Rachel Riley – Warrior for Truth

Last week Rachel Riley spoke at Algemeiner’s J100 Gala where she received the US paper’s prestigious ‘Warrior for Truth’ award in recognition of her fight against antisemitism.

The Countdown host addressed the New York event on Thursday, picking up the prestigious award alongside British actor Sir Ben Kingsley.

Rachel was honoured for taking on antisemites in the wake of the Labour antisemitism row, using her public profile to highlight hateful words and actions.

In April this year those efforts prompted some in the Labour Party to call upon Jeremy Corbyn to sue Rachel for calling him an anti-Semite. She responded on Twitter that she would love an opportunity to present the evidence in a court of law.

Rachel has recently helped set up a campaign against abuse online and another against media organisations which either deny or downplay antisemitism.

Countdown star Rachel Riley (photo: Wikipedia)

She said:

“Others in this fight, saw me standing up. They told me their stories; the personal impact of antisemitism. The pain, the fear of being targeted by trolls for abuse … Their stories inspired me.”

“Jews, Christians, Muslims. People of all faiths and people of none. Even football team loyalties were set aside for the sake of this common cause!”

“And here’s what I concluded.

In the face of hate, there is a moral duty to act.

I have a voice and I am going to use it.

But I also have a brain too. I’m going to use everything I have.

We must speak out.

If we’re quiet, the conversation is by default dominated by extremists.

We have to speak with intelligence.”

UPDATE - This article was extended on 4th October 2019