walk away from my career as a newscaster so I could tell the truth. I couldn’t do it anymore,” she said.
According to her, bias in the mainstream media leads to watered down broadcasting and censoring information, especially against stories that lean conservative. Lake said she was increasingly uncomfortable working in such an environment.
The Israel Heritage Foundation described Lake as a “champion for the truth and she doesn’t shy away from the divisiveness and hate she receives because of her principles.”
The event was co-led by Israel Heritage Foundation’s Executive Vice President, Dr. Joseph Frager and Executive Director, Rabbi David Katz.
“We are lucky to be alive in an era where the State of Israel exists and the miracle of Israel is real – it finally has the power to become what it needs to become,” Frager said.
“I must say, as soon as everyone walked in this evening, I felt that we became one big family. Everyone has the same values, the same vision,” Rabbi Katz said.
Also in attendance at the event were chairman and president of The National Council of Young Israel, Farley Weiss, co-founder and Managing General Partner of NGN Capital, Mr. Ken Abramowitz, founder of NORPAC on Long Island, Mr. Stanley Stern, Marlene Artov, Program Coordinator for the Republican Jewish Coalition, Senior Advisor to Kari Lake, Ms. Caroline Wren and many other prominent community leaders and friends. Wren noted that she has worked for a number of prominent Republicans and Mrs. Lake is without a doubt the finest person she has ever worked for.
Towards the end of the evening, Lake held a brief Q&A session with the guests and was met with thought provoking and heartfelt questions.
Jonathan Burkan, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum council member, led the session with a question about the impact of inflation on Americans.
“We actually had a plan to reduce the grocery tax and the rental tax and our plan would have put $500,000,000 back into the pockets of Arizonans, but Katie Hobbs [Arizona governor] vetoed that legislation,” Lake said.
Another guest, Rachel Ehrenfeld, Director of the American Center for Democracy, asked if Fox News ever reached out to Lake regarding her claims about election fraud and broken voting machines.
“Does the news really care about stolen elections? They don’t. I have been told that I am the most dangerous guest to have on. News channels need special permission to have me on. They are so afraid of us talking about stolen elections. Ask yourself why,” Lake answered.
Zev Brenner, radio host and founder of Talkline Communications, asked if Trump has asked Lake to be his Vice President in the upcoming election. He also asked if Lake had any connection to Judaism as a child. Growing up in eastern Iowa which is predominantly Christian, Lake had very little contact with the Jewish community until her sister eventually converted to Judaism.
“Once my sister converted, it opened my eyes to the whole world,” Lake said.
The Israel Heritage Foundation described Lake as “one of those individuals, with our shared values, morals and ethics who wants to bring about positive change not only to the State of Arizona but to the entire United States. We look forward to working together to combat antisemitism, anti-Israel sentiments and to bring this country back to a place that honors strong moral character and a belief in doing the right thing.”