In the News

Despite media reports that the ceremony was a “victory lap” for President Donald Trump, Rabbi Menken told The Jewish Week that “it didn’t feel that way.” Instead, he said, those in attendance were there to support Kavanaugh and his family and “those who fought for him.”

Rabbi Yaakov Menken, Managing Director of the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), was an invited guest at the swearing-in of Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The Coalition of Jewish Values emerged in early 2017, giving a voice to the Orthodox right in America for the first time. The group claims to represent over 1,000 rabbis, but liberal skeptics suggest that figure is much closer to six

Coalition for Jewish Values welcomes confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to US Supreme Court.

“Unless there is something tangible, we will stick by our original statement of support… One cannot destroy a family and reputation based on allegations,” Rabbi Pesach Lerner, president of CJV, wrote in an email to The Jewish Week.

The CJV stated that to abandon previous evaluations of Judge Kavanaugh based solely upon uncorroborated testimony would violate both Biblical and accepted modern standards for evidence — and basic fairness as well.

‘To abandon previous evaluations based upon uncorroborated testimony would violate both Biblical and accepted modern standards for evidence’

“It is obvious that the FBI investigation should have happened months earlier, but conducting it now will permit Judge Kavanaugh to take his seat on the Supreme Court without a cloud of suspicion,” the organization’s president, Rabbi Pesach Lerner, said in a statement to JTA.

‘Is it now the American way to discard an outstanding candidate,’ asked Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, Vice President of the CJV, ‘based solely upon an uncorroborated, unsubstantiated accusation that is even contradicted by those named to support it?’

The Torah [requires] two witnesses, neither of whom was the accuser or any close relative of the accuser or the accused, [who] were fully investigated and interrogated before they were accepted. The Torah is very concerned about the rights and reputation of the accused, and that is the Jewish view.