Devorah Firestone 🌺✡ 🇺🇸 🥰 🕊

I want to apologize for the tweet I posted in response to Laura Loomer. It was poorly thought out, written out of frustration, and something I deeply regret. I want to explain my intentions, not because I believe they absolve me of responsibility, but because I think there’s an important difference between making a hurtful mistake and deliberately trying to hurt people. When I referenced the Holocaust, I did so intentionally. I want to be upfront about that. My intention was not to mock the Holocaust or attack Jewish people, but I was very frustrated by Laura’s remarks asking Christian nationalists, “Where was your God last night?” following the midterm elections. While I am not a Christian nationalist and disagree with their politics, I found the use of our shared faith as a political taunt deeply offensive. However, frustration with her does not excuse how I chose to respond. I deliberately reached for one of the most sensitive and painful events in human history, the Holocaust, to make a rhetorical point about the absurdity of using political defeat or suffering to mock someone’s faith. I recognize that invoking the Holocaust in that context was inappropriate, hurtful, and entirely unnecessary. There were a hundred different ways I could have made my point, but I chose one that I shouldn’t have. I’m young, and I’ve admitted to many people close to me that one of my biggest struggles is feeling as though I have to respond to everything I find ignorant, offensive, or wrong. Because so much of my work and life revolves around social media, I spend an enormous amount of time in an environment where everything feels immediate, every disagreement seems to require a response. This is something I need to work on. Just because I believe I’m making a valid argument doesn’t mean every way of making that argument is justified. I don’t expect to be babied and I don’t expect anyone to excuse what I said, and I don’t expect forgiveness from people who were hurt by my words. I only hope to be understood, not as someone who believes the Holocaust is something to mock or trivialize, but as someone who made a serious error in judgment while trying to make a point I felt strongly about. I make mistakes, just like everyone else. Sometimes more often than I should. And when those mistakes happen in front of a large audience, the consequences extend far beyond the moment in which they were made. That’s a responsibility I have to take more seriously. I also recognize that the people who were hurt by my words had nothing to do with my disagreement with Laura. They didn’t deserve to have one of the darkest chapters in Jewish history invoked as part of a political argument or response. For the things listed above, I am genuinely sorry, and I own my mistakes. I need to become better at recognizing when my frustration is getting the better of my judgment, when an argument isn’t worth having, and when the most responsible thing I can do is simply not respond. I cannot undo what I posted, but I can acknowledge that it was wrong and make a genuine effort not to repeat that mistake. To those I hurt, particularly members of the Jewish community, I’m sorry. I ask only for understanding, not forgiveness. Life is a game of lessons, and what you take from each lesson, and how you apply what you’ve learned, is the most important thing. I hope that, over time, my actions will speak more meaningfully than anything I could say in this statement.