Loving Trump, Hating Trump
A Jewish
Community Divided Against Itself
By Richard Borah
Introduction
The Jewish community is experiencing an
impassioned love-hate relationship with President Donald Trump and his policies.
Is POTUS 45 the Jewish community’s Guardian Angel or its Angel of Death? Has he been sent by the Almighty to save Israeli
Jews from an Iranian nuclear nightmare and American Jews from the perils of
hyper-leftism, or has he risen to punish the Jews by stoking the flames of anti-Semitism
that have often accompanied fervent nationalist revivals? Is he a powerful leader who bluntly “tells it
like it is” or simply the biggest liar who ever occupied the presidency? Well, it REALLY depends on who you ask. The intensity and hardening of the pro-Trump
and anti-Trump camps within the Jewish community has also created a level on
inter-community anger and disdain that is, in my opinion, unprecedented and deeply
destructive. The Jewish community is at war with itself. There is a great
reservoir of fear and loathing by the Jewish Trumpers against Jewish
anti-Trumpers and vice versa. The result of this in-fighting is an American
Jewish community that is substantially weakened and more vulnerable to its
enemies, as well as diminished in its ability to work effectively for its
collective success and the security of the State of Israel.
My objective in exploring the sides of this
ongoing battle in the following series of essays is to try to create a bridge
of understanding between the anti-Trump and pro-Trump camps of the Jewish
community. To that end, I will not be promoting or denigrating any political
point of view regarding President Trump and his policies. But by dispassionately
presenting the rationale and perspective of each of the different sides-for both
the “lovers” and the “haters” of Trump and his policies, I hope to provide each
side with the ability to see the opposing side as more than simply delusional,
stupid or evil.
At the heart of this deeply divided
perspective is the 20th and 21st centuries’ transformation
of the Jewish people from a marginalized group of wanderers and sojourners into
a people proudly boasting a powerful Jewish state and its own and unprecedented
growth in economic prowess and political influence in the U.S. and internationally. For the past 2000 years the Jews had been a
landless, dispersed and disempowered people whose status and rights were
determined by the dominant religious and ethnic groups in the countries where
they ended up, usually after frantic flights from different state-sponsored
exiles or persecutions. This historic hated climaxed in the Holocaust and the
annihilation of six million Jews. This unfathomably
insecure existence (the proverbial “fiddler on a roof”) inculcated in Jews a profound
empathy for other oppressed peoples who shared this unfortunate plight in one
way or another, regardless of their religion or national background. In more recent times Jews have been at the
forefront of civil rights and other liberal causes promoting the universal value
and dignity of every human being.
The Jewish people’s history, religion and
traditions have provided the Jews with a powerful desire to help all those in
need. This, in part, is why Jews in the U.S. are its most overwhelmingly
liberal group with the 2013 Pew Research Center study finding that 49% of the
American Jewish community self-identify as liberals when compared to a 21% in
the general population. But this enduring Jewish profile as the leading
proponents of liberalism and universalism has been challenged as of late by four
recent historical developments:
1-the establishment and growth of the State of Israel into a major
international economic and military power.
2-the growing numbers and influence of orthodox Jews and
Israeli-Americans in the U.S.
3-the changes in the ideological positions of the liberal
leadership in the United States and abroad which many in the Jewish community now
view as being contrary to their interests and values.
4-the rise of militant Islamic terrorism as an enduring national
and an international threat.
These
four factors have resulted in the growth of a nationalist sector of the U.S.
Jewish population, many of which are aligned, to various degrees, with the nationalistic
agenda of President Trump and deeply at odds with their liberal Jewish brethren. In the analyses that follow we will explore
these four issues and see how the rise in US nationalistic fervor has resulted
in an unprecedented level of division and animosity between the different
Jewish political and religious factions. To be clear, there have always been significant
divisions in the Jewish community. But
recent developments have created an unprecedented level of fervent, entrenched
camps among the Jewish people who have come to view those in the other
Jewish camp, in many ways, as the enemy, depending on where they stand on
Donald Trump, Israel and a number of issues such as immigration, environmental legislation,
women’s empowerment and LGBT legislation.
We are living in the age of “the Great
Jewish Divide” where the previous good will that resulted from being part of the larger Jewish people is no
longer enough for one Jew to consider the another Jew one of his or her
“brethren”. There is actual hatred
between the different Jewish camps, to an extent that is new and noteworthy. Although there was great division within the
community regarding President Obama, who many fervent Zionists viewed as being
no friend to Israel, the situation with President Trump is, in my opinion, much
more intense and deeply felt.
The Jewish community often follows a
course somewhat parallel to the general community. In this regard, the viral
antagonism and conflict that currently exists between the left and right and
the Democrats and the Republicans in the U.S. is reflected is clearly reflected
in the unprecedented level of loathing that currently exists between Jewish in
different political and ideological groups within the Jewish community. And what is important to understand is that this
hatred is deeply connected to what each camp sees as the correct and moral Jewish
perspective. The liberals views Judaism’s essential character as being one of
universalism, kindness and love of the stranger. The Torah states many times,
“You will love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” From
the liberal perspective, these values are under attack by the Trump
presidency. The more conservative Jews emphasize
the Jewish essence of family, religion and Israel and see Trump as an ally in
battling the powerful enemies of these essential Jewish values.
The discussions that will follow will
attempt to be impartial, not taking a side.
The hope is to understand both perspectives with some depth and clarity,
leaving it to the reader to decide which one of the perspectives has greater
merit. Perhaps this understanding will
be helpful is decreasing the level of antagonism between those on different
sides of the ideological spectrum, as the Torah states regarding a Jewish
person’s relationship with his or her
fellow Jew. “Love thy neighbor as
thyself” (Leviticus 19:18).
All
essays will also be posted on the http://nyjewishvoter.blogspot.com/
Please
email any comments to richborah@yahoo.com
