Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who through more than a decade in public life expressed staunch support for Israel while at times being accused of antisemitism, is dead at 31.

He was fatally shot while speaking at a Utah university in front of a crowd of roughly 1,000.

Kirk was the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, an influential youth organization in conservative politics. Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, he founded the group at 18 after dropping out of college. Over the following years, he played a crucial role in galvanizing youth support for President Donald Trump and came to represent a vanguard of Christian nationalism in the United States.

Kirk frequently characterized himself as a defender of the Jews and Israel, even as he faced criticism from across th

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