Judges Roy Altman, David Wecht discuss ‘Israel on Trial’ May 5 in Pittsburgh

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman remembered being shocked both by the violence of Oct. 7, 2023, as well as the reaction to that violence on college campuses, by the Western media and by many international institutions.

“I was shocked that these people were blaming the victims, that suddenly the Jews were the oppressors, that the Jewish women who were raped and their daughters who were raped were the aggressors. That the 251 Jews, including Holocaust survivors, infants and toddlers, who were taken from their homes and held in dungeons deep underground as part of the civil rights violations that were somehow being redressed,” he said.

Altman, district judge for the Southern District of Florida, decided to do something about the anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist and antisemitic behavior he saw.

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He traveled the country talking in churches and community centers, high schools, colleges and law schools, about the Jewish people’s ancient connection to Israel and the Jewish state’s “Herculean efforts” to comply with international law.

Altman said at each stop audience members — including federal judges — told him afterward that they would like to travel to Israel.

“So, I started a program taking federal judges, who are mostly not Jewish and have never been to Israel before, to Israel” he said. “They come back transformed. They’re informed with real truths and facts on the ground, and they’re inspired because they see people who are resilient, who are willing to stand up and fight for Western democracy.”

Altman also decided to write a book.

He said that through the thousands of conversations he had with people he met on his travels, he realized there were really “only six main claims in the debate about Israel, and each of those six claims, when you peel back all the diatribe and vitriol, is really a legal claim.”

The judge decided to apply the same legal methodology that juries, judges and lawyers apply every day in courtrooms around the country to the six arguments and “see what happens.”

Those conclusions formed the basis of “Israel on Trial: Examining the History, the Evidence and the Law.”

Altman will be in Pittsburgh on May 5 at 8 a.m. discussing his book with Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht at a program presented by StandWithUs.

Wecht called Altman’s travels around the country “highly valuable.”

“He brings a message of education to Jews and non-Jews alike,” Wecht said. “With respect to the Jews, the strength that he provides for Jews to stand by their people and defend the rights of fellow Jews and the Jewish state is critically important, and in all too short supply.”

Based on his travels throughout the United States, Altman said he believes about 30% of the country is pro-Israel. That group, he said, understands Israel’s geo-strategic importance and its historic relationship as a U.S. ally.

“They believe viscerally in Lincoln’s words, which is America is an ‘almost chosen people,’” Altman said. “Lincoln never used words by accident. He was purposeful. They understand that Jews are part of the American experiment. Our Founding Fathers saw themselves as following in the Judeo-Christian tradition passed down for thousands of years.”

About 10% of the country, Altman said, is “virulently anti-Israel.”

“Many of them are antisemitic. They’ve been brainwashed over many years in college, in high school. This book is not for them,” he said.

He hopes the book will speak to the remaining 60%, who are in the middle.

“Who are these people? In college they go to class and want the football team to win. They want to get a good job when they leave school. In the workforce, they want to put food on the table and have good paying jobs. They want to get promoted and send their kids to safe and secure schools. They’re Americans with open hearts and open minds who use reason and common sense on a daily basis,” he said.

Altman knows about those in search of the American Dream. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, his parents immigrated to the United States when he was a child. He attended Columbia University, playing quarterback on the school’s football team and pitched for the university’s baseball team before earning his law degree from the Yale Law School. At 36, he became the country’s youngest federal district court judge.

Wecht said that a mutual friend connected the pair because of their shared love of Israel. He’s excited to introduce Altman to a Pittsburgh crowd, but doesn’t anticipate having to do much on stage.

“We have the opportunity to expose a large audience to Judge Altman,” he said. “I intend to simply tee up questions and, since he’s a baseball star, I know he’ll knock it out of the park.”

The conversation will center around the six claims against Israel that are most familiar, including: whether Israel is violating the laws of war; whether it is committing genocide; whether it is discriminating against Arab minority citizens; whether it is taking land that doesn’t belong to it; and whether Israel falsely imprisons Palestinians.

Julie Paris, StandWithUs Mid-Atlantic regional director, first saw Altman in 2024 at the Christians United for Israel summit, where he was the keynote speaker.

“After he spoke, I called my husband and said, ‘I just heard the best speaker I’ve ever heard in my life,’” Paris recalled. “When Judge Wecht called and told me about the opportunity to bring him to Pittsburgh I said, ‘Yes,100%.’”

Paris is “honored and thrilled,” she said, to have the pair appear on stage together, calling them “two of the greatest legal minds in history.”

The May 5 discussion, she said, provides the opportunity to “hear from those who are making a difference. Leaders who have the expertise, the knowledge and backbone to stand up for the community, to stand up for Israel, and to continue to share the truth when it really matters.”

The talk is free, but registration is required at israelontrial.planningpod.com. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.