Murphy At J Street Conference: American Democracy Is Vital To The Future Of The Jewish People

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Monday spoke at J Street's 2026 Annual Conference, "Building Tomorrow: Regional Peace and Resilient Democracy." Murphy laid out how the safety of the Jewish people is inherently linked to the survival of American democracy and why Donald Trump's efforts to destroy our democracy, including his illegal war with Iran, are a threat to freedom around the world.

Drawing from history, Murphy emphasized the struggle of the Jewish people for self-determination and argued democracy is the only way to guarantee security for Jews: "We are here today because we believe that this tragic history requires our world to make a home for the Jewish people, in the holy land. That place is Israel. That place will always be Israel. And when we criticize the government of Israel, when we speak up against its policies in places like Gaza or the West Bank, it is because we love Israel, it is out of our love for Israel and our belief that its current leaders are jeopardizing the future survival of that state. But you know this: the future, the answer, to thousands of years of the Jewish people's fate being decided by emperors and queens and tsars is not, and cannot, simply be the state of Israel. No, the rest of the answer is simple: it's democracy."

Murphy raised the alarm about the threat the current administration poses to American democracy, pointing to Trump's illegal war in Iran as the ultimate proof point: "Everywhere you turn, this government is laying waste to norms and protections. The White House is for sale. Censorship spreads. Our justice system is being turned into a political witch hunt operation…And then this weekend, the President launched an illegal war that the American people do not want. What is happening right now in Iran isn't some targeted military operation. It isn't the rendition operation of a fugitive. This is full-blown war. American soldiers are dying. The Middle East is exploding in spillover violence. And the President's refusal to pursue consent from Congress, as required by the Constitution, is perhaps his most grievous assault on our democracy. And we should not let it stand."

He called on all Americans - including Jewish Americans - to stand up in defense of American democracy: "But J Street - this is what makes you so powerful - has never shied away from speaking hard truths not just to Israeli leaders, but to American leaders as well. And if you accept my argument, that the preservation of American democracy is vital to the future of the Jewish people globally , then your charge is not simply to promote an Israeli policy rooted in humanity, but to activate - right now, when you go home to your states, if you have not already, at the highest levels that are possible in your lives - to save our republic, here in America, before it's too late."

A full transcript of Murphy's speech is available below.

It is really wonderful to be here today with so many friends and allies. You have been absolutely essential to the work that I and others in the Senate and the House have been doing over the last decade plus to try to realize that vision Michael talked about, our work to defend Israel against enemies, to assure the survival of a Jewish state in the Middle East, and a commitment to uphold basic American values. I'm just so thankful that J Street exists, that J Street grows, that J Street has power.

We are meeting at an extraordinary moment, right now. Our government has been captured by a man who thinks he is a king, with the power to remake our country and the world without the consent of the governed. He is a man who is willing to sacrifice American lives, right now as we speak right now, to make himself feel big. But that's not what I want to begin with today.

I want to begin by telling you, as you wrap up your conference, three stories that you already know, and maybe put them in a slightly different context. You wouldn't be here if you didn't know these stories.

The first story is from Jerusalem, in the year 136.

The Roman Emperor Hadrian had crushed the last Jewish revolt, executed its leaders, banned Jews from entering Jerusalem. One man, answerable to no one, scattered an entire people to the winds. And for the next two thousand years, the Jewish people would live in other people's lands, subject to rules set by other people, their fate decided not by themselves, but by others.

The second story takes place in Spain, in 1492 - one of the many places to which Jews had fled.

There, they were physicians, poets, philosophers, advisors to the court. They had built one of the most vibrant civilizations in Jewish history. And then, on March 31st of that year, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella signed the Alhambra Decree. With a single stroke of a pen, roughly 200,000 Jews were given four months and one choice: convert or leave Spain. No representation. No due process. One thousand years of life and learning and culture, erased - because a king and a queen on a throne decided that it should be.

The third story is from tsarist Russia.

For over a century, the tsars put the Jewish people in a cage - a tiny piece of land, you know this piece of land, on the western edge of the empire. They had few rights. But the worst was the pogroms - the outlet the tsars used to channel the people's anger. Soldiers and mobs descended on Jewish murdering families in the streets. And the Jews had no political recourse whatsoever. Again, no voice. No vote. No power.

We are here today because we believe that this tragic history requires our world to make a home for the Jewish people, in the holy land. That place is Israel. That place will always be Israel. And when we criticize the government of Israel, when we speak up against its policies in places like Gaza or the West Bank, it is because we love Israel, it is out of our love for Israel and our belief that its current leaders are jeopardizing the future survival of that state.

But you know this: the future, the answer, to thousands of years of the Jewish people's fate being decided by emperors and queens and tsars is not, and cannot, simply be the state of Israel. No, the rest of the answer is simple: it's democracy.

In a working democracy, Jewish citizens are not subjects. They are not petitioners. They are not guests to be expelled on the whim of a monarch. They are - you are - we are - citizens. For two thousand years, no vote. No voice. But in a democracy, the right to vote, the right to hold office, the right to shape the laws under which Jewish citizens, and all of their neighbors, live. For the first time in two millennia, the power to fight back.

Now, I'm your last speaker. And I have a lot to say about Gaza and Iran, but I'm actually here to call for something core, essential and enduring: the rescue of American democracy. I'm not going to lie to you: it is hanging on by a thread today. And I believe that what happens here, in the United States of America, over the next few months and years, is just as relevant to the question of the future of the Jewish people as anything that happens in Tel Aviv or Tehran. I do not believe that global democracy can likely survive without the survival of American democracy. And our democracy is under siege. The threat we face today is the most serious since the Civil War. Everywhere you turn, this government is laying waste to norms and protections. The White House is for sale. Censorship spreads. Our justice system is being turned into a political witch hunt operation.

Last week, the Department of Defense launched a campaign to essentially murder one of America's most important corporations, Anthropic, simply because its leaders did not support the President's political agenda, would not hand its technology over to the Administration to pursue its corrupt ends. And then this weekend, the President launched an illegal war that the American people do not want. What is happening right now in Iran isn't some targeted military operation. It isn't the rendition operation of a fugitive. This is full blown war. American soldiers are dying every day. The Middle East is exploding in spillover violence. And the President's refusal to pursue consent from Congress, as required by the Constitution, is perhaps his most grievous assault on our democracy. And we should not let it stand.

And so I've said this before, but I'll say it again: We are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. We are in the middle of it. But today we are still standing. Our democracy is still alive - he has not won. But it's important to remember that democracy won't die in a flash.

There is likely not one red line in which we are alive on a democracy on one side and perished on the other side. There's not going to be a coup, a burning of the U.S. Capitol. Our democracy is going to boil slowly to death. You won't know the moment it dies. You will just wake up one day, and it will be gone. And so it's important that we don't wait. Now what we know, is that the people have not been silenced. True Americans have not been bullied into acquiescence. At this moment, gathered here today, America - and all of you - have a choice: Watch it boil to death. Wait and wait and wait until the perfect moment to engage. Or act right now to save it.

In the 1930s, democracies were deeply imperfect. They defended segregation and discrimination. A reminder that what we need is not just any democracy. But a healthy democracy.

Golda Meir was a young woman at the time, she was sent as an observer to a conference on the shores of Lake Geneva. Students of history know what I'm talking about: this is 1939, this conference is deciding the fate of Jews in Europe.

She was not allowed to speak. She was not even permitted to sit with the delegates. She was assigned the status of "observer" - forced to watch in silence as, one by one, the representatives of thirty-two nations rose to express their deepest sympathy for the Jewish people in Europe, and then, one by one, explained why their countries could not take them in. Years later, reflecting on what her experience at that pivotal conference had taught her, she put it simply: "The Jews should not be dependent on anyone giving them permission to stay alive."

Our democracy is still not perfect. But it is far better than that version in 1938 and 1939. Today, Jews in America, and a multitude of other groups that are still facing discrimination and bias, are not observers, like Golda Meir was in the late 1930s. In our democracy, however imperfect, we have self-determination. No asking for sympathy. No waiting for permission. The right to speak, organize, and protect yourself and your neighbors - we have that today.

J Street was conceived to give voice to Jewish Americans who want a democratic Israel to exist side by side with a democratic Palestinian state. And when that day comes - and it will come - it will be J Street that will be written about as the movement that refused to be bowed, that refused to give up, in a belief that the the best way to protect Israel for the next two thousand years, is to seek self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.

But J Street - this is what makes you so powerful - has never shied away from speaking hard truths not just to Israeli leaders, but to American leaders as well. And if you accept my argument, that the preservation of American democracy is vital to the future of the Jewish people globally , then your charge is not simply to promote an Israeli policy rooted in humanity, but to activate - right now, when you go home to your states, if you have not already, at the highest levels that are possible in your lives - to save our republic, here in America, before it's too late.

Often, when I lie awake, I feel the same things that you do. I go to sleep every night, fraught with anger and anxiety over the moment in which we live. I am often faced with another emotion, and it's going to sound counterintuitive. But, when I fall asleep at night, I'm laced together with feelings of anxiety and anger - and joy. And I know that sounds crazy. But what a gift it is to be alive, in this nation, at this moment, when we are called to this test. Our mission is not just to save a country. But to save a way of life that is now available, all of a sudden, after the birth of democracy, on this globe, made possible by the invention of America. What a gift to be alive when our mission is to save a country, and to remember that without self-governance and self-determination, not a single one of us is safe from a future that mirrors the thousands of years of persecution that the Jewish people - with no self-determination - suffered under.

I feel joy because American democracy is worth saving. I feel lucky that I get to stand with you, that I have allies in that fight. And that we stand here knowing - that when we win - we will get to tell our grandchildren and our great grandchildren about what we did in the United States of America with this chance at our feet, to make history and preserve this nation.

We have been allies from the start of this bold and powerful organization. Maybe never more so, J Street's existence and your influence matters most. You are here at a vital moment for the future of the state of Israel, for peace in the Middle East. You are here at maybe the most pivotal moment of all of our lifetimes when it comes to the preservation of self-determination, essential to the American project, essential to the future of the Jewish people all over the country. And so, I am more eager today, than at any day prior in our partnership, to launch this work - tomorrow, the day after, and the weeks and months to come. I want you to speak loudly in the offices and hallways of Capitol Hill tomorrow. That is your duty, our duty - our obligation.