Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune and his wife Mushka Efune address the 8th annual J100 gala. Photo: Patrick McMullan Company

A year that saw “a thousand strands of falsehood woven together into a thick rope of hate” reaffirmed the notion that the truth can “save lives,” said Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune at the paper’s 8th annual “J100” gala on Tuesday night.

“There are always those who will say that the task is too great, that the cause is near lost, that a small candle of truth can’t possibly light a path in the immense darkness that surrounds us,” Efune told the crowd of some 400 guests. “To them I would submit that throughout our history there has often been a different measure by which to consider.”

Efune and his wife Mushka were both honored with the Algemeiner‘s “Warrior for Truth” award, as were Israeli Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan, TV personality and columnist Meghan McCain, and actress Debra Messing.

“As Joshua at the walls of Jericho and David facing Goliath in the Valley of Elah, as the Maccabees of ancient Israel and the Zionist pioneers of Yishuv — our strength lies not in numbers, nor in brute force but in the power of our unyielding conviction and pride, the sharpness of our focus, the precision of our tools, and the glory of our idea.”

“Looking around this beautiful venue tonight, and seeing so many deeply dedicated champions of the Jewish cause, it’s clear that at The Algemeiner these fundamental hallmarks are very much alive,” he concluded.

Watch Efune’s full speech below: