"Jews killed Jesus"! This mantra was frequently repeated to our congregation in my evangelical fundamentalist church. This was the largest church in my southern town of 4000. Not only was that church a center of worship, but it also was a place of social interaction and political influence. Make no mistake that Trump's embrace of Israel's power in the middle east is not an effort to win the US Jewish vote. The evangelical voting block was essential in the election of Trump. Other Republicans in the South and other conservative states also rely on this same voting block.
78
Ms. Goldberg, this article is as dangerous as anything president Trump is accused of saying. Divisive and not at all helpful in uniting us.
32
Many of us said in 2016 that the advantages of electing Trump were three-fold:
1) Getting rid of the odious, money-grubbing Clintons.
2) Trump would energize dissent in a dormant progressive wing.
3) Trump's presidency would rip apart the republican party.
I'd say that so far the 2016 election was a smashing success.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
16
Are those protesting ICE Jews and non Jews alike aware that those who are being held in custody are illegal immigrants and had no right to be here? They broke our laws when they tried to cross our borders without the legal documents required for entry. We have rules that must be followed and it is difficult to feel pity when they brazenly and openly disregarded them.
The Jewish group that took over the Amazon Book Store also broke the law when they occupied the book store. They needed to be arrested. If a right-wing group illegally occupied a business they would be arrested too and correctly so.
This is really a protest against President Trump whom they dislike immensely. President Trump campaigned on stopping illegal entry and he is doing just that. Many Americans approve of the way he is handling our tremendous problem of illegal immigration and voted for him because of this issue. This issue will be one of the reasons he will be reelected in 2020. Something had to be done about the steady influx of illegals coming into our country and he is the first president to take it seriously. This could not go on indefinitely and President Trump should be commended.
23
Tempest in a teapot. And there’s nothing anti-Semitic about Trump’s comments. The Squad however makes anti-America comments on a regular basis.
22
All these G6 countries have to stand up to him, even if they're going through their own tribulations.
Every European country is having a fight with their version of fake populism.
Scapegoating the "others" is the old poisonous ingredient of this psychotic mentality, and as we know from history it ends catastrophically, it ends in human tragedies of unspeakable proportions.
32
I do not practice Religion. I have a naturalized American citizen from Europe background of Muslim.
What I admire and I support in American Jewish organizations such as HIAS and many others. I didn't see same level Muslim organizations in the USA. Many Muslim organizations are tools of Saudi Gulf Alliance.
I see true devotion and dedication in Jewish organizations for protecting the Human rights in all spectrum including Muslims and Palestinians. My wife is a Catholic Christian. We see real effort standing up against the evil tyranny in Jewish US organizations. Meanwhile Israel is lost its value and standing long time ago when they assassinated Rabin.
There is strong and non bending tradition of human right protections and advocates in Jewish organizations. Which we cannot see in Muslim and Christian ones as rooted deeply.
27
Thank you Ms Goldberg. This is a column I'll remember.
For the first time, anti-Semitism seemed an immediate, urgent threat.
That's what I felt right off when listening to Trump during his campaign rallies: this is dangerous. People are going to be injured and perhaps even murdered. I need to get more involved in stopping this, and whether I myself am Jewish or not, this may become dangerous.
“it’s imperative that we loudly speak for ourselves because if we don’t the loudest voices that claim to speak on behalf of Jews will be right-wing evangelical Christians.”
"Jews have been taking to the streets because no amount of support for a foreign country can redeem what he’s doing to this one."
41
Wonderful essay by Michelle Goldberg. I quote,
"The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, but even more than that, it rejects the idea that Israel is the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity."
This is so well put and, even more importantly, so important. American Jews are Americans and all Americans should thank goodness for that...
50
I feel better today. I think " never again means never again for everyone " will resonate in the 20% of the Jewish community that did vote for Trump in 2018. It is false that you must vote for Trump because he supports Israel. I would also like to point out that in Israel, Trump is not considered the king of anything. In the final days before the Israel election, Trump inserted himself into a foreign Nations election violating American norms. As a result of Trump's veiled threats, the polls slightly shifted in favor of Netanyahu, and he survived the vote. I hope that Trump's small voter approval in the American Jewish community will shrink.
23
To try to understand Jews is an enigma. The diaspora has made us a multicultural culture. Our religion is the common thread that unites us but we are otherwise diverse.
Although the ultra conservative ultra orthodox will vote as a block according to the mandate of their rabbis the vast majority of Jews will vote they way they please. They will never be intimidated by a dictatorial Trump to vote according to his craven wishes.
26
Thank you, Trump insults Americans intelligence on a daily basis. I really hope more people speak out voicing their disgust at his language and policies that reveal him for what he is - a blight harming our ideals and country.
30
Thank you to the Jewish people who recoginize & respond to what is happening to our country. It is deeply appreciated.
35
Ms. Goldberg, I agree with so much of your analysis. It is obviously true that antisemitism on the right currently presents a bigger threat, particularly one of physical violence.
However, it is utterly naive to state that anti-Zionism is not the same as antisemitism. If someone doesn't believe in any Jewish state, even with compromise, including giving up the settlements, and dividing Jerusalem, that person is espousing the antisemitic idea that the Jewish people are uniquely not entitled to national self-determination. This idea is completely different from deploring the current government of Israel and its dangerous policies.
Dressing up this idea in a Yiddish term is anachronistic and deceptive. It has been many years since Yiddish speakers, with the exception of a small and far-right wing of Orthodoxy, rejected the idea of a Jewish state in Israel.
22
I was surprised to find a Jewish fellow I have been acquainted with for sometime now as being a conservative Republican. He shares my views and is even more conservative then me which is difficult to find in Manhattan. He told me he does not see President Trump as an anti Semite and fully agrees with his policies. He subscribes to conservative publications and hands them to me when he is finished reading. This fellow is intelligent, educated and a delight. I must admit I was surprised to learn he liked our president so much. It was so encouraging to find this man and it is also nice to discuss politics with a like minded individual. It does not happen too often in New York.
9
Michelle, Salutations.
You have written a beautiful article. I am a Muslim, and I relate your article 100%. It embodies the spirit of America for people of ALL FAITHS. Trumps diatribes against Muslim, and his false labelling of Jews, who take moral-stands on contemporary issues should serve as a warning to all Americans swayed by the ‘idea’ of America.
36
The first paragraph of the story ends with a quote from a sign shown in a picture.
The quote says “never again means never again”, but the sigh says “never again means never again FOR EVERYONE”
In my opinion, it is a big difference in the way the Jewish people sees the world. Tikun Olam is to heal the world for everyone, and not just for the Jewish.
To show that we are not just thinking about us and the past, but mostly about the future and others, I respectfully request that you amend the quote to show the complete content of the sign.
Thanks for your consideration.
29
As an East European immigrant and the son of Holocaust survivors, the rising hostility of the Left and the Right toward us doesn't surprise me. I've always held it was dangerous for a minority group to be drawn into the vortex of angry national politics. Whichever party prevails, whatever philosophy triumphs, we will lose and never be fully trusted.
16
Hello Michelle,
Donald Trump does not care about about anyone but Donald Trump and perhaps his oldest daughter. His only interest is about becoming the most important, most admired, most powerful, and wealthiest autocrat to date.
Many of his comments and actions regarding his love of Israel and Jewish interest are only to insure that more evangelical oriented Christians will turnout and vote. His only interest in the right wing Israeli government is to obtain overt and likely clandestine help in his reelection.
His comments and actions regarding white nationalism, his history of overt racism directed at African Americans and more recently to Hispanics, is only to turnout the vote of Americans who may harbor fear and hatred of all minorities.
I'm afraid Donald Trump could happily lead the country into civil strife that could make the disorder of the 1960s seem like a garden party.
If Senator McConnell will not stop Trump then the ballot box is the only answer.
31
Michelle and Gail rule the Opinion pages! Thanks for yet another superb essay.
15
This is all very good, but I'd be happiest if it translated into a defeat of Trump next year. That's the most important thing right now.
15
So long as nations are divided, there will be issues of "immigrants and borders." The solution is either to assure that every nation have its own sovereign, protected parcel of the planet, or to gradually eradicate from history the idea of nationhood. Both are fraught with perilous challenges, as each is actively pursued by different parties.
1
The classic American musical Fiddler on the Roof’s central theme is the “hereness” that Ms. Goldberg refers to. The last scene of the play sees our protagonist’s family leave Anatevka, as he declares something along the lines of “wherever we go, that will be home”. Maybe the president should go to the theater to see how wrong he is.
8
Thanks, Michelle! Well said and really good news, actually. I had missed this evolving chapter.
4
Thank you for this article. It had me reciting the Kaddish, which I haven’t heard since I was a kid in my grandparents’ home. Although I am not a practicing Jew, I almost typed my rare, Jewish last name, but as one can see from my moniker and from the events described in the article we need to protect our identities on line while we protest face to face.
As I prepare for a trip to Jersey to care for my 97 year old Jewish grandmother I find myself reminded of the prayers she said at Yom-Kippur, or the candles and the chair my grandfather left out at Passover.
It’s bittersweet how tragedy or even the oppression of others unites American Jewish identity. It is just, righteous, relieving and cathartic to see Jewish Americans protesting the fascist imprisonment of indigenous central Americans. There is great wisdom in a culture of people who recognize that if it can happen to another group of people it can happen to us again.
Selah. L’chiam.
20
My mother family were Baptists from Kentucky and my father's parents were Jews from Brooklyn, New York. My parents got married in 1944 while my father was serving in the Merchant Marines. My mom's family was settled in Brooklyn, that's how they met. My mom was 14 and my father 16 years old when they first met. My dad's mother came to this country with her family in 1901 at the age of eight to escape the pogroms against Jews in Odessa, Russia. But my parents were not religious. They were socialists. They got an apartment in Bay Ridge, in Brooklyn because my mother had family in the building. The neighborhood was one-third Irish, one-third Italian, both Catholic, and the rest were predominantly Scandinavian Protestants with a smattering of Jews. But I remember my grandmother, on my father's side, standing up for civil rights and fighting for a union in the garment industry. She became a proud member of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. My grandmother used to say, "We know what prejudice it's like." While I did not grow up religious, I certainly experienced anti-Semitism virtually every day in school, in my neighborhood—all they had to hear was my last name, Weinstein, and that was enough. I'm so proud to see Jewish people standing up against the ICE raids and the immigrant concentration camps. Mazel Tov, indeed! I hope they will stand up against the concentration camp in Gaza, as well.
20
My family has benefitted from the Trump tax cuts. I am seriously contemplating donating this windfall to help fund the onerous increased security costs facing my local Jewish community. These costs are not solely the fault of our President, but his behavior most certainly does not help.
12
It appears that people who are suddenly awakened to current news and events are are put off by Trump's statements and support of Israel.
It makes no sense to condemn Israel because of the words of Donald Trump.
Israel is a highly diverse country whose citizens come from all over the world. And accordingly, its people hold varying political points of view.
13
The wedge created by Trump among Jews is analogous to what Trump created in the broader American community.
His support for conservative Federal judges, tax cuts and an aggressive immigration have allowed mainstream Republicans to hold their noses while they support him. They withhold any form of criticism due to his very thin skin.
In some ways Trump's support for Israel has accomplished the same objective with Jews. Many Orthodox (but not all) have welcomed the steps he has taken regarding Israel and are often quick to point out that they don't agree with everything else he says and does. Arguably, regardless of what you think of him, Bibi could not challenge Trump on Tlaib and Omar any more than Republicans can.
I believe, to a great extent, the different perceptions of Trump by Jews has a lot to do with the different relationship they have with Israel. The Orthodox, on average, have a much closer day to day relationship with Israel than more liberal Jews. They visit more frequently and are more aware of daily developments. Most young Orthodox men and women spend their gap year in Israel - this applies to modern as well as charedi. Orthodox gap year programs outnumber others by 10+:1. I am certainly not suggesting many non-Orthodox Jews don't have a close relationship with Israel, but rather, on average, Israel plays a less important role in their lives. Arguably, the Israeli government shares blame for the more distant relationship liberal Jews have with Israel.
5
Let's not forget that it was forty years ago last Friday, on August 23, 1971, Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr. drafted a confidential memorandum for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that describes a strategy for the corporate takeover of the dominant public institutions of American society.
Powell and his friend Eugene Sydnor, then-chairman of the Chamber's education committee, wanted the Chamber had to transform from a passive business group into a powerful political force capable of taking on what Powell described as a major ongoing "attack on the American free enterprise system."
Powell's manifesto is widely credited for having helped catalyze a new business activist movement, with numerous conservative family and corporate foundations (Coors, Olin, Bradley, Scaife, Koch) thereafter creating and sustaining powerful new voices to help push the corporate agenda, including the Business Roundtable (1972), the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC - 1973), Heritage Foundation (1973), the Cato Institute (1977), the Manhattan Institute (1978), Citizens for a Sound Economy (1984 - now Americans for Prosperity), Accuracy in Academe (1985), and others.
Powell's memo marked the rightward shift in American business, political power and law, and marks the beginning of the business community's multi-decade collective takeover of the most important institutions of public opinion and democratic decision-making. Powell's memo was the Neo-Con Kool-Aid recipe from which so many drank . . .
13
As a secular, liberal Jew with Fox-brainwashed Trump supporters in my family, I am encouraged to see this movement in response to the alarming rise of right-wing authoritarianism across the world. Thank you for this article.
18
This piece is so full of falsehoods it is difficult to even know where to begin. As someone greatly concerned about the issue, I cannot think of a single instance in which the President has stoked or encouraged anti-semitism (in contrast with recent well-known episodes by certain leftist Congresswomen). But most outrageous of all is the horror of Nazi death camps with detention facilities used for people who have willfully entered the U.S illegally. If Ms. Goldberg does not approve of U.S immigration law, by all means, lobby to change it. But to compare enforcement of that law with the Holocaust is utterly shameful and an insult to the memory of all of those who perished therein.
10
A sheynem dank" Michelle Goldberg for sharing your insightful Opinion and highlighting the resurgence of the Jewish Left, and the fact that the Left and Center now speak as one a voice against Trump and his Anti Semitism.
As a Jew and life long Liberal Democrat I am proud to join the ranks of those deemed worthy, to be castigated daily by Trump and his depraved apologists as being disloyal or some how unworthy to live in his MAGA wonderland.
As far as his Jewish support in 2016, lets hope their mantra for 2020 is Never Again.
16
Thank Ms. Goldberg; it just goes to show that Jews, and gentiles, need to be vigilant against overt racism and antisemitism. The synagogue shooting, in Pittsburgh, a few months ago was a wake up call. Since then, our "president" has been flaming racism and antisemitism further.
It peaked last week, when it was said that Jews who vote fro Democrats are "disloyal". And, that they do not support the State of Israel.
To many Jews, the current government of Israel has a number of problems, as well as a leader accused of corruption. A leader, and political party, who have been practicing racism. It is not wrong to criticize this government, and it si not "disloyal" to do so.
Mr. Trump is not seeking the Jewish vote, but the evangelical Christian vote. A group of believers who feel that Israel need to rebuild the Temple, in order to fulfill the prophesy of the rapture. Of course, Israel would start a major mideast war if they decided to clear Temple Mount of the mosques to rebuild the Temple.
These are dangerous time, and are being fueled by the same forces that led to WWII. And, again using Jews, and others, as scapegoats/targets, of nationalism and economic ills. Manufactured by people liek Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.
"Never Again" should be shouted loudly so it does not happen again. Also, come next November, we can all do our part by voting for people who believe that racisma nd nationalism has no place in this country or any otehr country.
14
It certainly might be possible to be staunchly anti-Israel and not anti-Semitic, but it’s essentially impossible to be staunchly pro-Israel and anti-Semitic. This explains, likely, why almost all of the most virulent anti-Semitism comes from the left. The NYT prefers to report on podunk towns in MI where a council candidate voiced obnoxious sentiments while ignoring events right next door in NJ, where a local NAACP President voices spectacularly anti-Semitic statements.
https://newjerseyglobe.com/governor/top-murphy-aide-watched-dye-bash-jews-called-schaer-a-slave-master/
The NYT doesn’t even bother reporting on local anti-Semitic incidents, as the perps have a disquieting tendency to be Politically Correct. Identity politics inevitably produces us vs them tribalism and hatred.
So, if young Jews consider anti-Semitism to be a threat, perhaps they should turn their attention to The Squad and local college campuses, where leftist groups routinely engage in despicable behavior. Or to the Women’s (sic) March, which expressly praises anti-Semites like Farrakhan.
In short, they’re right” left-wing anti-Semitism isn’t on par with “right wing” hate: it’s infinitely worse.
But, alas, most leftists, Jews or otherwise, would throw Israel under the bus in a heartbeat rather than compromise on abortion. Give the left its way, and concentration camps will be real – in Tel Aviv.
13
Over 100 years ago all four of my grandparents came through Ellis Island as refugees. They worked hard and lived as Americans.
I plan on continuing to be ‘disloyal’ and voting for Democrats. They are not perfect but they never refer to people, such as those that marched in Charlottesville alongside Nazi banners as “fine people.”
Any Jew that votes for that fiend in the White House is disloyal to the American ideals of democracy and equality.
25
We knew this two years ago when Trump said that there were fine people on both sides in Charlottesville. In the past he stated that he only wanted men with yalmulkes counting his casino money. He has refused to denounce white supremacists and allowed them to celebrate his anti-immigration policies which support their keep America white views. And now we have the old disloyalty trope.
Trump has opened the Pandora's box of racism, xenophobia and anti-semitism and allowed it out into the open, permitting himself and his followers to express opinions and thoughts that have long been anathema in civil society. He is a demogogue the likes of which we have seen before. This time we have to listen and respond by shining the light on this and denouncing it.
As Jews have learned to their peril in the past, being quiet and hoping it will pass does not work. Trump has shown us who he is in word and deed. Believe it and fight against it not just with protests but also with voter registration drives and working for candidates up and down the ballot to drive Trump and his GOP enablers out of office.
Each immigrant wave - Jews, Italians, Irish, et al - have arrived in the US seeking freedom and opportunity, and the ability to live without fear of oppression. Trump is undermining the very tenets of American democracy. That is not only worth fighting for but more necessary every day with every pronouncement from the mouth of this odious man.
38
I also think they recognize and disapprove of the cynical deals made between the Israeli government and right-wing American evangelicals that fund most of the illegal settlements.
Yes, the same evangelicals that regard Jews as Christ killers and long for the day they are all swept away in The Rapture. In the meantime, Netanyahu and his allies are only too happy to continue taking their money which amounts to millions of dollars annually. While toadying to the revolting Mr. Trump the entire time. Can't go so far as to thank him but it's good to see another important group of voters waking up to what the man actually stands for, and rejecting it and him.
Keep up the good work.
24
Someone on an NPR show Friday pointed out that Trump's support of Israel is to appeal to Evangelical Christians who require the state in order to bring about the second coming. It's more about his Christian base than anything else. I think he was surprised by the lack of cross-appeal. Guess he thought it was the only thing that mattered to American Jewish voters, too.
33
That’s because he is kept well-informed on how the Jews think and feel by the great Jewish emissary Jared Kushner, who is always on speed-dial with Bibi.
12
@edv961 For 35 years my major customer base was evangelical ministers and televangelists. Their support for Israel is based on the idea that Christ cannot come again until ALL Jews are in Israel. What the evangelicals are doing is to set things in line for the second coming - and that does not mean that Trump is the Second Coming. They want to hurry the apocalypse. They would like to have the end of the world happen today.
14
I suggest the new Jewish left open up a history book and research how "hereness" worked out for Jews in Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Egypt, Iran and Iraq (and other places where Jews who are not "here" any more) before they dismiss the importance of the State of Israel to the Jewish people. One of Trump's legacies will be his success in spurring opposition movements with equally bad ideas. And while you are at it you can blame Netanyahu for this one too.
11
Jared and Ivanka's silence speaks volumes.
31
It took 16 years for the UN to repeal its 'Zionism is Racism' resolution and apparently today many liberal Jews seem very comfortable with that notion. How troubling!
Remarkably, for all the criticism expressed about the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians in Michelle Goldberg's column and related comments, there have been no comments about any fault on the part of Palestinians - and no suggestions on how the problems can be solved.
I disagree with many actions of the current Israeli government The recent failed election and political free for all leading to the upcoming the September election suggests Bibi's support continues to wane. But is support of Israel by American Jews transactional and only there if the duly elected Prime Minister is someone we agree with?
Also, how do liberal Jews incorporate the following into their thought process?
- To achieve peace, Israel has already returned more than half its territory to Arab countries
- Israel made multiple offers to return 95+% of the West Bank - all rejected by Palestinian leadership
- Israel leaving the Gaza Strip only created a terrorist haven - reinforcing the need to be cautious with the West Bank
- Had Jordan not entered the Six Day War in 1967 (as Israel begged them), there would be no Palestinian problem
- Most BDS leaders don't support Israel's right to exist and never criticize terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians
Life would be much easier if we could all agree on a common set of facts.
24
Jewish contribution to civil rights in the 60s.
In some cases, it was considerable. They gave their lives to help another people barely 20 years after their own people had been almost wiped off the face of the earth.
Case in point. Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Mississippi in 1964 along with James Chaney for taking part in voter registration drives.
Fortunately, their contribution to our country’s history has not gone unrecognized. President Obama awarded all three the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.
41
Just in case anybody hasn't figured it out...
Trump's comments about the disloyalty of American Jews paints a target on their backs. He's preparing them to be blamed if he loses re-election.
Let's see -- where have we heard rhetoric like that before? It's on the tip of my tongue....
52
I believe there was very little support for Zionism among American Jews until the 1930s. Subsequently that support increased greatly and probably peaked during the years that Israel was militarily attacked by several Arab countries. Since then support for Israel has become somewhat more ambivalent. This may have begun in the early 1980s when Israel carried out excessive bombing in a war with Lebanon. There have been during the intervening years many concerns about Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank and concerns about the right wing gaining power in Israel. For American Jews on the left support for Israel has been severely tested. And now with the election of Trump American Jews on the left have had to turn to be concerned about their own safely. It was thought that America was a safe haven for Jews but with the rise of white nationalists clearly it is not safe for any minority group. Never again is now relevant from the streets of Brooklyn to the synagogues of LA. And Jews must not only defend themselves but also immigrants from Mexico and South America, Muslims living in America, blacks, and all groups under attack by white supremacists feeding off the hate rhetoric of Donald Trump.
21
Dissent by left wing American Jews on Israel and the Palestinians actually pre-dates the 1980's. I recall left wing Jewish students criticising Israel on college campuses back in the 1970's. I don't remember but think it likely that people like Noam Chomsky and Edward Said were addressing the matter by then.
4
DJT and its mouth (Fox Propaganda) will be targeting any group which wishes to disagree with its position. It’s the only way you know that you are doing the correct thing.
18
Meanwhile, the very last Jews living in South Sudan just made aliyah to Israel. This is heart warming -- Israel has, once again, saved diaspora Jews from a horrid circumstance and reunited a family -- and heartbreaking: Jews have been completely ethnically cleansed from yet another Muslim majority country and a numerically small, but vibrant culture, has been eradicated.
IT may be unlikely to happen in the USA. Yet, a subtle form of IT is happening in the UK, where polls say that many of its 300,000 Jews will leave the country if Jeremy Corbyn becomes PM. Apparently, his purported "left-wing" "anti-Zionism" is anti-Semitic enough that those diaspora Jews will no longer feel safe.
Luckily for them, they have Israel.
Perhaps a bit more focus on other "heres" by the subjects of this piece would reveal a proud truth: Zionism is the greatest social justice movement of modernity.
15
@TMDJS
zionism's compassionate component has been lost in its' virulent inward focus.
Israel ,may be able to stand alone economically but in the world of international politics it is doing a donald trump-isolating itself and putting itself in grave danger, unnecessarily. If your ally wanted to destroy you but 10 years agoi (Saudi Arabia) believe me, the feelings are still there , They, like the evangelicals will just use you to destroy you
And if you believe otherwise, better you to be around to suffer the consequences than I
2
Basically Michelle Goldberg offers American Jews a revival of the 1930's Jewish Labor Bund approach to politics. Reviving the hope that unity with the new "woke" left will work out better this time than it did then with the Marxist left did. The same rejection of Zionism and remaining in Warsaw until the bitter end in the hope that this time their fellow "progressives" will not cheer their destruction by the nationalists or turn on them as "rootless cosmopolitans" and "intellectuals". Probably learning self respect in the face of both left and right wing bigotry is a better idea and will cause less pain in the long run. Distancing yourself from " those" Jews does not actually work and only results in sadness.
14
I celebrated the 25th anniversary of Israel with my AZA youth group. I thought Israel a beacon of democracy in the Mid East. Forever under siege and threat but still aspiring toward justice.
Since then, Israel has welcomed the support of evangelical zealots who treat Jews like pets and bit players as they move us toward the annihilation that is their rapture.
Republicans welcome and seek the support of right wing racist groups. They now invite Russian interference into our election on their behalf in the event their structural diminution and gerrymandering of non-Republican voters is not enough to keep them in offices they cannot win by obtaining a majority of votes.
The moment Israel and Republicans embraced supporters of an ideology that believed non-christians and non-whites' were lesser humans they sowed their defeat. The embrace of fascist intolerance is not a clever Realpolitik. It is expedience for an individual's immediate gain at the expense of one's country. Their embrace of intolerance, the shredding of the dignity of the individual our constitution aspired to enshrine will be their undoing. It can't happen soon enough.
McConnell, Trump and Netanyahu will be remembered as historic villains by their countries and by their families. We now know the sole way to destroy a democracy is from within by empowering men of bad faith whose ultimate goal is power instead of seeking to gain power to do Good.
18
And what a precious entrée from the GOP to challenge trump...Joe Walsh, who has been called trump before trump.
He eagerly voted for trump in spite of everything he said before trump was elected.
I don't know why GOP mostly consists of these type of characters, but it's simply unpalatable for any normal sense of taste.
Please go home...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/us/politics/joe-walsh-president.html
7
He announced his campaign on ABC this morning and apologized for his past.
1
My NY Jewish partner has called me—a lapsed Episcopalian who still thinks Jesus was history’s greatest moralist—“a Jewophile” from early in our 12-year relationship. I do indeed bow to no one, whether Jew or goy, in my admiration and affection for all the wonderful Jewish moralists and political activists of the last American century epitomized by this “Never again!” crowd. Bless them!
3
Seeing anti-semitism everywhere is a disease. Calling everyone who disagrees with Israel is a simple disease: it is called stupidity. I am a one hundred percent Jew. Grandchild of Holocaust survivors and descendent of victims and survivors of the Shoah, Inquisition and countless pogroms in Europe east and west. I criticize Israel. I dislike Netanyahu as intensely as I dislike Trump. I did not like any of the Likud Leaders. Am I an anti-Semite?
Jews tend to be more progressive then the average American. They tend to be better educated than the average American. They need to do more thee days. They have to be actively involved in explaining to other Jews that conservatism is not an option anymore. In the age of Trump and the GOP, this nation is sliding towards fascism fast. We need to tell the ones who are asleep to wake up and support progressive candidates like Bernie and Liz Warren without worrying about their pocketbooks and Israel too much.
It is wonderful to hear Ms Goldberg’s news. And Mazel Tov indeed.
20
What strikes me most ,is the explosive surge of new micro Jewish groups, each one striving to gain traction in the national non jewish discourse.Being a proud vocal anti Sionist Jew seems the new flavor of the month.
It has been a fundamental debate since 1948 whether to embed Israel in the Jewish Neshuma (soul) or not. Orthodox Jews living in Israel refuse to recognize the existence of the State of Israel, and resist the draft. French Jews have made every effort to assimilate for fear of being discriminated against by their fellow French. Brazilian Jews are fairly well integrated and enjoy a vibrant freedom in a country which became a sanctuary for fugitive Nazis and Italian fascists after WW II.
American Jews have innovated in the ways they know best: pouring money into the causes they support. Their success as lobbyists have financed the return of Russian USSR Jews to Israel,the funding of Israel through the Israel bonds , the rise of Jewish pro Israel supported issues within the US American electoral system.
Being Jewish should not form the basis for a political stand, it is first and foremost a religion , a lifestyle for some, encompassing orthodox ,conservative, and reform groups ,with the added complexity of the Sephardic and Ashkenaz traditions.
We should support the fight against a scandalous un American immigration action without reducing one's support to parochial hair splitting. Let's leave the small narrow mindedness where it belongs.
3
Please beware! Some left-leaning groups with "Jews" or "Jewish" in their titles are "wolves in sheep's clothing." I was the guest of friends at a meeting of Jewish Voice for Peace and was stunned by their pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel diatribes and un-funny jokes.
Not all American Jews are satisfied with current political conditions in Israel, but that does not cancel out our overall support for Israel as a democratic nation.
20
Thanks for this piece Michelle. It expresses my view and that of all my Jewish friends and family. When any group is attacked for their immutable characteristics Jews are too, eventually. So, what is happening in the US now was inevitable. And yes, the US is my home. Israel is not.
7
I will never forget visiting an old college friend in early spring who lives in Takoma Park where the season is turning green while in Vermont the snow is gone, but nothing is alive yet, We were eating breakfast when all of a sudden and out of the blue he says I will never understand how a Jew could vote Republican let alone for Trump. He is Jewish. It is appropriate that the "Daughter of a Refugee" is standing outside the nightmarish LA County Correctional facility so prominently featured on the cover of "City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles" by Mike Davis. We must destroy the cancer of The Gutter Rat and the Republican Party but alas, it may be too late.
4
@David from Connecticut (a note on superfluous antisemitism)
Seeing anti-semitism everywhere is a disease. Calling everyone who disagrees with Israel is a simple disease: it is called stupidity. I am a one hundred percent Jew. Grandchild of Holocaust survivors and descendent of victims and survivors of the Shoah, Inquisition and countless pogroms in Europe east and west. I criticize Israel. I dislike Netanyahu as intensely as I dislike Trump. I did not like any of the Likud Leaders. Am I an anti-Semite?
Jews tend to be more progressive then the average American. They tend to be better educated than the average American. They need to do more thee days. They have to be actively involved in explaining to other Jews that conservatism is not an option anymore. In the age of Trump and the GOP, this nation is sliding towards fascism fast. We need to tell the ones who are asleep to wake up and support progressive candidates like Bernie and Liz Warren without worrying about their pocketbooks and Israel too much.
It is wonderful to hear Ms Goldberg’s news. And Mazel Tov indeed.
1
Antisemitism is indolent in the minds of many fed by repeated expectations and descriptions in homes, churches, mosques, country clubs, higher standards to secure what we call unalienable rights, acceptance only if Jews know their subjugated place. The illness is not in the recognition of the meanings of money changers, doubters, people of the book(vs faith), deicide, conspirators, dual loyalty, Old(rather then Hebrew or “Older”) Testament, meaningless dietary restrictions, blood libel. It is in not knowing and repeating the value of ones history and traditions, even if we don’t follow them. It is in not educating others rather than let the comments pass. It is to overreacting with disgust or violence. It is to not know that Israel means nothing else if it doesn’t mean never again. To live that for others and know that survival is as important part of the Binding of Isaac as is circumcision and faith. It is in not understanding the four different sons in the Seder and all need to be educated in different ways.
The threshold to overt antisemitism is often shallow because of the ideas always spoken and remembered. Many people who have no reason to hate Israel if they grow up in Somalia other than what they were taught actively and passively.
3
We don’t have a smart president but we do have a manipulative one. And, boy, you could see this one coming from a mile away.
What better demographic to split up to win RE-election than the Jews, who mostly vote Democratic but are often torn on the Israeli issues. If he can divide us up, and fool us into thinking that he’s the Great Defender of the Jewish people, he secures an important missing vote and contribution to his campaign.
Divide us by pitting one minority group against another.
Divide us by making us forget that he’s the source of the hatred.
Divide us by appealing to our fear of becoming ostracized.
We’ve watched him manipulate 40% of this country already. We won’t be fooled again.
17
I have been amazed since Charlottesville why so few people remember what the Tiki Torch racist were yelling. They were not yelling Brown People will not replace us. They were yelling Jews will not Replace us. Trump has shown more ire towards two women of color than he has to the mob that marched in Charlottesville.Racist are equal opportunity Haters. Sure Trump moved the embassy and he is BFF with Bibi but Thomas Jefferson wrote beautiful words about freedom while he owned other Human Beings. Trump might be able to direct his hatred at people of color but can his followers follow suit? People who hate people who are different have no boundaries on their hate.
19
You really hit the nail on the head re: why younger, more progressive Jews feel alienated from the Jewish establishment. From my vantage point as a millennial Jew, the greatest threat to American Jews is the resurgence of violent white nationalism, which sees the Jewish people as its number one enemy. Yet many mainstream Jewish writers and outlets expend the broad majority of their time and energy penning thinkpiece after thinkpiece on campus antizionism and left antisemitism. Not to say that there’s not antisemitism on the left - there absolutely is - but it’s not as much of a direct and immediate threat to Jews as is violent white nationalism, and it’s bizarre to see mainstream Jewish thinkers treat leftist antisemitism like it’s the greater threat, or at best, like the two are equivalent. They’re not: one is obnoxious, and the other has resulted in two synagogue mass shootings less than a year apart.
5
Being against some of the policies of the Israeli government is NOT being anti-Semitic. Thinking otherwise is exactly what everyone - Brave Jees included - fought against in WWII. This “yourewith us or against us” is exactly what Trump is trying to say when he says American Jews should through all their support behind Israel. You can be Jewish and corrupt and evil, too. Just look at Netanyahu.
3
Jews should be very wary of aligning ourselves with the hard-core Christian right. We are only actors in their next passion play. Sooner or later they are going to figure out that we have no interest in rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem to bring about Armageddon, and that most of us do not support their domestic agenda. Then they will turn on us like they always do. Sooner or later.
10
The right-wing press (Fox News) and hand-wringing lefties minimize Biden's candidacy for lack of vigor after a few so-called gaffes during dozens of campaign speeches, meanwhile, Drumpf utters multiple inanities and worse by the hour daily and yet no substantive critical review of his mental capacity and fitness for office.
Humorous, if not so hypocritical.
Oh, the impunity!
6
Is Anti-Zionism is equal to anti-semitism? At the end of the day I think it is. Jews have always been in the minority in every country they have lived since the Scattering at the time of the Roman occupation. Their safety and welfare was subject to the whims of their rulers - more horrendous than pleasant, with pogroms, massacres, the Holocaust, the theft of their property and denial of civil rights and occupations. At the foundation of Zionism is the idea that Jews would have their own homeland, where they would be safe as the majority and could determine their own fate. Modern Left-wing Jews denigrated the 1947 UN Partition Resolution and have decried the existence of Israel ever since, favoring the Muslim populations living there. The destruction of Israel is as anti-semtic as one can get. I firmly support a 2-state solution where the majority in Israel is Jewish and the rest of Palestine is not.
I still support the Democratic Party as the protector of Israel and Jewish voters should not be seduced by the love match between Trump and Netanyahu. Netanyahu is leading Israel on a destructive course and his election defeat is critical. Jews that support Trump simply because he heavily courts Israel cannot see beyond the end of their noses. If there is any "disloyalty" to be complained of, it is the cruel charge that we are disloyal to America. I am an American first, Jewish 2nd for so long as I am accepted as part of the greater American society.
19
Please do not conflate concentration camps with extermination camps. By definition, a concentration camp is an internment center for political prisoners and members of national or minority groups who are confined for reasons of state security, exploitation, or punishment, usually by executive decree or military order. That is how this country is currently dealing with illegal immigrants. Nazi Germany built extermination camps (also called death camps or killing centers) during the Holocaust in World War II, to systematically murder millions of Jews. The only similarity is both are immoral.
7
Thank you, Ms. Goldberg.
8
When we stand and fight with Jews for justice and freedom from fear, we are standing and fighting for all that is good and just and right in this world, and living the truth and beauty in the Lord Buddha's timeless proverb:
"Do good and be good on this road of life."
Thank you, Ms. Goldberg, for shining a most timely and very necessary spotlight on Jews in America, and all who stand with them, for an America free from fascism, against Trump and his hate speech which inspires Nazis---my grandfather fought against the Nazis at Normandy on D-Day. We did not defeat the Nazis in Europe in WWII in order to see Nazis kill American Jews in our time, and Trump must be defeated, he must be driven from office if America is going to be a country where American Jews can live free from fear.
11
If you haven't read this, you need to. The same American Republican campaign consultancy that devised Nixon's divide & conquer (which Republicans have doubled down on since 2009) strategy have used the same strategy in their work for Netanyahu and Viktor Orban & developed the anti-Soros, anti-Semitic component. Things are a lot clearer & simpler when you know this:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgrassegger/george-soros-conspiracy-finkelstein-birnbaum-orban-netanyahu
4
The Jewish population in the US is approximately 2.1%.
4
Seems a bit odd that a Jewish left wing group should call itself "Never Again Action" using the phrase created by Meir Kahane, the man whom Menachem Begin had detained for his anti-Arab racism and whose party, Kach, was banned from the Knesset. Seems that the Jewish left might want to study up a bit on their Jewish History. And maybe Ms. Goldberg as well.
3
Very good comments, but perhaps all of you need to make your voices heard in the voting booths this time
4
Others who trusted trump have learned the hard way
5
I suggest that Ivanka and Jared Kushner dress warm for the High Holy Days; a cold front may greet them as they enter the sanctuary.
7
My esteem for Jewish people rests on their adherence to their testament:
"What Does the Lord Require of You? to Act Justly and to Love Mercy and to Walk Humbly With Your God."
3
On what does the esteem of others rest?
1
Imagine how Trump would consider Jews if he didn't have Jared and Ivanka in his circle?
For people like him, our only use is to be their doctors, lawyers or accountants.
6
In many ways, American politics is like a pendulum. Swing left with Obama, swing right with Trump.
But we Jews are steadfast in that many are liberal Democrats and make no apologies (nor should they).
Being an oppressed people for so long, most Jews (myself included), feel for those desperately seeking asylum from political, criminal and economic challenges.
We still recall the example of the St. Louis, stranded outside NYC with Jewish refugees who would eventually be turned away to perish in the gas chambers.
9
Meanwhile, the very last Jews from South Sudan, just made aliyah to Israel. This is both heartwarming -- Israel has once again saved diaspora Jews from a hostile host country -- and heartbreaking, Jews have once again been ethnically cleansed from an Arab majority country and a small but vibrant 3000 year culture has been exterminated.
Perhaps IT won't happen in the USA, but IT is happening elsewhere and could very well happen in a place like England should Corbyn become PM. His purported "left wing" "anti-Zionism", apparantly, being perceived as anti-Semetic enough that polls show many kf the 300K Jews living in the UK would leave.
Luckily, for them, they will have Israel to return to if they choose.
Perhaps a dram of focus on other "Here's" will help Ms. Goldberg's celebrated left-wing Jews realize something: Zionism is the greatest social justice triumph of modernity and Israel is the only country that will always be their refuge.
8
Thank you for this!
Bibi's Israel does not speak for me, but this does not make me disloyal or anti-Semitic
It makes me a Jewish believer in social justice, exactly what my parents raised me to be
7
A light in the darkness that descended when the U.S. got a president who promotes hate instead of working against it.
13
I'm still waiting to hear:
'Nobody loves Jews more than I do'.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
13
How could anyone believe that a man who called a group of neo-Nazi's chanting "Jews will not replace us" none other than "very fine people", has their best interests?
21
Once again Trump proves he is the great divider.
9
If the rise of Trump has taught me anything, it has taught me that this country is not immune to the mob. Jews, as a perennial mob target, have a justified fear. When a country with all its resources turns against a minority population, that minority population is defenseless. If Jews have learned anything from their history, it is that the State of Israel remains their best defense agains the threat of the mob.
16
Anyone who trades in tropes of "Jewish disloyalty" after they've supported neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville chanting, "Jews will not replace us!"as containing "some good people," is, as we say, a meshugganah. But, when one of his fanatic followers is so agitated by his hysteria about an immigrant "invasion" in a massive "caravan" and massacres eleven Jews in their Pittsburgh synagogue, we know we're dealing with a murderous white supremacist. No Jew should be fooled by the phony "fake" insults by an openly white racist who lacks any empathy and only seeks to divide as a strategy to retain power. To quote Trump, he's an "enemy" of the Jewish people who has demonstrated "great disloyalty" to all American Jews and has already unleashed a reign of terror where Jews have now perished in their synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway. As a member of a Holocaust family, I urge all Jews not to be confused, as my German-Jewish in-laws were in the 1930s, and say, as my mother and grandmother instructed me, "Never Again!'
11
If evangelical Christians suddenly discovered that the "rapture" actually is to take place, say, in Greenland, their so-called support for Israel would melt faster than an ice cube in sunny Florida.
21
Why would Jewish people in particular be more concerned with American nationalism than American anti-Zionism?
1
Seeing the picture and reading the protester's sign brought tears to my eyes. Little children have been separated from their parents and put in cages by people resembling, in my view, the worst perpetrators of the holocaust. Looking at you, Stephen Miller.
If you believe in "Never Again" and you do not reflexively understand and agree with the sentiment expressed in the picture then you are a hypocrite. And almost certainly a republican.
18
Excoriating American Jews as being disloyal to Israel if they vote for a Democrat might be considered bizarre were one not to realize the presumption that Jews primary loyalty is to Israel. Just like Catholics must obey The Pope, but we're not to that one yet. It will come as the march to Protestant Purity continues.
6
Why dont these groups use their clout to improve the horrific lives led by the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip? Are they less deserving and inferior to the the central American immigrants? They were forcibly ejected from their homes and made to live in squalor. Where is the love and concern for them?
4
The problem with Jewish liberalism is that the Jews tend to be liberal in the USA but less so in Israel. For example, they could support liberal entrance of illegal immigrants at the US border but allow no non-Jewish immigrants to Israel. This paradoxical behavior is seen as blatantly hypocritical and severely reduces their credibility.
4
Ditto!
And Michelle, can you post the name of Sophie Ellman-Golan’s organization? I would like to support it, along with Never Again Action and JFREJ.
3
Nothing like a little anti semitism to kindle Jews awareness that they are vulnerable...time to wake up and re reread your history books.
American is not a cacoon nor is it a guaranteed safety net that will keep out the crazies who are the new Cossacks.
Jews have gotten very comfortable in their historical stupidity to recognize that freedom is fragile and requires constant vigilance .
Trump has reminded us all that we live on the knives' edge and if a severe economic down turn happens, please consult your old textbooks about the interwar years in the US, in Germany, in Italy etc.....
Be dumb and be dead.
8
That Donald Trump has avoided any opportunity to criticize the loud neo-nazi element of his base is all I can think about when he deceptively (ignorantly? delusionally?) attempts to frame the Democratic party as the enemy of Jewish people or of Israel. Opposition to the Likud-led Netanyahu administration is not anti-Israel or anti-Semitic, just like opposition to the Republican-led Trump administration is not anti-American. Democratic support for, among other positions, a two-state solution is in line with the platform of the more progressive Blue and White party in Israel (which by the way holds just as many seats in Knesset, the Israeli legislature).
7
"British Jews understand better than most that the growth of anti-Semitism on the left is a “problem” and that American Jews “should not be complacent about it”. (From an article last week published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.) As Goldberg's piece suggests, many American Jews are in fact complacent about it.
13
"Mazel Tov, Trump. You’ve Revived the Jewish Left."
Credit where credit is due, Ms. Goldberg. Trump couldn't have done it without the Jewish Right aiding and abetting him.
‘Only one political party is quite literally inciting white nationalists to shoot up our synagogues.’
Again, credit where credit is due, Mr. Goldberg.
6
There is one very important service that Trump has done for America. He has shown us the ugly underbelly of hatred and bigotry that has been here all along in too many our citizens and communities. Of course, he had no intent to eradicate it; he instead has attempted to inflame it and use it in order to pursue his political agenda. This is a president who called neo-Nazis “some very fine people,” a candidate endorsed by David Duke and Richard Spencer. He is an antiSemite in spite of what he says. But we also see good people called to speak out and take action against the evil that has become apparent. When Trump seeks to divide the Jewish population, he thinks that Israel and Judaism are synonymous. They’re not. I applaud the courage of those who refuse to let their Judaism be defined by the likes of a racist, antiSemite like Trump.
8
"Jews have been taking to the streets because no amount of support for a foreign country can redeem what he’s doing to this one."
Correct! Just remember the chants of Charlottesville by those prominently displaying the Hitlerian salute and how casually Mr. Trump referred to them as "fine people". You bet they were to him -- because they are an important part of his base.
8
Many of the people detained by ICE in the Rhode Island prison and similar facilities have been ordered deported. Many have committed crimes, some may have committed serious crimes. And others may be there just because they're illegal. Facilities like this have existed as long as ICE has existed. The only way to get rid of them is to give blanket amnesty or -- pretty much the same thing -- not to deport any illegals.
Clearly, the demonstrators want a radical change in immigration policy. On the political spectrum, they are out there. Moreover, "never again" means no more Holocausts. So the demonstrators are saying that deporting an illegal is analogous to gassing a Jew, which suggests that anyone who wants any border enforcement is a Nazi.
This kind of demonstration doesn't help the ICE detainees because it is politically beyond the pale. Probably, it makes the demonstrators feel good about themselves. Likewise, the confrontation with the prison guard certainly didn't help the detainees, although it probably made the demonstrators feel like martyrs.
If I were one of the detainees, I would wonder what the heck the demonstrators are doing and I'd wish that they could find some way to really help.
5
Let's be clear. Supporting "Zioinism"still leaves room for criticism and disdain to distasteful Israeli politicians. That is aimed at you, Netanyahu. I am glad to read that the American Jew is leaning back towards the mantle we inherited. As the "chosen people" we have the special responsibility to be the conscience of the world. We need to hold ourselves to the highest standards art all times. Sheldon Adelson's financial support for Israel did not fool me. Trump's hollow and stupid words about Israel should not fool any of us.
6
Could there be a silver lining in the bigoted words and deeds of the conman in chief? Trump belongs to this group of anti-Semites who say they are friends of Israel. Many such people live in Ukraine, Hungary or among the alt-right in the US. Christian fundamentalists are anti-Semites who support AIPAC. Netanyahu and his family resort to anti-Semitic tropes and Israel invites terrible right-wingers like Orban to Yad Vashem. Fighting anti-Semitism means disagreeing in the strongest possible terms with the Israeli or American right. In Western Europe neo-fascist parties say they have broken with their anti-Semitic past and are now cozying up to the extreme right in Israel and the US for they share a racist view of Arabs or Muslims. There has always been a strong left wing current among Jews everywhere in the world. If Trump's ugliness is reviving this tradition then it is a silver lining.
7
Ms Goldberg, I thank you for the blunt, no-bars-hold condemnation of Trump’s hateful anti-Semitic rhetoric (pitting right Jewish wing vs. the left). The current Israeli government’s vulgar and sordid seduction by him and their complacency when he clearly is not just a loud-mouthed racist, he’s something more dangerous than was recognized at the outset, he is a white-supremacist at heart.
A lot of time, I’m frustrated with journalists pussyfooting around such issues.
Objective is, as objective does, but skirting the topics and not hitting the nail on the head makes such journalism puny, cowardly and in the end, nonproductive.
This phrase needs to be read by everyone in the USA, no matter what your political loyalty maybe.
Decency, veracity, social-acceptance and independence of mind & soul demands it:
“only one political party is quite literally inciting white nationalists to shoot up our synagogues, drive cars into our peaceful protests, mail bombs to members of our community, burn black churches and mosques, and open fire on Latinx people.”
The Jewish left is leading the charge. Americans (no matter what religion, colour or class) need to join.
This is a call to (proverbial arms) stand up for what has been taught in schools, synagogues, churches, mosques, temples.... be kind, be accepting, stand up and stand for the weak, the disenfranchised, the poor, the subjugated, the downtrodden, the “other.”
Otherwise, we will regret and loosing hope is death before death.
8
"left-wing anti-Semitism exists. But they generally don’t believe it’s a threat on par with right-wing Jew hatred." On the contrary; Alas: Both are just as antisemitic unfortunately.
BTW: I don't know what American issues is US rep. fighting for. So far she is championing the destruction of Israel (via BDS) and Palestinian Statehood.
4
"Only one political party is quite literally inciting white nationalists to shoot up our synagogues."
It is a shame we don't have stricter libel laws in this country. Goldberg would be driven to bankruptcy with this kind of nonsense.
4
More left-wing wishful thinking. 44 people in New York City, of whom 12 are rabbis, does not a movement make. I'm what they used to call a liberal Democrat. I'm anti-Trump (who by the way was raised in a heavily Jewish area) and anti-Netanyahu. Try interviewing some non-movement, non-academic, everyday, subway-and-bus riding, working Jews. I'm sure you will find more Trump and Israel supporters than you imagined. And don't blame it on the "Jewish establishment". Figure it out for yourself.
6
“Where we are is our home. This is what we fight for. This is where we seek kinship.”
Sounds like a revival of Bundism.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundism
2
2016 was a wake up call for this secular Jew. I never saw it before but now it is clear- they barely tolerated us.
All of my spare time will be spent on voter registration and I hope some of you will join me.
20
The way I see it Trump just shot himself in the foot again. Mazel Tov!
11
Several weeks ago I was out with two Jewish friends who made some comment about the problem with left-wing Jews. I was honestly shocked. What did they think I was? And who had I thought they were? Do they really think that we should be arguing about whether kids in cages are akin to extermination camps to determine our thoughts about this President and American policies? Do they really think questioning right-wing politics in Israel makes one a bad Jew or a person indifferent to the rise in antisemitism? Do they really think that seeing a Jewish government — or our American government — behaving inhumanely towards ANY people is okay as long as those governments are pro-Israel? What lessons did they learn from the holocaust, anyway? That it's only about the Jews and not about the all too human problem of selfishness or indifference or fear that leads to genocide after genocide?
I went home completely disturbed, thinking back to when I learned a dozen years ago, that my signing a petition about Palestineans being accorded human rights meant I was a "self-hating Jew."
Michelle, thank you for letting me know that the Jewish left is alive and well, that the values I was raised with — to think with empathy and compassion about all people — are values that are more common than the right-wing Jewish community is willing to acknowledge.
20
anyone who is republican and not a white christian straight male mistakenly believes that the privileges they reserve for themselves are available to anyone else.
7
Everyone has privilege and, regrettably, the invocation of privilege is a power-play that masks the quest for power as if the self-appointed non-privileged speaker were stating an independent value. Let’s have open conversation rather than censorship through mind-numbing censorious conversation-stoppers of virtue signalers.
2
Refreshing to learn there are some political active American Jews who refuse to be used by the Israeli right wing as a quid pro to the Party of Trump.
8
What party is Ellman-Golman speaking of with Ms. Goldberg
fully agreeing with ?
"only one political party is quite literally inciting white nationalists to shoot up our synagogues, drive cars into our peaceful protests, mail bombs to members of our community, burn black churches and mosques, and open fire on Latinx people.”
as much as Ms. Goldberg may despise Trump and Republicans
that statement is not true and the New York Times should
ask Ms. Goldberg to retract it.
3
It is demonstrably true. I have a hypothesis regarding your choice of news media.
3
@John Brown...
It sure sounds true to this American citizen.
4
Well done piece, Ms. Goldberg. Thanks much.
It's good to see elements of the Jewish population rising to combat the likes of trumpf and his ilk, meaning his Republican supporters. We are living a nightmare -- who would believe an American president could be a racist? -- and the sooner it will be over, the better. Keep at it, Ms. Goldberg. You're part of the solution.
10
Ms. Goldberg forgets or ignores one important fact. From the beginning the Left was suspicious of Zionism as a bourgeois deflection from the workers' revolution. Yes, there are leftist Zionists but Zionism from the start was a form of Integral Nationalism designed to counter antisemitic Integral Nationalism in Europe. Zionism is not leftist! Leftist gentiles seem to know this better than Ms. Goldberg.
5
Well stated. Thank you for enriching the commentary
Antisemitism from the left not a danger to American Jews? Tell that to the Jews of the UK, who are almost uniformly terrified at the prospect of a Jeremy Corbyn prime ministership. Or to the tens of thousands of Jews who have fled France because of Islamist violence, apologized for, excused by, and sometimes allied with and even provoked by the French far left. Or to the Jews of Sweden, or for that matter to American Jews on campuses such as Oberlin and San Francisco State, where outbreaks of antisemitism on the left have been met with anything ranging from administrative complicity to a yawn. Or the Jews driven out of the Women's March and Dyke marches in several cities. Only either by having an extremely parochial and backwards-looking perspective on American Jewish life, or by simply ignoring politically inconvenient evidence, can someone possibly conclude that antisemitism on the left is not a serious threat, albeit one that has largely not (yet) been realized.
15
The extreme left is vicious in the face of diversity of thought. We need more conversation, filled with tolerance and generosity, and fewer virtue-signalers filled with intolerance.
Emphasis on conversation, not declarations.
2
Even the Jewish right should beware of the grotesque "support" of the American religious right. They are after all the cheerleaders for Armageddon. Add to this the motley collection of criminals and "deplorables" who make up this president's base together with his penchant for cruelty and petty passions and it becomes a perfect storm.
Why are we powerless to put an end to this insanity? Thank God that people are organizing in whatever way they can to counter this growing menace from our own government...the "leader" of the free world!
10
Yes! Michelle. Vote 2020.
4
It reveals more than he would want to let on: when Trump says "your country", addressing Jews, he uses established anti-semitic language.
3
Right on!
2
To be clear I am not Jewish, I identify as Christian but I cannot abide the "Christian Dogma". So I truly believe in the basic teachings but the Dogma seems to make many humans as lesser than others.
Prior to Mr Trumps election to POTUS I opened discussions with some friends who are Jewish about what I heard from Mr Trump. They (my Jewish friends) were behind Mr Trump, I shared with them that many things Mr Trump was saying sounded very like what Adolf Hitler said to the Germans before and during the Nazis time in power. Their response was it couldn't happen here in the U.S.. I pointed out that many in Berlin and Germany had the same feelings and still look at what happened. The general response I received was that Mr Trump would make business better and all of us would benefit. At that point my response was (yes it's from a movie as I find it very appropriate) Opinions vary.
Mr Trump has done nothing to change my opinion and I am thrilled by this opinion piece as the things my Jewish friends taught me are finally coming out.
I am almost 70 years old and white I firmly believe in the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and what the founding fathers put on paper just as I believe in the basic teachings of Christianity.
I hope most of my countrymen and women take stock of what is happening and save our nation.
Just an old man's opinion.
7
"People involved in the new Jewish left recognize that left-wing anti-Semitism exist" this is at least confusing. Why they have to "recognize" that? Are they anti-semitic? if so are they semitic people? what made them recognized that? People in the left is anti zionist and its vision for a greater Israel. As you stated this is not anti-semitism.
About the left and its presumed antisemitism, I want to point that the early bolshevik CC, that that made the revolution and fought against the white invasion, was composed for more than 90% by jewish people. They were all massacred by one of the few non semitic person in that group: Stalin. The strongest speeches against rampant Russian anti-semitism were done by Lenin who had a maternal grandfather born jew.
1
Within living memory the American right was equally against Catholics, Jews, and people of color. The left was inclusive, welcoming the American melting pot. If the right now seems to be pro-Jewish, beware. For the right, there's just one small step from idealizing Israel's current leadership, to banishing American Jews to the promised land. For many on the right, American Jews are merely a tool, useful for now, and easily cast aside when they feel The Rapture is near.
9
Almost all of my friends in Israel are descendants of either Holocaust survivors or refugees from Arab countries. They love Israel, for all its faults, because they know that without Israel they would be dead. Not sad, annoyed or outraged, but - literally - dead. Diaspora Jews can decide for yourselves where you stand on Israel, unlink yourselves and seek kinship wherever you please. Just remember though, if anti-semitism does somehow gain the unbelievable upper hand, as it has many times in the past, and you are in greater danger in America than can be imagined, as other Jews could not imagine it in too many other places, you will always be welcome here.
15
Netanyahu is no more MY prime minister than Trump is MY president.
10
"Jews have been taking to the streets because no amount of support for a foreign country can redeem what he’s doing to this one." Let's everyone keep this peroration absolutely top of mind, Let's see someone report, Episcopalians have been taking to the streets because no amount of Anglophile rapture in Brexit can redeem what he's done to an ally's stability. He isolates abroad what he betrays at home.
4
I can both be Jewish and not support the re-election of our guttersnipe President Trump. I just hope that the ultra-right does not violently attack American Jews again. Of course it will happen again, but with concealed carry guns there will be a defense.
6
Thank you, Michelle.
5
"Jews have been taking to the streets because no amount of support for a foreign country can redeem what he’s doing to this one."
Well said. It is his modus operandi with many minorities he goes after, where he appears to occasionally throw a slice of bread while taking away their loaf.
5
Michelle, when Trump said "I'm the 'chosen one', he was right.
But what he doesn't know is that he's the chosen one by the devil.
We know a lot of people have problem in accepting the presence of God or the Devil playing respective roles in their day to day lives.
But the White Evangelicals, who strongly believe in the kingdom of Israel as their ultimate destination, seem to equate the role of Devil with the God knowingly or without it.
So by accepting Trump as their long lost messiah who gave them majority in the S.C.O.T.U.S. and about to overturn roe v. wade, they're committing the ultimate sin of appeasing the devil himself instead of Jesus.
So for the young Jewish organizers, who're protesting at Amazon Book Store or at the migrant detention centers in California where they were crushed by the truck of an employee working there, this forms of protests are actually what Jews are meant for.
They read the entire history of Jewish migration which spanned thousands of years, starting in Egypt in 400 B.C. to 1945 after the expulsion orders given by the Nazis.
So for Trump to implore the Jews to vote for a party of an immoral and hateful president who openly courted the White Supremacists while they chanted old Nazi slogans like "Blood and soil" and "Jews won't replace us", is like saying "I love the Jews."
Yeah right, Trump.
Only if he watches the movie "The Exorcist" he'll find himself in the character of Linda Blair who was portrayed as someone possessed by the Devil.
4
Get used to it ...
"I think any (insert proper noun here) people that vote for a Democrat -- it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
3
Its just plain ignorant to say that what the right wing Israelis are doing with the Palestinians is protected by the lame misuse of the term anti-Semiticism. Netanyahu has allied with looney toons anti Palestinian racists. Netanyahu is desperate to win election so he can change the law that he is currently about to be indicted for. Anything that Trump is involved with somehow someway always comes back to someone being oppressed because of their skin color. The liberal Jews have seen in the US, Trump's performance on the Latino march to the border ended in mass slaying of Jews in Pittsburgh.
2
Continued thanks, Ms. Goldberg, for putting such a fine point on things.
I'd add that the media, including the NY Times, should eschew coverage about what a bellicose idiot Trump is; Americans either love him or hate him for precisely this.
Instead, we need to bring to attention what damage his spurious, capricious policies are doing, give him enough rope, and watch him hoist with his own petard.
2
Stephen Miller, time to look in the mirror.
3
@db2
No reflection there.
2
His son in law is Jewish, his daughter Ivanka is Jewish, his three grandchildren are Jewish, he's supportive of Israel. It's simply not true that he's anti Jewish.
6
Trump's plan to put the word "disloyal" in front of the work "Jew" was very very telling.
3
Credit where credit is due, Ms. Goldberg.
Trump is getting major help from the Jewish Right.
5
Jewish Americans have never left the Left. Look at polling statistics for the past few elections. Jews have in fact been the most left leaning group outside of African Americans. More Jew voted for Clinton than Latinos or Asians even.
2
Why would any jew vote for Trump -- a man who said that some of his followers who chanted, 'the Jews will not replace us,' were "good people"?
6
And only one political party (Democrat) is being labeled as the enemy of the State of Israel. Some of that labeling is unfair but it is pretty accurate as regards the Squad. Unless and until mainstream Democrats, columnists such as yourself and the NY Times Editorial Staff unambiguously denounce these Congresswomen with respect to their statements about Jews and Israel Trump will take a decent share of Jewish votes in 2020.
6
Thank you Michelle Goldberg for your insightful and timely opinion piece. It is good to know that Trump’s cringe-worthy diatribes about how he thinks American Jews should vote has turned out to be a clarion call for renewing old Jewish groups and organizing new ones to rise up with a united voice.
Your paragraph below clarifies so we’ll what Trump has confused:
“The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, but even more than that, it rejects the idea that Israel is the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity. A central value of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, as well as for much of left-wing Jewish culture more broadly, is “doikayt,” a Yiddish term that means “hereness.”
557
They occupied an Amazon in Manhattan, did they. Now there is a force to be reckoned with.
39
All these dogmatic critics of Israel’s historic but ignored and fruitless efforts to negotiate a pragmatic compromise with Palestinians who are not bent on destroying the Jewish State, ought to spend some serious time in Israel, talking with everyday Israelis from all walks of life and realizing Israel is about the size of New Jersey. I would submit that while Netanyahu is not very popular, Israelis are pretty realistic and saddened by how few options exist. The boundless arrogance, self-righteousness and egotism displayed by cosseted leftists passing smug judgment on the deplorable ways by which Jews manage, at least usually, to actually stay alive in the Middle East is fueling Trump’s re-election.
11
@Xanadu:
Do not accept everything that you have learned from Jewish sources (or any other sources) as unquestionably true. Some things are false and much is nuanced.
It's not that I am anti-Israel as there are currently 6,000,000+ Jews living there who are not going to go back to European or other countries. But there are also millions of Arabs who have deep roots in the area and we should not expect them to go somewhere else just to make room for Jews from around the world. The suffering of Jews elsewhere did not justify dislodging the Arabs living in Palestine.
Something has to change and the Israeli government has to make changes because they are the more powerful side.
It does no good to continually point out that Israel has offered many peace deals in the past but that the Arabs rejected them. They were not honest peace offers and it was known in advance that they were unacceptable to the other side. The offers were a sham.
2
“Anti-Zionism isn’t anti-semitism” is one of the most important and correct sentiments that especially a person of the Jewish faith can say. I hate Israel, but I don’t hate it because of its government’s inherent connection to Jewishness in its current state. I hope that leftys of all faiths or nonfaiths can come together to do good for the world.
12
@Cassie Jones. Cassie, please post a list of all the countries you “hate.”
7
@Cassie Jones. - It's disingenuous to say that they aren't the same -
Anti-Zionism IS Anti-Semitism warns Emanuel Macron
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/21/anti-zionism-new-form-anti-semitism-warns-emmanuel-macron/
The brilliant and eloquent Rabbi Jonathan Sacks from England on the connection between Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, Judaism and Israel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIoZvHU3wwg
The mutation of Anti-Semitism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UAcYn4uUbs
7
Ms. Goldberg, as a conservative, Jewish, New Yorker, I couldn’t disagree more. It is difficult to cite other world leaders who have accomplished more than President Trump for Israel and the Jewish people in such as short period. This modified version of a traditional Passover song recently circulated on the web, and perhaps says it best:
If Trump had only halted financial aid to the Palestinian Authority to protest their dangerous policies,
If Trump had only canceled the Iran nuclear deal and committed to thwarting an Iranian nuclear bomb,
If Trump had only acknowledged Israel’s right to settle throughout its ancestral homeland,
If Trump had only vetoed every anti-Israel resolution tabled at the United Nations,
If Trump had only withdrawn the United States from the UN Human Rights Commission and from UNESCO for their vicious anti-Israel bias,
If Trump had only moved the American embassy to Jerusalem,
If Trump had only recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal and undivided capital,
If Trump had only formally recognized Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights,
If Trump had only routinely denounced the scourge of Jew hatred,
If Trump had only said – as he did after the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre – that “those who are trying to destroy the Jewish people, we will destroy them,”
If Trump had only ostracized anti-Israel voices in America,
If Trump had only warmly befriended Israel’s Prime Minister and its people,
……..it would have been enough.
97
@Matthew Silpe
I am far from the only Jew who knows that what Trump does for Jews and America and what Trump does for Israel are distinct. Those who conflate these topics, almost exclusively the Jewish orthodox/reactionary right wing, represent a small minority of our people in this country.
379
A geopolitical shopping list. So many more issues are being exposed. When politics curdle people wonder why. You have faith in forms.
22
@Matthew Silpe
If trump has further sowed the seeds that leads to the downfall of a true democratic system in Israel, shouldn't that be more than enough?
If trump has made clear to one and all that the US is no longer an arbiter of genuine good faith and reliability in helping other to address and resolve seemingly intractable conflicts, shouldn't that be more than enough?
If trump continues to cozy up to awful autocrats and dictators in the interest of doing business and reaping obscene profits at the expense of others, shouldn't that be more than enough?
If trump doesn't manage to kill us all given his thoroughly petulant and impulsive actions through the untrammeled and unrestrained exploitation of natural resources, shouldn't that be more than enough?
If trump sees himself as a divinely anointed emperor whose job it is to act as the savior of the white race, shouldn't that be more than enough?
'Nuff said.
510
Anyone who trades in tropes of "Jewish disloyalty" after they've supported neo-Nazis marching Charlottesville chanting, "Jews will not replace us!" is, as we say, a meshugganah. But, when one of his fanatic followers is agitated by his hysteria about an immigrant "invasion" in a massive "caravan" and massacres eleven Jews in their Pittsburgh synagogue, we know we're dealing with a murderous white supremacist. No Jew should be fooled by the phony "fake" insults by a white racist who lacks any empathy and only seeks to divide as a strategy to retain power. To quote Trump, he's an "enemy" of the Jewish people who has demonstrated "great disloyalty" to all American Jews and has already unleashed a reign of terror where Jews have now perished in the synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway. As a member of a Holocaust family, I urge all Jews not to be confused, as my German-Jewish in-laws were, and say, as my mother and grandmother instructed me, "Never Again!'
827
@Paul Wortman Paul, thank you for this moving comment. Keep your voice loud and clear, please. This nation needs you, Michelle, all of us, united against a most bigoted and racist man and his followers. And we must all remember that silence and complacency is as lethal as outward heinous actions.
60
Ms. Goldberg's column couldn't have been more timely for my Jewish family. Our adult daughter will be starting her career as an asst. professor at one of the nation's well-regarded private colleges. It was founded by Jesuits and has a strong history with this religious community.
She will be starting next week. Yesterday, she telephoned us to express her concern and dismay that swastikas were sprayed all over some of the students' dorms there. Now, she was offered this job just shortly after the vicious murder at Tree of Life synagogue, and after expressing her concerns, the department head assured her that everyone at the college wanted her to feel at home there, and the school wanted to be an inclusive environment for all faculty and students.
Fast forward to today. My daughter is worried sick about the environment she will be entering. I thought back some 40 years, when I was in graduate school. These kinds of incidents, although sporadic, certainly didn't occur with the frequency they do now, thanks to this "president".
All of my family are native-born U.S. citizens. But this "president" and his vicious followers have made it plain that we are here only as long as they "permit" us to be.
Some of our older family members are Holocaust survivors. Now in my 60's, I grew up outside of Chicago. Never once before 2016 did I ever question my safety in this country. I know now that none of my family has any security here. And if it means moving, we will. Never again.
761
@Cordwainer Smith
Why should you contemplate moving?
How are you any less American than anybody else?
If I am not mistaken everybody residing today in the US- with the exception of Native Americans and perhaps Black Americans brought forcibly- is a coloniser.
31
@Cordwainer Smith Please don't move! Together we will overcome this horrible chapter.
54
@Cordwainer Smith
"And if it means moving, we will."
Please stay and vote this 'president' out!
63
Thank you for your column, most of which I agree with. As one who is passionately pro-Palestinian and anti Netanyahu and Trump, I am always heartened by accounts of Jews who oppose Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. I just wish that there were more. However, also as a passionate environmentalist, I actually support greatly limiting immigration which has been the driver of our large population increase (from @140 to over @320 million from the 1950’s unto today), and which is the greatest environmental threat today. The enforcement of border laws should be done humanely, but it must be done. Actions by groups which they might consider to be moral but which oppose enforcement of our laws , such as the sanctuary cities movement, are actions which I strongly oppose.
6
They are protesting deliberately yanking kids from their families in defuance of a specific court order and consent decree, putting them in cages, denying them basic health care and sanitation, and breaking our laws and treaties regarding refugees.
What’s yer beef, again?
2
@Wan: People often point to the vast amount of vacant land in the U.S. as a sign that we are able to be home to many more people. What they do not realize is that land is not the only issue. The more important issue is water.
We are starting to realize that we are running out of sufficient potable water to meet the needs of our current population.
3
Let us be clear, the Women's March is NOT anti-Semitic. It is an intersectional organization which means that its members will have a history working with other groups. Some of its leaders support the BDS movement which many people may consider anti-Semitic while others do not. At least one of its leaders has worked with Minister Louis Farrakhan who has made anti-Semitic remarks. She will NOT condemn him, but she neither agrees with nor condones his anti-Semitic remarks.
In the wake of this accusation of anti-Semitism, the Women's March has included a number of Jewish women in its steering committee. Women's March is doing on-going work to elect progressive women to Congress and to pass progressive legislation. Please do not continue to uncritically lay this unfair charge of anti-Semitism at the door of the Women's March.
18
Oh. So intersectionality allows for allowing the ideas and alliances of just the ONE bigot. Okay, sure. Except it’s actually three of the four directors, if Wikipedia can be trusted, who listened to Farrakhan yack about “the Satanic Jew,” declare that “all powerful Jews are my enemy,” and didn’t let out so much as a peep.
Could you maybe explain how THAT alliance doesn’t need to be denounced—after all, we must respect Views—but so many others do?
One wonders what your attitude would be if the three had attended, say, “Pastor,” Kevin Swanson’s liberal rant against gay people, and I say “liberal,” because he proposes waiting until there’s a worldwide Church, time to read the Bible, and a chance for repentance—before they hang you for being gay.
Intersectionality allow for that, does it?
10
Sadly, it has become unusual for me to find anything in the newspaper that makes me feel better about the world. On the contrary, often I feel more and more despondent as I read about the latest outrage. Thank you for this unusually hopeful piece.
26
To “loudly speak for ourselves" should also be a value of Christians, rather than allowing the extremist political wing of the extremist trump party, which calls itself "evangelical christians," to speak for them.
32
We don’t see them and we seldom hear from them, but there is a tremendous amount of money and power in the hands of people, independent of direct ties to Israel, that Trump and the right are directly and indirectly attacking. They will be a factor in 2020.
8
Thanks so much for this well-reasoned op-ed. It has succinctly made many of the arguments that we Jews are having across our dinner tables, emails and social media.
Especially compelling was the fact that the author didn't mention AIPAC by name but it was clearly represented in this paragraph: "There are, of course, plenty of established Jewish groups that make it their mission to speak for the community. But it’s hard to overstate the degree to which left-wing Jews feel alienated from and betrayed by the Jewish establishment, which often seems more concerned with left-wing anti-Zionism and rhetorical overkill than with right-wing white nationalism."
AIPAC has a lot to answer for by supporting Trump with invitations to speak at the National Conference, year after year. Like me, many American Jews will no longer blindly donate money because an organization is supposedly "good for Israel." If a group supports hatred or it's fomenters, they can count me out.
34
Thanks, Michelle. What about the work of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)? They are definitely doing the work you have described around the U.S., along with these other fine groups.
6
The left is alive and well and pretty aggressive. So, alas, is the right. It is the center which needs to be more vocal and encourage us all to come back to reason and pragmatism.
Trump is like someone watching a coin being tossed. He always bets on heads and that is proof that he does not actually know. But to assume that he is always wrong is also a mistake, for heads DO turn up half the time.
Maybe Greenland and America (and even Denmark) could benefit if Greenland were to become our 51st state. But we are not going to discuss whether this is a real possibility because we are too busy bashing Trump who made the suggestion in his usual clumsy way.
Trump is right that the Democrats should not join the war that the squad is waging against Israel. But as usual he speaks in a clumsy and non-constructive way. Please do not mistake the medium for the message.
5
@Ludwig the leader of Denmark said that selling Greenland is not a possibility. we can discuss the possibility but it would not make any difference.
1
@Jim Brokaw, your opinion is well thought out, and I appreciate your sentiment. However you left out one critical point. Jews in Israel, and around the world, have never declared their desire to kill every Palestinian, and then continually proceeded in an effort to do so. To be sure, the Israeli treatment of Palestinians warrants criticism, but the difference in actions taken by the Israelis against the Palestinians, and those against the Israelis by the Palestinians, must be included in any commentary on the ongoing conflict between these two groups.
11
Well said. And well thought out. On both the author's and the subjects' parts.
3
Thank you! Anyone belonging to a marginalized group--that's any group other than white males--needs to think long and hard about the dictator's approach to power: any dictator starts by singling out the weakest group of "other," and banks on the silence of all the other "other" groups. Then the dictator picks each minority off, one by one--usually starting with the poorest groups, then focusing on the poorest members of the remaining groups. But eventually, the dictator zeroes in on all the moneyed "others" and eliminates them as well. I wish people like Peter Thiel and Sheldon Adelson understood that Republicans want their money--and they'll take that money however they can. And when that money is confiscated, what do you think happens next? And yes, Republicans and Trump are fully capable of what you might think is morally impossible. Because they have no morals. They have no conscience. They have only greed.
21
I really despise all the titles, I am a human Jewish being in a human body. I am an American with all it means. Israel is just that and no one in my family ever talked about supporting it because it is not my homeland, America is my homeland. As a Jew I was raised with the values of Loving Kindness and every human is equal and wants and needs the same things. I will always think the Israel, Palestinian argument will never be resolved, EVER. I am extremely liberal, claiming no title, probably more progressive then left, maybe left of left whatever that may mean. And this gets back to the loving kindness for every human. No one is better then anyone else.
21
@stacey
As a Palestinian-Israeli peace activist for the past 39 years (who is also a Jewish being in a human body) you might be pleasantly encouraged to know that I personally have met literally thousands of Palestinians and Israelis who feel exactly as you express that you do, in your last two sentences. While there are overwhelming reasons to veer toward despair, this is where I find my inspiration and hope.
5
The boycott needs to be recreated in such a way that the existence of Israel is not questioned.
And what are Israel's main exports these days, anyway? It seems we hardly ever read about anything except their malware that is misused to undermine democracy and the press.
2
This movement turns the Ninth of Av, a day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the Second Temple and an exile of thousands of years, into a political event.
You can bet that none of these activists observed the 24 plus hour fast, none sat on the ground, few even know what the Scroll of Eichah is, let alone heard it read, and none recited Kinoth (the traditional lamentations).
Not every grievance that has an ethnic component compares to the Holocaust. Few are even in the same universe.
The left is entitled to their views, however right or wrong. But please, leave the Ninth of Av and Judaism out of it.
6
@QI it is not possible to leave Judaism out of this particular discussion. In your comment you make assumptions about the protesters without facts. You have no idea what they observed and did not observe on the Ninth of Av.
1
'The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, but even more than that, it rejects the idea that Israel is the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity. A central value of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, as well as for much of left-wing Jewish culture more broadly, is “doikayt,” a Yiddish term that means “hereness.” '
How did this idea work out for the Jews living in Eastern Europe in the 30s? Was the Bund a guarantor of Jewish safety? Wouldn't they have been better off had there been a Jewish state?
9
@Dedalus
The Jewish state was remarkably silent when a white nationalist gunman, spouting the same anti-Semitic language of hate used by Trump, marched into a synagogue in Pittsburgh and slaughtered 11 Jews in the Middle of Shabbos prayers.
3
@Dedalus Would the Jews of Europe have been better off if the had been a Jewish State?
My family is Jewish by North American standards in fact even by Nazi standards. However, many of my family can't claim refuge in Israel because we don't all meet the standards of the Israeli government. Wistful thinking about a different past opens a frivolous discourse.
I'm a direct descendant of successive generations of refugees. The only safe places, in my family's experience, are where there is rule of law and tolerance for diversity.
1
I welcome the resurgence of the Jewish left. In the 1960s, I benefited greatly my first weekend at the University of Michigan by finding an activist group led by Jewish students. They pointed out to me that federal funds were being used to build segregated housing in Ann Arbor.
As a political naif, my 17-year-old eyes widened in shock. Picket in hand, I joined the lineup protesting this abuse of federal monies.
That was the beginning of my political awakening. The Midwestern town where I grew up had two Democrats that I knew at the time, the town drunk and the political science teacher. My new Jewish activist friends introduced me to the complex and often confusing world of politics, for which I will be forever grateful.
275
@zekwean. Federal funds being used to build segregated housing. I assume you mean housing for anyone who isn't white. One one hand, it's good to build housing for people who cannot afford what's around. It could be considered discriminatory in both directions. Are they trying to stuff "others" to the side and not have them among the general population, which would be bad? Or are they building housing especially for "others" in that does one have to be non-white to get one of these apartments and if you are "other" then you don't qualify and you are on your own? Good or bad? Helpful or discriminatory?
3
So glad for this Michelle Goldberg piece.
Most American Jews know about rising anti-semitism, but, for the most part, without experiencing direct, personal harm from that.
Not any longer. The hatred and the marches and the violence is only going to increase. And, it is tolerated by our elected leaders, at the federal, state and local levels.
Even if you never go to temple, don't have a Seder, don't fast on Yom Kippur, and don't celebrate any Jewish holidays, the fact is that, if you are Jewish, you are Jewish.
Just as an experiment, years ago, in a big law firm, when someone would ask me about my family, I knew they wanted to know if I was Jewish. So, I told them, for 2 years, that I was Russian. They had no response. I did that because my ancestry, on both sides, was from Russia. I just wanted to see how they reacted. Because usually the "where do you come from" involves a country......Ireland, the UK, Italy, France ....whatever. I had no country except for Russia, where knew my relatives had been murdered.
And, after living in 8 different states, and working and socializing with a lot of great people of all backgrounds, I also found out that way too many of those co-workers and friends were anti-semitic. How did I find out? Because they made crass stereotypical comments and jokes. And, they did that in front of me because I have a WASPY name.
All American Jews need to reject Trump. We can help Israel, if we want, without supporting Trump.
454
"The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism."
What a breath of fresh air! We can long for the day when it's safe to criticize Israel's human rights violations without being called an anti-semite.
25
Yet somehow I get the feeling that if it were Palestinians and Jordan fighting for the East Bank it you would hardly give it a second thought.
2
Wrong. American Jews are not aligning with the left or the right. They are angry about anfi-Semitism on the left and the right. And it is insulting that you suggest anti-ICE activism is not purely and simply a reflection of Jewish values. We are not “following” left anti-immigrant groups; we are acting independently as Jews. Where, by the way do you place HIAS who has been very active in the anti-IcE protests as have been many members of AIPAC. This is not an alliance. Jews are protesting because “once we were strangers.” Jewish Currents needs to stop appropriating the movement.
6
Unfortunately there is an Adelsen, Kushner, right-wing messianic zealot division among the Jewish diaspora. A popular minority of them no doubt support Trump as does a popular minority of the American people.
8
Trump tries hiding behind Jared and Ivanka, as if support for his family translated to support of a larger group.
Trump tries hiding behind his rubber stamping of Netanyahu’s agenda, as if encouraging any far right political platform were laudable.
But the truth is, Trump encourages white supremacy, he responded callously to the anti-semitically motivated Tree of Life murders, and he recently condescended to Jews about supposed disloyalty for voting Democratic.
Donald can’t hide a prejudice that he keeps showing in deed.
13
Dear American Jews,
Sending you a heartfelt thank you! My eyes geared up as I read, Ms. Goldberg’s accounts of the Jewish Left’s rebirth. We, all of us, to rise up and stop our nation’s march into tyranny and ....fascism. I’m a lover of history and have read much about the Holocaust, how this evil began and how your People were massacred. Too many Americans, believe it can never happen here but I fear we are already on the way to repeating history.
I’m very grateful for the protests, the words of Ms. Goldberg and others who have been calling-out the evil in our nation.
Mazel tov!
17
As a kid, my heroes were the anti-fascist international brigades that fought against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War. I have read accounts that up to a third of the Lincoln Brigade consisted of American Jewish volunteers, both men and women. I am glad to have my heroes back!
17
Not sure there is much future in defining American Judaism as a wing of the Democratic party.
5
@Mark
Snappy line, but simplistic to the point of unhelpful.
Apt and timely commentary, Ms. Goldberg. Trump indeed embodies a kind of pro-Israel (or pro-Netanyahu), anti-Semitic movement that draws power on one side from Jews and on the other from white nationalists who have always attacked Jews. This is an odd concoction you describe, and it's good to hear reasonable people are not buying it.
8
"“it’s imperative that we loudly speak for ourselves because if we don’t the loudest voices that claim to speak on behalf of Jews will be right-wing evangelical Christians.”
Well done Michelle. Finally someone is saying out loud what has been going on quietly and deceptively for far too long. In the US, the Jewish voice was hijacked by evangelicals and right wing politicians under the benevolent guise of championing a distressed and endangered Israel. In fact these right wing politicians have gone so far as to invent Israeli enemies such as the three Democrat congresswomen named by Trump and the GOP as a threat to Israel.
14
"The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism."
Could someone forward this to Bari Weiss?
7
@Albert
I’m a pro-Palestinian statehoood activist (and have been so for 39 years) who is also a committed Zionist. It is actually in fact a racist, anti-Semitic proposition that Jews are not an indigenous people to Israel based on all the same anthropological evidence (place names, social history and pre-history, physical precense, archeology, etc.) that are routinely accepted not only in courts of law all over the world, but also accepted by average folk too. It is in fact a racist, anti-Semitic formulation to suggest that Tibetans in Dharamshala India should have the right of return and autonomy but Jews should not. It is in fact racist, anti-Semitic to suggest that the world should recognize the oppression of Native Americans and Palestinians, but not the oppression of Jews formerly throughout the middle-east and even currently in Iran, who wish to return to their historic homeland. It is in fact a racist, anti-Semitic formulation to suggest that African-Americans who descend from slaves should receive reparations, but Jews pushed banished from their homeland twice and then subjected to the Holocaust should not have the right to a safe homeland in Israel, especially one that was granted with a blessing by the United Nations.
There is racism and anti-Semitism in much of the anti-Zionist trope.
6
I am a Jewish woman. I am an American and therefore act in accordance with what is best for our country, and not what's best for Israel, although I am against BDS. It's the same old story of the Jews (and now Israelis) being scapegoated and punished for our success due to, in general, a culture that values higher education, family and hard work.
Michelle Goldberg and other NYT's journalists, can you please stop applying out-of-date labels to people who have progressive ideals? We are not "leftists"!
Similarly, people who embrace white nationalism and separation of families at the border are not "rightists". They are extreme and fascistic.
This knee jerk use of labels is being used by the extremists in the Republican party to poison the minds of Americans who are not political junkies against the Democratic candidates.
Didn't you do enough harm in 2016? STOP before you and the television media play a big part in Trump being reelected (or stealing the election) again!
11
I have to agree with your column, the Jews were on the list to be attacked next. Trump has succeeded in attacking and alienating almost everyone that is not a right-wing white nationalist. I identify myself as a person who was born Jewish but is really an Atheist Jew. I only rally to the support Judaism when it's attacked. Otherwise, I look at it more as a culture rather than a religion. In the end Trump betrays everyone that has shown him allegiance. Israel will find that out eventually when Trump sells them out too. Trump’s loyalty is to Trump alone. I find it depressing that so many Americans support his idiotic ideology and cannot or will not see though his narcissistic childish veneer. Trump is an anathema to being human. The Toddler in Chief must be defeated in 2020.
19
Well done, progressive Jews. The world needs more of you, together with more progressive Muslims and more progressive Christians. 'Progressiveness' leads to 'Progress'.
'The Faithful' of all religions have buried their heads, for too long, in the sands of complacency, defeatism and conformity. Now many of them realise those sands are 'quicksands' that will take all of them down, unless individual conscience gains the upper hand.
My sole hope for the future of this planet lies in the actions of conscientious progressives of all religions, because traditional religions have committed unspeakable crimes, and caused irreparable damage, over the past two millennia.
17
Finally! Jews need to unite and call out Trump and his supporters, particularly the wealthy ones. My wife can now feel better about being Jewish as Jews stand up to our “Bully-in-Chief.” For one raised Roman Catholic, I am very disappointed that dioceses throughout the US have not joined together to vocally condemn the actions of the President. I guess the bishops are too preoccupied enjoying the good life (see NYT’s article about WV Bishop) and fending off the claims of sexual-abuse survivors. Just remember with Trump or the Church: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
10
I had lived in Israel for 5 years, but returned to the US when I received a draft notice from the Israeli army and decided that the Lebanon adventure was an unjustified war of choice that I wanted no part of. That was in the 1980's and since then Israeli demographics have created a far right (and corrupt) ruling party that even Menachem Begin would not recognize. It is sad but reassuring that the Jewish Left is standing up. Furthermore, AIPAC needs to understand that they do not represent all American Jews (one of their leaders, who was a friend while I was in Israel, had the audacity to call me a self-hating Jew since I do not support his organization).
12
Kushner ( son in-law ) and Miller actively throw gasoline on the fires you're trying to extinguish. You need to deal with your own who never learned the bitter lesson from WWII.
2
American Jews, to use President Trump’s vocabulary, are real and genuine Americans. They “publicly pledge allegiance to the flag and to the Republic for which it stands”. That defines the singular identity of American citizens. American Jews are a distinct ethnic, religious, and cultural group. They do not now and never have pledged national allegiance to Israel as a nation-srate. Jews, like all Americans have multiple identities but only one nationality.
Yes, there are American Jews who choose to pledge personal love and allegiance to Israel. But, that allegiance is manifest by living in Israel, serving in the Israeli military and becoming Israeli citizens.
The essential point which Trump and his white-Christian nationalists can not fathom is each American citizen—forsaking all other kings and potentates—pledges allegiance only to America the Republic and its constitution.
The constitution does not define —indeed it proscribes—any religious, ethnic, or cultural allegiance as a prerequisite for citizenship.
Because the white nationalists insist that citizens are—by historical accident— still mostly white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, that entails the fallacy that America was “constituted” a nation that required citizens to be racially white, culturally Anglo-Nordic ,and religiously Protestant English language speakers. They think their own hyphenated WASP- American identity has no no hyphen and defines genuine American identity. Thinking simply does not make it so.
7
Our family lost a beloved cousin in the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. It was the worst attack on Jewish people in American history.
The attacker in Pittsburgh was ranting about the Central American "caravan" heading to our southern border, which according to the President of the United States, a well-known liar, was filled with rapists, murderers and drug dealers. The killer chose the synagogue because he had heard that Soros and Jewish organizations were behind this supposed murderous caravan, lies which were repeated by Fox News, Trump, and House Minority Leader McCarthy.
The perp of this slaughter used an assault-type rifle and high capacity magazines to spread the death more widely. These weapons of war were provided courtesy of the Russian-financed NRA and the Republican Party.
It is no coincidence that the worst attack on American Jews in history took place under Trump. Nor that the worst attack on Latino Americans in modern history took place under Trump. He has wiped his followers into a hatefest with vicious lies about immigrants and verbally-violent attacks on Blacks, Democrats, and other American citizens. When bigotry stalks a land, even if not the targets, Jews and other innocents will be caught in the crossfire. Now the bigotry is spread from the highest office. I hold Trump and the GOP in part responsible for the death of our cousin.
20
Goldberg, pretending to be nuanced, shows how black and white her thinking is. There is no monolithic “Jewish left,” as she suggests. Trump is certainly not responsible for creating the Jewish left, as the ridiculous click-bait headline suggests. Instead he has helped to exacerbate the “you’re with me or you’re against the Jews” mentality. This Op-Ed plays right into his hand by displaying the same lack of nuance.
I’m petrified about what Trump’s disastrous presidency means for the future of anti-semitism, for the re-mainstreaming of racism, and for the future of our democracy - and much more. I can also be intensely critical of Israel’s policies while simultaneously petrified about what the radical Jewish left gifts to new American politicians on the left who single out Israel’s admitted misdeeds with a lack of historical understanding and with utter hypocrisy. Simply because Trump is far worse doesn’t mean we have to choose between extremes. Goldberg quotes an editor of a new Jewish magazine: “they feel suddenly like it’s very important to express who they are as Jews in the context of their activism....” Not so easy. Jewish participants in LGBT marches are banned if they carry Israeli flags. Bald anti-semitism is rampant in Women’s marches.
Goldberg’s article exemplifies the complexity of the predicament of thoughtful liberal Jews in America today - choose your anti-semitism, right or left. It also exemplifies how our national discourse has lost all ability for nuance.
8
Have I been sleeping in a closet? I read this paper cover to cover almost every day and I’ve never seen the term “Latinx” that was quoted in two separate articles in this copy. I’d like a definition.
2
Dr. Google is your friend. Hurry along now!
@Steve Hellenschmidt
Any person of Hispanic descent, to get away from the inherently gendered nature of Latino/Latina. (We’ll let Spanish speakers deal with this issue for themselves in Spanish).
It’s been in use for a couple of years now, but is becoming more mainstream. Kind of like the singular “they”.
I’ve read a few articles in the DMN that are using it now too.
Trump is not Jewish. I don't think that someone who is not Jewish has the right to define what Jewishness is or how Jewish people feel or how he thinks that they "should" feel.
7
"Never Again Action was born in reaction to the perceived failures of mainstream Jewish organizations to stand up to Trump. In June, after Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referred to migrant detention camps as “concentration camps,” establishment Jewish outfits like the Jewish Community Relations Council rushed to condemn her. Rubin was incredulous. A militantly xenophobic government is building internment camps for members of ethnic out-groups, and Jewish leaders worried that critics of this project were disrespecting the memory of the Holocaust?"
Ummm.. logically the critics had very good reason to draw a distinction. The Nazi concentration camps were built specifically to temporarily house and ultimately MURDER all
Jews. No Jews were allowed to leave, their fate was horrific death. The camps here by the US border are the result of a failed immigration system that can't process the immense amount of people coming into the country at once. The treatment is unfortunately horrible sometimes but there is no edict of Final Solution to murder these migrants in gas chambers and crematoriums. Furthermore a migrant can leave and go back to their country anytime they choose. If only the 6 million Jews murdered by Hitler (may his name be erased) had that simple option.
10
It’s a shame that you actually had to explain this. I wish we could send a Holocaust survivor to the border to tell us first hand how our detention centers compare to Auschwitz so people could stop making this absurd connection.
5
I agree that Trump is disgusting and that with him as a so called friend neither Israel or the Jews need an enemy. Also that his behavior belies every norm and value of Jewish life. However that is not a reason for me to join the "progressive" left and the Israel hate brigade. Israel may well have a right wing government supported by religious lunatics at the moment but the big picture remains that it has been and is at risk every day from those who want to destroy it ( not live peaceful beside it) and I accept its security comes before any other consideration.
6
It is welcome news to hear that this type of Jewish activism on the left is taking place. Yes, the notion that Israel is the center of Judaism should be firmly rejected. There is no center, there are only Jews. Unlike a number of decades ago when the radical Jewish Defense League formed to protect Jews against antisemitism based on fears that I believe were delusional the threat now is clearly real. There have unfortunately been shooting is synagogues to prove the reality of the threat. All minority groups that are being targeted by the white nationalists such as blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, etc need to form alliances and avoid being played against each other. No matter how much people in these groups feel like Americans the white nationalists do not believe they belong here. Continuing to organize against white nationalism with protests, voter registration drives, etc is a must. People can't just say "never again" they have to act like they mean it.
3
"The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, but even more than that, it rejects the idea that Israel is the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity."
Amen. You really have to be a Jew (which I am) to understand the terror of persecution, which is part of our very soul. It comes when someone like our madman president labels you as not being loyal. I also feel much more aligned with Palestinians, who have always been persecuted by Israel.
Hopefully Jews can unite in this country and vote out Trump in 2020. Don't get complacent: Your one vote counts.
7
It is exactly the same kind of racialist and ethnocentric urges, and this notion that some kind of birthright is being denied by "others," that today's Republican Party so actively espouses, that gave rise to Nazism and Hitler.
I often ask a riddle: What is the difference between Hitler's concentration camps and Trump's detainment facilities? The answer is: "In Hitler's concentration camps, the inmates got to sleep in beds."
But I object to the characterizations of those who criticize Netanyahu and his right-wing policies toward Palestinian Arabs not only as "anti-Semitism," but also as "anti-Zionist." I find that Israel's right-wing government has done much that is utterly abhorrent and that it is the duty of all good people to criticize it harshly and take steps to curtail it, but I am neither an anti-Semite nor anti-Zionist. I see much to admire that Israel has accomplished, and I have absolutely nothing against Judaism as a religion or against Jewish people in general, indeed finding much of their beliefs admirable and worthy of following as precepts for living.
I do not tolerate the cruel oppression of any people based on their race or religion, as the government of Israel is now doing so overtly against Palestinian Arabs. And I will criticize it as strongly as I wish whenever the topic arises.
But I do not agree on the notion of Israel's "right to exist." Nations do not and cannot have rights of any kind. Only people have rights.
3
What's good for Israel isn't necessarily good for Jewish Americans, and its time to discuss this. Trump is exploiting this difference in interests.
Israel benefits from an increase in anti Semitism, since it promotes emigration, validates Israel's core raison d'etre, and raises the bar on abuse of Palestinians.
Trump knows this, and is leveraging it to the detriment of Jewish Americans.
6
Netanyahu has long ago figured that liberal Jews in America would intermarry and disappear. He has been somewhat accurate in that view. The orthodox Jews are Republicans, and the younger Israelis and Russian immigrants have kept Likud in power for most of the past 30 years. Israel votes for who they think will protect them and insure peace by making diplomatic ties with many countries. There is no occupation because everything from the river to the sea was provided for the Jews in the 1922 British Mandate of the League of Nations. Israel was created by a UN vote in 1947. Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria for 19 years until they were liberated in 1967. Israel tried five times to swap land for peace, but the Arabs do not want Jews as their neighbors. Therefore, what the liberal Jews in America think and who they support in our election is mostly irrelevant. The far right wing is more dangerous than the far left anti-Semites who are also the anti-Zionists. The Jews who are protesting anti-Semitism have a case, but the ones who are anti-Zionist do not. That much should be clarified, and Michelle should rethink her understanding of that fact.
2
Great piece, Michelle, as always. I am not Jewish, but the sudden, nearly hysterical concern about anti-Semitism coming from republicans and Fox News would be laughable if it wasn't so outrageous and dangerous. Just more gaslight from the cowardly right wing.
11
The pretence is Trump saying Jewish-American citizens voting for Democrats are "disloyal" to Israel, rather than his actual divisive intent to mean they are disloyal to him. He demeans "all" Americans in the process, not just our Jewish-American brothers and sisters. This is just another alarming demonstration of his racist, bigoted insanity which needs to be immediately addressed by Vice President Pence and the rest of his cabinet by invoking the 25th Amendment and declaring him unfit to be President of the United States. Enough is enough.
5
I love the sign on the photo accompanying this article: "Never again means never again for everyone".
I suspect the president never thought his ugly campaign to woo Jewish voters would backfire so spectacularly.
When you have no empathy or ability to put yourself in other people's shoes, its easier to put your own foot in your mouth.
9
Thank you for this column, Michelle Goldberg. It's comforting news. And it is true that only one political party is inciting white nationalists to commit murder. So Jews and non-Jews alike need to mobilize to drive Trump out of office and the GOP out of existence.
6
Spot on. Excellent opinion piece that reads like reportage. Even we few Israeli lefties that are still standing have been warning our leaders in Jerusalem the dangers of catering to the Evangelicals. In their view, Isrealis are the first in the line of God's final fire. We die, they get redeemed.
2
Thank you Michelle for calling him out on this.
Trump is a despicable human being. He will continue to be despicable and do despicable things as president and after he is no longer president.
His objective it to always try to divide people and turn them against each other. I think he actually gets his jollies doing so.
The fact that nearly 40% of voting Americans support and even endorse his behaviors.... makes them despicable as well. In this regard.. Hillary, for all her campaigning faults as a candidate, got it exactly right.
Unfortunately.. once he loses in 2020... he will not retire quietly... he will in fact start his own media business so he can continue to feed, and feed off of, his despicable base.
5
America must stand against this rightist mania..we must remain the example of staunch never ending dedication to a principled republic..unbending..ever the experiment in self governance..(borrowing).."bloodied but, unbowed"
2
As per usual, Ms Goldberg's column is both crystal clear and provocative-they make you think. She is usually the first one I read, a welcome respite from the drivel emanating from "The
Chosen One".
5
Ms. Goldberg, Toda Raba for your article, and as proud 'Disloyal' secular Jew, CO to the Vietnam War and absentee ballot voter, in lieu of the HK demonstrations, mass protests here in Europe vs. climate change & its deniers, I still ask myself, where are the 'across the board' mass demonstrations vs. 45? Don't get it!
2
There seem to be two kinds of Jews in this world (ok, many kinds, but...): Those who think Never Again means protect Jews against anything and everything that either is or could be conceived of as anti-Semitic, and those who believe that humans should never brutalize their fellow human beings.
Sadly, most Israeli Jews seems to be settling into the first category. Thankfully, as Michelle, voting records and commentators below illustrate, the latter are still in the majority in the U.S.
While I am still in the "leftist who happen to be Jewish" category, I am moved by the groups she discussed. May I add another?: HIAS- founded in 1881 as The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. They now work with refugees coming to the U.S. from all over the world, and are currently very active with Latin American refugees and asylum seekers. As they put it: "We used to take refugees because they were Jewish; now we take them because we're Jewish."
7
Yes, thank-you Ms. Goldberg. Zionism is not Judaism and Judaism is not Zionism. Note to Trump, please do not speak for this American Jew and/or others, for that matter.
7
Boom!! You totally nailed it!
2
Thank you so much for this. I have felt like an outcast since AIPAC and the Israeli government disrespected President Obama, and then supported Trump.
AIPAC and Israel forced me to choose: American or Israel. Now I know there are others like me and I can reach out to them, and support them.
I can disagree with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, but neither of them enlisted the help of a former KGB operative to help them get elected. Neither of them blamed Jewish money for imaginary caravans of terrorist invaders, which motivated the Pittsburgh shooter. And on and on.
9
I speak as a Christian to remind our Jewish cousins that there are a bunch of people who love Jesus and hate Jews. They may not be obvious, and probably are members of the local Rotary Club or Garden Club, but they are there. They are no different from those folks who hat and fear Africa-Americans but claim that they love and even respect the one that they know.
6
Thank you Ms. Goldberg. I believe trump is hiding his anti-semitism behind his support of Israel. In Charlottesville there was not good people on both sides!
3
"Anti-zionism does not equal anti-jew.". I would love to see billboards all over America with this quote. "Don the Con" is trying to manipulate Jews the same way he deceives and manipulates the Evangelicals. But, it doesn't appear to be as easy a sell. I suspect the searing memory of the Holocaust serves as a potent antidote to any allure Trumpism might offer to this community. Too bad that same memory doesn't serve the rest of the world as well. #Neverforget
1
Thanks Michelle - now can the rest of the human race stand up, since Trump is more anti-human than just anti-Semetic (ie pro-Trump anti-the-rest). In my experience Jews more than pull their weight in community activism: against our (Australian) refugee policies which are clickbait barbarism, against rampant development, climate change and for the preservation of our natural inheritance, in support of Aboriginal rights, in women's and gender rights, the list goes on and on. He's made a big mistake in assuming people would fall in line with his simple pro-Israel ultra-Zionist confection. Even as a complete outsider I know that that has been increasingly a problematic issue within Jewish communities and families.
The post-war left in Australia was very significantly comprised of Jewish people, and then was weakened by the cross-current presented by the Zionist movement, (not as a right-wing thing but as a compelling cultural concern). If its the same in the USA could it be said the Trump has helped resolve some of this internal tension, and awoken something he might have better left alone. Up the mighty Jews!
1
"Trump, the man who helped unleash a new wave of anti-Semitism, posed as the Jews’ savior because of his devotion to the Israeli right."
Which American Jews are buying into Trump's blatant hypocrisy?
Didn't DJT claim there were "many fine people" carrying those fire torches and chanting anti-semitic slurs?
3
Trump's statements and the actions of his administration under his direction are reminding many Jews why their ancestors fled from Eastern Europe, Nazi Germany, and other places. Are we disgusted and frightened? Yes because we know from our families how this works. The beginning of the Holocaust was similar to what is happening in America now. Then came the Nuremberg laws. After that well, if anyone has read the history of Europe from the end of WWI to the start of WWII and beyond, they know what comes next and it's not encouraging.
I never thought that I'd hear "Jews will not replace us" chanted in America. I never thought I'd hear a president of my country telling 4 women of color, only one of whom is an immigrant, to go back to where they came from. I never thought I'd hear any president interfere with a senator or a congressperson's travel abroad the way Trump has.
Predictably the GOP has said nothing and done nothing but support Trump. Perhaps they thought they could control him. They can't and the longer they allow him to get away with his Twitter tantrums, his obnoxious off and on the cuff statements the more entitled he feels.
I am afraid for my country. I am afraid that no matter what outcome the 2020 election presents us with Trump will find a way to stay or overstay in 2024. I don't think our country can survive another 4 years of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Mike Pence, or the rest of them.
8/24/2019 8:11pm
3
Thank you Michelle for a great Opinion Piece.
As you know you,me and our fellow 'Disloyal Jews', got a dose of Trumps reality this week . We learned that we are not only dual citizens of first, Israel and then the United States, but we also apparently have little going on upstairs and to top it off lack loyalty.
It took a day or so for Mr Trump to make it clear as to where that disloyalty lay, evidently we were disloyal to Israel in his eyes our 'home country' because we stood by while two Freshmen Congressional Democrats were critical of its administration. Evidently we are none too smart because we don't support him, and his White Nationalism. Oh and because he is such a good friend of Israel .
It is unclear if this is just Twitter Finger Trump mouthing off, or if there is motive for this the latest of one of his many Anti Semitic tropes, is it perhaps a nod and a wink to the White Nationalist elements that form his base.
I am assuming that he did not seriously believe that his remarks would attract additional support from Jews. But then again that is only stupid disloyal me thinking out loud.
As the article points out the left have always had a strong Jewish
presence not just in America but world wide. The behavior of Trump and his fellow Nationalists in Europe are stoking that fire and it is thankfully ablaze.
4
Maybe Trump sees Jared Kushner as representing all Jews and thinks they must all be right wing Netanyahu supporters.
2
@Larry Figdill
More likely it's some kind of subconscious Freudian tribute to Jack Mitnick.
Thank you Michelle Goldberg, and I wish you were correct, but with dozens of Republican donors of the Sheldon Adelson ilk I'm afraid the other 80% of us still can't fight back -- especially if we get mowed down by law enforcement while peacefully protesting. I'm not sure anything we can do will counteract the tidal wave of money coming from wealthy Jewish Republicans.
2
The concept of Doikayt (lit. "hereness", Yiddish = do-ikayt, do'ikayt; German = Da-keit; French = "ici-té") was central to the Bundist ideology, expressing its focus on solving the challenges confronting Jews in the country in which they lived, versus the "thereness" of the Zionist movement, which posited the necessity of an independent Jewish polity in its ancestral homeland, i.e., the Land of Israel, to secure Jewish life.
In other words, focusing on actively improving the lives of those around you where you are now rather than sitting in a passive heap, wishing you were in some "better" place.
I'm with you!
2
On the Left, people make an honest distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and vilify Israel as an oppressor. But on the Right, that distinction is much less apparent, and portraying Israel as an oppressor fits right in with the picture of Jews as oppressors. The anti-Zionism of the Left feeds the anti-Semitism of white nationalist anti-Semites.
Face it, American Jews, Trump spouting that American Jews should show loyalty to Israel is the equivalent of saying "Go back to where you came from". Call any of this stuff whatever you want....the bottom line is if you are not White and Christian, you are not welcome in Trump's America. And everything he and his followers do and say is to try and make it look like they are not who they are. For , in reality, maybe it's Trump and his supporters that should go back....after all, all they want to do is be like the people their ancestors tried to escape from. The concept of 'America' and all it stands for is the furthest thing from their minds. If they were the pilgrims today, they would kill off the Natives completely and tell every other race and ethnic group to stay away. Except for Africans. Slavery would be perfectly acceptable to them. The mistake that was made wasn't not dealing with the slavery issue when the Constitution was written. It was not including the right to own slaves in the bill of rights. You may not love the Democrats, but think of where we will be if this goes on another 4 years. And it's not just Trump. You need to send the message that enabling him is the exact same thing as being him.
4
“Never Again” did not only mean that we will fight “white nationalism.” It meant primarily that there will never be another mass extermination against the Jewish people (e.g., the Holocaust) in part because of the creation of the State of Israel - the Jewish homeland. That is the essence of Zionism. The ultimate stalwart against Jewish extermination.
There were hundreds of thousand of German Jews in the 1920s many of whom rose to high levels in government and business. There were over 3 million Jews in Poland before WWII (including my grandparents and father), who can trace back their ancestors for centuries.
There were hundreds of thousands of Jews in Morocco, Iran, Iraq and Egypt a century ago, now only a few hundred.
You know, the number of Jews in the world today has still not recovered to pre-holocaust levels?
There is no inconsistency in fighting injustice and supporting a strong Israel. And I don’t see a problem with fighting injustice even in Israel as it will ultimately make Israel stronger.
“Never Again” demands both.
4
It's not just 20 somethings. I'm a senior citizen and have always been a Jewish progressive. We stand up for justice and now must fight fascism in the USA. Glad to see our numbers swelling!
4
Wonderful piece. Still waiting for Jews who support Trump to explain why it is that their guy is the hero of the “Jews will not replace us” rabble.
2
Thank you -- we must continue to put all facets and ramifications of Rump's doctrine front and center.
C'mon Democrats: let's unify and support someone whose platform can beat this clown.
1
I would so very much like to hope that in light of the dreadful mistake which occurred on November 8, 2016, that all non-racists, non-sexists, non-homophobes and/or non-anarchists unite against the infant-in-chief to send him packing unceremoniously out of the Oval Office as he so very much deserves. It will be a great way to show the world that "WE'RE BACK TO NORMAL!!!"
Trump has now succeeded in alienating immigrants, persons of color, Jews, our traditional allies. He's the alienator-in-chief. If we were able to get into the minds of the rest of the G7 heads of state the cloud above their heads would read: How did the American people elect this crackpot?
2
I am a 65 year old secular Jew. I am amazed, at this moment, we are witnessing events I thought impossible in my country...
An American president is awakening white nationalists and neo-nazis with the support of his religious, and corporate enablers, and is fully supported by the state of Israel?
And, I am told by the same American president, as a Jew, I’m disloyal to Israel if I don’t vote for him. (As if I was never an American) And Israel is silent? Maybe because Netanyahu also believes this?
The camps on our southern border ARE concentration camps - and the state of Israel is silent as well? We are supposed to be insulted by the term but not there existence?
Ms Goldberg’s opinion is greatly appreciated. It also provided me with a list of organizations I can contact and support. And I will.
8
Fine article but please do not downplay the anti-Semitism of the left. And you’re making a mistake if you really think that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism.
6
My family came to America generations before the Holocaust. I never felt scared in my own country before. I do now. When the president scolds us for being "disloyal" to Israel, the subtext is that we are not Americans. My temple now has to hire armed security. "Never again" means the Guatemalans, the Japanese, the Muslims. And it means me.
629
@Blonde Guy
BAM—you nailed it Blonde Guy. Not only do I think that Trump’s policies (as lauded in the “Dayenu” verse rewrite in Mathew Slipe’s Times Pick comment to this article) have all kinds of underbellies that are ultimately bad for Israel in the long-term, but as you so well state, Trump’s support for racists of all stripes including Neo-Nazi’s, is not only frightening, and actually in truth un-American, in addition such anti-immigrant race baiting pronouncements and policies are also in and of themselves ultimately bad for a Jewish state.
(I’m sad and frightened too that our Temple in Santa Cruz now has to have security, and that swastika’s were recently plastered around San Jose State. )
46
I’m a lifelong progressive Jewish American Zionist and I believe the use of the term concentration camp was intended to conflate the holocaust with the detention of asylum seeking immigrants at our southern border. It was designed to get Jews’ attention so that we would be drawn into a discussion about both disasters and inevitably end up comparing them. And when you do that, you diminish them both. And if you diminish the magnitude of the holocaust, the agenda of the anti Zionist arm of the left is nourished As such, I strongly object to the use of the term. It diverts our attention away from the humanitarian disaster at the border and weakens the resistance.
9
@Pete Dylan
We can all hope trump does not intend to kill the migrants in the camps, but if rounding up a certain group of people, some of whom have lived and worked in the US for decades, and holding "indefinitely", does not Resemble concentration camps, then what does?
Not equality to the Holocaust, but very disturbing similarities.
1
Now indeed it may be hard to overstate the degree to which left-wing Jews feel “alienated from and betrayed by the Jewish establishment”; however, the American Jewish (let’s call it) community, including its more progressive wings, hasn’t unconditionally defied and ostracized the likes of Sheldon Adelson and by that timidity actually gave up the American Jews’ mantle to AIPAC’s and it anti-Universalist derivations.
The American Jewish community may be facing now moral-historical tantalizing dilemmas of choosing between progressive “hereness” (which actually appears more like the resurrection of the Jews as the carriers of universal values) and conservative Jewish particularism which cherish Israel as “the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity”, but a lack of courage on the side of the Left-wing and Democratic Jews to stand up against the Neocons and Republicans forces of evil when they emanated, and still do, from the influential top of the American Jewish community most probably had fundamentally changed the (moral and political) historical currents of American Jews.
Ms. Goldberg’s depiction of the revival of the Jewish Left is indeed uplifting, until one realizes that with Trump’s twisted loyalty-test, American Jews are reaping what they declined to uproot. And still, as a champion of Universalism, may the forces for good continue to fight against the expanding currents of rabid racism and anti-Democratic nativism and hope they’ll win.
177
@Meir Stieglitz
A variation on your theme, Meir:
What Michelle Goldberg calls the Jewish Left, I've thought of for 70 years as Jewish.
The Ten Commandments, including:
Thou shalt not bear false witness;
Thou shalt not steal;
Thou shalt not kill.
What about honoring these commandments makes a Jew Left?
And the teachings of Rabbi Hillel:
"That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."
What about living the teachings of Rabbi Hillel makes a Jew Left?
Jews who believe that, without these core tenets, no ritual can make them Jewish, are not on "the Left." They are simply Jews as they understand Judaism to be.
If they happen to vote as Democrats, that's only to the extent that Democratic politicians align with their own morals and ethics.
The real question is, how do any who call themselves Jews, align themselves politically with anyone whose words and deeds go against these commandments and teachings?
Jews "on the Left" wonder how any who call themselves Jews align with Trump, who, regardless of his own professed religion (Indeed, Trump's religion in Trump.), clearly has long renounced any tenet that Jews claim to adhere to.
Trump is not reviving the Jewish Left. Trump is reviving Judaism. And all who call themselves Jews will have to decide whether or not they actually want to be Jews, or they want to stand with Trump, and his allies.
68
@Robert Henry Eller
Thank you Robert for presenting Judaism noble core.
Twenty five years ago I spoke with Arthur Miller on the subject of “True Judaism”. However, according to accepted norm, Jews are defined by their Genetic association; adherence to Religious’ sanctified modes of behavior; participation in Socio-Clerical organizations; Attachment to Territory (Israel); accepting Tribal-embedded traditions; and by the Anti-Semites' criteria (a sufficient condition).
I elaborated to him that according to my belief, Judaism’s constituting tenets are:
A. Monotheism: There are no other Gods, Period.
B. Transcendentalism: God doesn’t reside in the world – God is beyond material existence; therefore, God doesn’t controls neither history’s direction nor human destiny.
C. Universalism: The Categorical Imperative (Rabbi Hillel teachings being a precursor) is the Jewish guiding light (Jesus’ gospel added a humanistic spirit).
Adherence to these constituting tenets is not an easy way, not at all; thus, only a select few, among self-determined Jews, and like-spirited “Goyim”, are truly of the Jewish fate.
13
@Meir Stieglitz
A very insightful and very pointed analysis!
Not only should Adelson be ostracized, but so should the too-long list of jews who have happily joined the tRump administration and supported that evil man.
22
Thank you Michelle Goldberg for your column about the Jewish Left. You captured what so many of us are feeling during these Trump/GOP nightmare years. While I am not a religious Jew, I am acutely aware of my heritage. That heritage is not only my Eastern European roots - my grandparents came here to escape persecution in Russia - but also our involvement in the development of workers unions and the fight for civil rights. On the Upper West Side there is a street called Freedom Place which commemorates the 3 civil rights workers who were killed in the South during the 1960s. Ironically Freedom Place is a block away from the “Trump” branded buildings near Riverside Park. Freedom Place has been there longer than Trump and will be there after he is gone (hopefully soon).
20
Liberal,-, and equal justice-, minded Jews were the courageous ones who accompanied African-American heroes, who went south, and around the country, to fight Jim Crow, in the 60's. Welcome back! We've missed you! Blessings!
29
The only person I unfriended on Facebook over politics was a dual citizen of the US and Israel. He supported and voted for Trump because he thought it would be good for Israel. I will never forget that decision. He betrayed the country he lives in , knowing what a monster Trump has always been, for the sake of another country that he does not live in. I don't even care what this person now thinks. Perhaps he has doubled down on his support for Trump.
30
So true! When will Catholics in the United States do the same? We need to organize and stand up for social justice and not let leaders hijack religion and use it against us to divide us. We need to keep government and religious dogma separate and focus on humane treatment and respect for all, even when it comes to hard issues like abortion. Please rethink your support of Trump and Republicans who support Trump. They are creating an environment of division and hatred.
33
@Silvana Catholics are the only organized Christian group who have stood up against kidnapping babies and putting them in cages. Other Christian denominations, if not in alignment with the extremist political wing "evangelical christians," spinelessly claim either "both sides-ism" or "it's not my place to judge," as if "judging" has not been the primary output of Christians for 2,000 years.
1
Thanks for the editorial. Trump is a bigot and likely a racist. With an Daughter who is a convert to Orthodox Judaism he is not likely an anti-Semite himself. While I do not like Trump he at least is trying to get out of Afghanistan and stopped a war with Iran. We could easily have Hilary like Bush II involved in a major war with Iran. Realize that there are a lot worse American Presidents than Trump, indeed recently. Be thankful for small favors.
1
The fact that he has a Jewish son in law doesn’t make him less of an antisemite. Remember, Ivanka married into a dynasty of unscrupulous developers just like hers. All the Trumps can see are the dollar signs. Don’t expect anything but garbage from them.
5
@Michael Cohen No, there are not "a lot worse" than this malignant parasite. Not even W, who lied us into a 9 year, trillion dollar war, was as funamentally rotten as this sniveling little "man" currently in our White House. And the projection that Hilary would have "easily" involved us in a war against Iran is ridiculous: Iran was fulfilling its obligation. She supported the deal. Hilary is not irrational and ignorant.
I'd be "thankful" for the "small favor" of watching the parasite choke on a Big Mac.
2
@Michael Cohen
Absolutely not. trump is the worst.
Why do think Hillary Clinton would have us still in Afghanistan?
trump has weakened or eliminated laws regulating bank safety, air and water pollution, endangered species, sensible trade policies, defense treaties with our allies, protection for workers, sensible taxes for the rich, reproductive rights, LGBT rights etc. These have always been Jewish causes.
He has Strengthened Israel's Right and eliminated any chances for peace.
And finally, he has stoked anti-Semitic attacks in the US.
America needs to confront the insanity staring it in the face: The irrational "evangelicals", who believe that God sent Donald Trump to be their president, are also anxiously awaiting the end times. Their vote counts the same as any rational member of the electorate. They crave Armageddon and the apocalypse. Praise the Lord!
21
Members of his extended family notwithstanding, I'm pretty sure Trump makes these statements about Jews because in the final analysis (though I realize using the word "analysis" in anything connected to Donald may be giving too much credit) he really doesn't believe they should be in this country, just as he doesn't believe African Americans, Asian Americans, Latin Americans, etc., should be here, either.
That's why he says to Jews that Israel is "your country"--I'm sure he, and a lot of his evangelical cohorts, would like to see all the Jews over there--for those cohorts, the better to start the End Times.
It apparently doesn't occur to him that for New York and Florida and California Jews, and all the ones in between, whatever their opinions may be about the West Bank or Gaza or the Israeli government, the United States IS their country.
Of course, this idea of a dual loyalty, or a fundamentally greater loyalty to religious practice, has been an anti-Semitic trope for centuries, and starts with the mistake of thinking of Judaism as a race or a nation, as opposed to a religion (it is, in fact, many religions, just as is Islam and Protestantism). So a pro-Israel government stance is not inconsistent with virulent anti-Semitism from a Trumpian perspective--I'm sure he'd like to expel African/Asian/Latinx Americans to all their "true homelands" too.
Bigotry and xenophobia'll do that to ya.
19
@Glenn Ribotsky
Being a Jew is being a part of a people,a family and a nation. Not once in the Bible are Jews referred to as a religion. That is why a Jewish atheist is as much a Jew as a long bearded black hat wearing Hassid . Trump thinks Jews who vote Democrat are being disloyal to their people. That is ridiculous.A Jew who is against the Netanyahu govt is not acting any more disloyal to Israel than an American who is anti Trump is being disloyal to the USA. A Jew who seeks the destruction of Israel as the Jewish State is in my opinion another matter. My Jewish family comes from Germany were I was told Jews were even more accepted as valued citizens than in the USA . Their loyalty to the “fatherland” was for most of them over all other allegiances , and we all know the painful reality so I can’t be objective re Israel.
Michele thank you for introducing doikayt. May it be so for all of us.
1
Those who believe that Donald Trump is "the chosen one", "King of Israel", "the second coming of God", etc., and that Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing supporters are the right leaders for Israel, would do themselves, their fellow Jews and Christians, and presumably Israel a huge favor by making aliyah (emigrating to Israel) and taking as many of their fellow believers with them as possible. They are certainly doing us no good here.
11
The Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism have no legal standing in Israel. About 90% of American Jews are affiliated with these branches. Considering that there is a growing rift between the more secular American Jews and the Jewish state, why would Trump question American Jews’ national priority?
And then there’s the Trump family’s highest priority...money. The Kushners’ have extensive financial ties and investments in Israel, and particularly in the settlement developments; investments which Jared Kuschner originally omitted from his financial disclosure filings.
17
Right on! Michelle! Very proud of you.
3
Lately I’m believing more and more in fate. That we have zero free will, and are nothing more than meat puppets riding along invisible rails.
If it’s true, and I actually think it is, then Trump is no different. He’s a puppet, and he’s playing just another role, like all of us, in each other’s destinies.
I don’t think he’s a bad person. At the end of the day, nobody is. Some are just lost, that’s all. And some that are lost just inconvenience everyone else along the way.
I know it’s a bit silly. But maybe we need some silly. You gotta admit: we live in bizarre times. Donald Trump is president. Laugh about it. It’s actually funny.
1
@Jack Lee
Funny when he was a reality tv star as president not funny
How many right-wing Jeews close their eyes to Trump's racism because he moved the embassy and favors annexation of the West Bank? How is moving the embassy and annexation going to help the IDF win the next war with Hamas and Hezbollah?
6
My kids are Jewish, and they, like me and their mother, lean left politically. My wife and I have been trying to help them negotiate a way to remain true to their inclusive, tolerant, environmentally conscious political instincts and at the same time not abandon Zionism.
I looked it up and discovered that when a Jew makes aliyah - which is to say, invokes her right to Israeli citizenship - she can receive an Israeli passport in as little as 90 days. Only half jokingly, I suggested to my sixteen year old daughter and budding climate change activist that she start a movement encouraging young, liberal, diaspora Jews to troll the Israeli right by securing Israeli citizenship in order to vote Labor and push for an end to settlement and a formal peace agreement. They wouldn’t even have to live there. (Though I can think of worse places to spend one’s twenties than Tel Aviv.)
6
It is highly disturbing reading this.
I speak both Yiddish and Ladino, my whole family are Asheknazic and Misrahi Jewish refugees and immigrants, yet I don't make it in an issue in political discourse. (This very rare exception is only to rebut what you’ve written). I don't interlace my writing with Yiddishims, because all anyone needs to know is that I'm an American.
In saying: "For Jews on the left, fear has been magnified by insult as Trump, the man who helped unleash a new wave of anti-Semitism, posed as the Jews’ savior because of his devotion to the Israeli right."
What about the fears of the overwhelming number of Jews who aren't part of your left makes them any less legitimate?
This reads like a mirror image of Ben Shapiro, who can't get through a sentence without saying "I'm an Orthodox Jew", and who legitimizes Evangelical Christian anti-Semitism. Trump's accusation of Jews being "disloyal" to Israel was for Evangelicals, not Jews.
You ignore a fundamental truth that American Jews are Americans, meaning 84% support Democrats based upon what they believe is right for America, not Israel, and the small remainder vote Republican because they're social conservatives.
To all the Jews I speak with, very liberal and despising both Trump and Netanyahu, your writings are concerned solely with your legitimacy with the far-left, and with you grievances with a tiny Jewish right which you claim, wrongly in invoking a trope, is an all-powerful "Jewish Establishment".
4
Excellent editorial. But do not look at the Progressive Left as so innocent. They don’t acknowledge the history of the Middle East. BDS demands the right of return, but does not recognize the 1 million Jews expelled from Arab countries in 1948. BDS won’t buy Israeli produce, but they love the Israeli tech innovations. But Trump remains toxic to the world and must be defeated, at any cost.
8
I don't think that the current division in Israel and between Jews is unique. There currently seems to be a struggle between fascism and democracy in many different cultures throughout the world, for instance in India and Brazil.
2
Michelle has once again given voice to this, and countless other, American Jew’s thoughts.
Thank you for your brilliant and deeply insightful opinion.
8
Today, I’m Jewish, if you’ll allow me. Everyday, I’m a raging Feminist. November 3, 2020: a day that shall live in victory, freedom and deliverance. For us ALL.
7
Right on!✌
Thank you Ms. Goldberg for this article. The rebirth of the Jewish activist left will help stem liberal Antisemitism - even though it be far less of a threat than conservative antisemitism. Trump is obviously feigning love for Judaism as it plays well with his conservative Christian base that is chomping at the bit for their end of days prophesy to arrive in their lifetime. These credulous fools would be happy to see the modern world rent asunder - and I include Christian/Jewish/Hindi/Muslim rightists who all think they are Gods chosen ones. The liberals of all the worlds religions have far more in common with each other than any of them do with their own conservative brethren.
5
I am proud of my fellow Jewish Americans for standing up. The defense of human and civil rights is core to our values as Jews.
But the defense of human and civil rights should be core to the values of ALL Americans.
I am horrified that one of our two major political parties is lying down for a white supremacist who is increasingly cruel, vindictive, and also unhinged. His threats against China, American corporations, the international trade and political order, the environment, poor people, minorities, immigrants, asylum seekers, children and women is appalling and unAmerican.
Let's all stand together in defense of our American values, regardless of where we stand on the political spectrum, regardless of faith or creed. Some things are universal, some truths we hold to be self-evident.
8
I am a Jew. AOC was spot on when she labeled the ICE incarceration practices concentration camps. Yes, the Holocaust is the Holocaust, but that doesn't mean that the full horror of the Holocaust is necessary to label government-sponsored isolation and cruel incarceration of people as concentration camps. Not only do we not have clean hands today, but the filth of concentration camps is part of the history of the United States. Japanese-Americans in WW2, by FDR of all people. Native American "reservations." Urban redlining. Jim Crow (old and new). All of these and more must be included when we stand up and say NEVER AGAIN.
12
It is naive on the part of Jews to believe that left-wing anti-semitism is not "threat on a par with right wing Jew hatred."
But, they are different.
Right-wing antisemitism, at the moment, is a greater physical threat to Jews who are in a synagogue or other specifically Jewish institution. But, the purveyors tend to be isolated white males who have little or no political support.
Left-wing anti-semitism, in contrast, has a major presence on college campuses, and on the left more broadly. The "Squad," openly anti-semitic members of Congress, though few in number, seem able to mobilize other Democrats. The Democrat controlled Congress was unable to muster support condemning anti-semitism. Rather only a watered down resolution condemning bigotry in general could pass.
I don't see Trump as anti-semitic, although he has a strong need to stereotype individuals and groups. Trump's comment that Jews are disloyal is an expression that he feels that they are disloyal to him and more likely to vote for his opponent. In that, he is correct!
Like any proper authoritarian leader, he demands unswerving loyalty and becomes enraged when he does not get it. Few of those who have served in his administration have escaped being branded disloyal once they have departed.
5
This is a very good and encouraging piece. I must admit that until a few years ago, Jews were well
integrated into American society. We were pretty much white people, I thought. Apparently not to Trump nation.
I am enraged about Trump and his thousand of enablers (including some pusillanimous media people). I am enraged about Netanyahu and how he has perverted the ideals of the Jewish home.
But I must save some anger for the retrograde organizations that purport to represent American Jews. For decades these “leaders” have studiously ignored the toxic growth of right wing anti-Semitism while rushing to condemn the most obscure bad statement on the left. The ADL has been a honorable, though lonely, exceptions.
And now synagogues are being bombed, in the climate of hatred that the president has encouraged. But the Major Jewish Organizations (.their term) rush to condemn someone who uses the term “concentration camps” for the horrorshow on the border. That is a deeply warped sense of values.
I only hope that the voices of decency speak up loud and clear.
8
Food for thought on the ‘honorable’ JDL.
http://bostonreview.net/politics/emmaia-gelman-anti-defamation-league-not-what-it-seems
Half of all Jewish people are no doubt more conservative than the other, more liberal half. That said, given the acts that The Billion dollar Loser appears to be in inspiring in his most hard-core followers, Jewish Americans (as well as Hispanics, atheists, single mothers, LGTBQ, anyone who's not up to the hard right's "that's the way it aughter be" standards need to put aside some squeamishness and unite against the greater threat.
6
This is the best news I’ve read today. Thank you.
3
No one should be complacent. Anyone can become a scapegoat for political opportunists.
Many anti-Hitler Germans were forced to flee, then lived day to day because they were denied work permits wherever they went.
Erich Maria Remarque wrote eye-opening insightful novels about their plight.
2
We should all remember that Netanyahu does not represent the citizens of Israel any more than Trump represents the citizens of the US.
Being anti-Netanyahu is certainly not anti-Semitic, but many scholars have made the case for anti-Israel now becoming the latest form of anti-semitism.
The sooner the left sheds the grossly simplified and mistaken view that Jews in Israel are white Europeans oppressing an indigenous people, the better. The majority of Israel’s citizens have recent origins in nearby Middle Eastern countries from which they were expelled. The Arabs residing in The West Bank have economic opportunities and freedoms which are superior to any other country in the Middle East. In fact it is the Palestinian Authority which forcibly prevents them from publicly expressing their discontent.
4
The very term progressive used by the left to con the electorate into thinking progressive
equals modernity is a use of the English language that is outrageous when the real hope
of progressives is a much more totalitarian government telling us all how to live and what
is appropriate behavior.More like Orwell than the progressives would ever admit.
1
Trump proclaims that American Jews who vote Democratic are "disloyal" (later qualifying that he meant "disloyal to Judaism", - once someone obviously took him aside to explain the centuries-old anti-Semetic trope of the "disloyal Jew" with regards to national citizenship).
How ironic that in truth, any Jews who plan to vote for Trump (or support him in any way) are the ones who are blatantly "disloyal" - not only to their faith, but to their nation as well.
And that goes equally for every other American too. One cannot support Trump and still claim to support the major tenets of ANY faith (honesty, humility, forgiveness, kindness to others, etc.) - not to mention core American Ideals - such as pluralism, egalitarianism, tolerance and "E Pluribus Unum".
2
Am I the only one who believes that Trump sold the USA and its ruination to Putin if Putin would get him elected President in 2016.
5
Agreed, Michelle, good point. But no words to directly shame and aim ire at the reprehensible Ivanka and Jared? Why give a pass to those two?
(I'm a white, non Jewish person just wondering.)
3
Until the events of the last three years, and in spite of the long history of a relatively low-grade Jew-hatred, the United States has been the best place for Jews to thrive in modern history. Where else have we been freed to contribute in myriad ways (cultural, scientific, and, yes political)to such an extent, acheiving success in all the ways far out of proportion to our actual numbers?
I am old enough to thoroughly understand the post-Holocaust reactions that made the establishment of Israel an absolute necessity, while somehow the notion that the rights of the long-term inhabitants might be short-changed (and cause violent reaction) seemed less important. That oversight, and the egregious error made when letting a historically dubious claim (Judea and Samaria have not been Israelite for almost 2000 years) poison the political atmosphere in Israel itself, have become the "return of the repressed' (h/t Sigmund Freud), showing that the spirit with which the ancient prophets castigated the rulers of ancient Israel for their folly and their arrogance, is just as relevant today as it was in the time of Isaiah.
3
Jews on the right and in the left are all one family. Israeli politics shows that as well. Being anti Trump and or anti Netanyahu is not being disloyal to ones family. Being against the Zionist idea of a Jewish homeland in Israel seems to me foolhardy and or/ignorant of history (both secular and biblical)than disloyal as violent persecution and/or disappearing as a distinct people thru assimilation has been the result.
1
I deplore the “use” of Tisha B’Av for political use.I’m at Tour guide in Israel and my group of tourists witnessed the riots on the Temple Mount from the overlook point on the mount of olives . Shame on those who cynically employ religion for political gain
Jews doing direct action on Tisha B’Av to call out the Trump administration and its corporate supporters wasn’t cynical, it was courageous, defiant, symbolic, and necessary. Lives are at stake.
It seems that there in Israel your Judaism is a relic, a museum piece. Here in the US, religion is a means to engage ethically with the evils of our present day, to gather together nonviolently to call for social justice.
So much is packed into this editorial. Thank you... there are many things here that I was unaware of. I truly hope this catches fire and spreads beyond the Jewish Left.
3
Welcome, welcome, welcome to the young activists of the Jewish
New Left. I just turned 70 and have been an activist since being radicalized by the war in Vietnam.
Humanity and Mother Earth needs their vision, vitality and courage. We need a new generation of radical leftists of all origins to rescue the future from the Fascist currents
in this world. You give me hope during these dark and dangerous
times.
Much love and respect.
Michael Bresnahan
5
The Jewish Left is a seething mass of contradictions. They impose unrealistic expectations on Israel, while failing to recognize and support the necessity of supporting its right to exist. They actively support its enemies without thought of the consequences of doing so. They feed avidly on propaganda and slanted news media reporting, without understanding the reality of life in Israel. They constantly presume to speak for everyone, and think they must change the world, while meanwhile doing far too little for their own people.
3
The headline said "Trump" without the president; that should be standard operating procedure: just "Trump"
3
2016 was a wake up call for this secular Jew. I never saw it before but it is so clear now. They barely tolerated us and now they don’t feel they need to hide it.
I will spend all of my free time working voter registration - and hopefully a lot of other folks will too.
10
Great article, I am very tired of the Jewish right, tired of hearing that if I object to the way Iseral treats the Palestinian I am anti Jew, tired of hearing how Trump is the chosen one to save Iseral while he is just making the place look foolish, tired of hearing how great the PM is when he appeared to be a crook. Hope to hear a lot more from the left.
9
"The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, but even more than that, it rejects the idea that Israel is the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity. "
If the Jewish left truly believes that it misunderstands Zionism. Israel can't be the guarantor of Jewish safety for Jews all over the planet, but it can be the refuge and destination when none other can be found, as well as being a home for half the world's Jews. Being anti-Zionist is effectively saying that Jews everywhere are totally at the mercy of others. That was the situation in the 1930s (and for 19 centuries before) and well into the 1940s. We know how well that worked out.
Being anti-Zionist at the present time means one favors the destruction of the only functioning, successful, Democracy in the Middle East. Why would any sensible person consider that a worthwhile goal? But it is the expressed goal of Hamas, which won the last Palestinian elections, and is designated a terrorist organization for very good reasons.
Note that being a Zionist does NOT mean one supports the current or any other Israeli government. I most certainly don't like Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition. I am a US citizen who despises Trump and the Republican party. Does that make me anti-American?
7
Well written.
Thank you
2
I'm Jewish, and yet I'm far more worried about the left. It's the left that prevented a resolution about antisemitism from passing the House without being watered down. It prevented a resolution being passed naming the perpetrator of antisemitic tropes for fear of angering the left's progressive caucus. The future of mainstream antisemitism in the US is on the left and that is what worries me. Trump is a passing president, the left is a foundation that is growing. The left in the US is becoming "corbynized" and if nothing is done about it, you will have a party similar to what the UK has, a party welcoming to antisemites.
4
When Trump talks about Jews being "disloyal", he isn't interested in any Jews, left, center, or right, as he's talking to Evangelical Christians.
It is why Trump only seems obsessed with 3 percent of Americans, accusing the vast majority of "disloyalty" knowing they always support left of center politics, and have a long history as the victims of right-wing genocidal "nationalist" movements. It is why, with very few exceptions, Jews regard the right as unquestionably the greatest threat to Jews, and all other racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.
At the same, Jews are shaken and distressed when members of left engage in anti-Semitic rhetoric. Is it the same as white nationalism? Of course not. However, no one gets to tell Jews they've no right to be scared.
Trump is not appealing to any Jewish solidarity with Israel. He's saying to Evangelicals that in this, as in the fight against LGBTQ rights, and reproductive rights, he's an agent of divine will.
When Trump accuses American Jews of "disloyalty' he means they're disloyal to the role Evangelicals have assigned then in the great Christian redemptive saga. It has nothing to do with Jews abrogating supposed Jewish self-interests in Israel, but is an unholy betrayal of the Christian God, and Evangelical belief that the Holy Land is theirs.
Trump’s not interested in Jewish opinion, he’s exploiting Jews to express solidarity with Israel's, and God's, truly loyal followers, the Evangelicals, who he needs to win in 2020.
5
As a non-Jewish observer with many Jewish friends who are Republican and many who are Democrats, I suggest that “the Jewish Left” described by Michelle Goldberg never went anywhere. They simply didn’t make as much public noise as the Republican Jews.
The Democrats may be secular or may attend the same synagogues as the Republicans, but they have detested Donald Trump from the start.
3
"...Israel..... isn't really an ally, much less an ideal."
Thank you, Michelle.
This needed to be said 30-40 years ago.
I'm not Jewish, and in my 71 years, I've gone from "Bravo Kibbitz!" to "Bring down that wall!"
It's really gotten easier in the last two decades to NOT support Israel.
Raised Fundamentalist, and leaving when a young woman, the Republican/Evangelical support from this country to "Israel, Right Or Wrong!" has revolted me.
I am anti-thug.
Every year Israel has gotten more thuggish.
Worse, they have allied themselves with the most thuggish of this country.
As a woman who is not equal within this country's Constitution, I am unable to support any patriarchy. Any.
Israel has, over the last 3 decades become increasingly theocratic and I have read the accounts of how women are treated there: Both in everyday life, the military, and civil laws and it is creepy.
It is time - long-overdue! - that if there is to be a change of perception in THIS country of any group, it is time to move, NOW. This country is being led by mad-men, patriarchs of the universe and they hate any law that opposes them.
Only time will show whether this has all waited too long.
This new and shiny SCOTUS will eat every leftist in the coming years even if Trump goes right now.
I'm not sure that THIS country will survive.
I'm not certain that Israel will either.
And, someday, Michelle, write a column on the difference between anti-Semite, anti-Jew, anti-Zionist, and anti-Israel.
Thanks.
6
That Trump plays to his white nationalist base is quite clear and as such we know that at its core these white nationalists are anti-Semitic (as in the chant “Jews will not replace us”). That being said a lot of those people who are “anti-Zionist” are indeed anti-Semitic. After all what does anti-Zionist mean? Opposition to Israel as a homeland for Jews? As much as I despise the occupation of the West Bank and the oppression of Palestinians in Gaza I still believe that Israel as a Jewish homeland is necessary. I suppose that makes me a Zionist. And since virtually every Arab, Islamic state kicked out their Jews doesn’t that demonstrate the necessity of Israel? The Netanyahu regime is anathema to me but so is BDS which is, at its heart, anti-Semitic. At the end of the day my loyalty to the United States is demonstrably clear. Trump’s loyalty to anything or anyone but himself is open to,debate.
3
Well expressed. Thank you.
“There are, of course, plenty of established Jewish groups that make it their mission to speak for the community. But it’s hard to overstate the degree to which left-wing Jews feel alienated from and betrayed by the Jewish establishment, which often seems more concerned with left-wing anti-Zionism and rhetorical overkill than with right-wing white nationalism.” Yes, many of these organizations seem to be schizophrenic—progressive (and often outspokenly so) on all issues except for the Israel/Palestinian conflict. But the alienated should consider involving themselves in and press for leadership roles in the more established organized Jewish community. Press internally; be surprised at the allies you will find there if you look, and bend the arc. There is both a need and for that.
Michelle, since no body has yet specifically addressed the left liberal democratic (even strongly 'progressive') shift that you mention of the younger generation here --- "There are, of course, plenty of established Jewish groups that make it their mission to speak for the community. But it’s hard to overstate the degree to which left-wing Jews feel alienated from and betrayed by the Jewish establishment, which often seems more concerned with left-wing anti-Zionism and rhetorical overkill than with right-wing white nationalism" --- I feel somewhat responsible to mention one such unhelpful right-wing "establishment group", AIPAC:
https://rense.com/general88/aip.htm
3
Michelle Goldberg:
What you call the Jewish Left, I've thought of for 70 years as Jewish.
The Ten Commandments, including:
Thou shalt not bear false witness;
Thou shalt not steal;
Thou shalt not kill.
What about honoring these commandments makes a Jew Left?
And the teachings of Rabbi Hillel:
"That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it."
What about living the teachings of Rabbi Hillel makes a Jew Left?
Jews who believe that, without these core tenets, no ritual can make them Jewish, are not on "the Left." They are simply Jews as they understand Judaism to be.
If they happen to vote as Democrats, that's only to the extent that Democratic politicians align with their own morals and ethics.
The real question is, how do any who call themselves Jews, align themselves politically with anyone whose words and deeds go against these commandments and teachings?
Jews "on the Left" wonder how any who call themselves Jews align with Trump, who, regardless of his own professed religion (Indeed, Trump's religion in Trump.), clearly has long renounced any tenet that Jews claim to adhere to.
Trump is not reviving the Jewish Left. Trump is reviving Judaism. And all who call themselves Jews will have to decide whether or not they actually want to be Jews, or they want to stand with Trump, and his allies.
4
“You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
--- Exodus 22:21
There is only one major political party in the U.S. that currently can make any kind of valid claim to believing in this.
4
As my grandmother used to say, from your mouth to God’s ear.
1
People, the issue here is really not the Jewish political left or right. The point is another unfortunate “Trope” by Donny T. There is a big difference between Israeli’s and Americans. Being jewish doesn’t compel you to support the Israeli government. It does however compel you to use your mind and experience to solve the problems of life.
1
Good news! Fine ironies (hey, thanks Mr. Trump, you’ve awakened a capable, articulate opposition through your aggressive ignorance). It all makes sense.
Oh, it’s wonderful to read good news ...
6
Very important and timely piece, pack with subtleties of nuances for Jewish and non-Jewish people to understand.
Once again, it's a proof how great journalism can make sense of this warp reality we're collectively living in.
Bravo Ms. Goldberg!
But what the most important in my view is bringing all these ideas and thoughts to public forum, let's face it how many people in rural America reads NYTimes op-eds.
Last Friday I watched special edition of "All in with Chris Hayes" MSNBC,
It was done in a new format, which I find most imperative and advantageous for networks to pursue, to engage the large scope of the country's diverse demographics.
It was great and will probably continue to evolve, and frankly be most important model in bringing the country to unity.
I, also posted some of my suggestions on youtube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVbMKVbwbUk
Michelle Goldberg was there for discussion alongside Joy Reid and Mehdi Hasan from the Intercept...
I suggested they should also bring Anand Giridharadas to this forum, and go all over the country, especially to the tough red states, where this type of public dialogue is desperately needed.
Can't express fully my gratitude to our outstanding FREE PRESS!!!
2
Matthew 7:15 15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
" Because the right purports to defend Jews even as it pursues policies that most Jews abhor, she argued, “it’s imperative that we loudly speak for ourselves because if we don’t the loudest voices that claim to speak on behalf of Jews will be right-wing evangelical Christians."
2
This is an excellent article. Trump is not a friend of any Jews, or anybody, for that matter, but his cult-like constituency. Trump was attempting to use Jews against Jews by setting-up Jews in the United States to be scapegoats, while celebrating his self-proclaimed popularity in Israel with messianic overtones, arrogating to himself the authority to define "good Jew, bad Jew". It was at root a horrible display of cynical antisemitism, and should be seen as such. Thanks again for the article.
13
Under Trump, all Americans are second-class citizens except for his monied backers and apologists, do-nothing Republicans, and the wealthy elites. However, no one should feel safe because every day he up the level of invective and threats; reckless behavior that has already proven to gin up violence.
7
This is a brave and much needed column. Michelle Goldberg does everyone a service when she reminds us - particularly those of us who are non-Jews - that Aipac, the AJC, the ZOA, the ADL and other established organizations often quoted in the media should not be thought of as the face of American Jews.
6
The vigilance all of us need to have is what we are reminded of. Whatever Trump is thinking or why may not be clear but we can deduce it could prove dangerous.
As a reminder Mr. Trump: you are not the second coming. You are not the chosen one despite your close ties to Israel's PM. He is using you as you use him. Moving the embassy doesn't make you king. It only proved how trans-actional your beliefs are.
Jewish voters employ a combination of ethics, moral beliefs. self interests and party leanings when they vote. They are patriots who love this country. They either support Israel or they question support of Israel. What they support as citizens here are the rights of others and the constitution.
That Trump would have the hubris to think he could shame or sway American Jews to switch party loyalty is as absurd as his administration. That he falls back on this old trope only shows that he views Jewish voters as he does others, merely tools for his purposes.
Thank you, Ms Goldberg, as always for your thoughts.
4
Michelle Goldberg has eloquently articulated precisely how my Jewish identity is manifest in America today. I am all about hereness. What threatens me and many of the people I love -- be they Jewish or not -- is the Trump administration and his sycophantic Republican enablers in the House and in the Senate.
9
Well said Ms. Goldberg. Trump and Netanyahu both want to create ethno-national blood and soil notions of citizenship and Richard Spencer has repeatedly stated that he wants to model his White Ethno-state here on Israel's Likud Bloc. This may be great for the Israeli settlers, but it would be disastrous for American Jews and all other minorities.
4
A Jewish neighbor has put signs in his front yard that read: "First....they came for the immigrants.
I'm considering putting something similar in mine.
And I recently saw signs in a store window on Main Street here in '"Concord, NH that said,"The people who hid Ann Frank were breaking the law. The people who killed her were obeying it."
Something to think about.
7
@Susan in Maine
No. The people who killed Ann Tank were not obeying any law - Germany was a lawless regime. Those who did Ann Frank were obeying the highest tenets of law.
1
America has become a very frightening country for Jews and other minorities. If I were a young Jew who wanted to raise children in a safe and sane society, I would seriously consider emigrating.
7
The driver who ran into the crowd, why isn't he under arrest? Whats the difference between him and the guy in VA?
2
It seems that a number of Jews have forgotten that the Jewish community in pre-1933 Germany were by the far the most assimilated Jewish community in Europe, and that the parties that most defended their rights were the SPD (socialists) and KPD (communists), both of which had significant Jewish membership and leadership. 43% of the lawyers in Berlin were of the Jewish faith. And yet.... Paraphrasing Sinclair Lewis, it can happen here. Jews support the right wing here at their own peril. And if they think their right wing evangelic "supporters" support them as Jews (and not as potential converts to the "true" faith), they should have another thought coming.
9
I have never been much of an observant Jew, but I did pick up something as a child, that long before there was the State of Israel there was Passover, that I was a slave and became a free man only through the greatest of divine providence, that as a Jew I must not only be grateful for my freedom, but always empathize with the slave not the master, the exploited not the exploiter, with the powerless not the powerful. Trump is as clueless about what it means to be a Jew as he is about what it means to be an American.
17
"Older ones, like New York’s Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, one of the forces behind the Amazon action, are growing; "
Excellent. One can look forward to their actions to force the desegregation of NYC's racially segregated public schools. One also assumes that in the spirit of democracy and egalitarianism, we will see an increase in white student population in the NYC public school system.
It seems that if one were truly interested in racial justice as defined by the NYT OP-ED writers, these would be some of the first actions - getting one's house in order before preaching to the rest of the country. It also sounds like they will take some rather militant actions to achieve these ends.
Then you can get back to hammering on the folks in flyover country.
No?
1
I'm completely opposed to the Trump administration's treatment of migrants, but you cannot liken what the Trump administration is doing to what the Nazis did to the Jews during WWII. Sorry, but the slogan "Never again means never again" IS offensive as it minimizes the horrors perpetrated by the Germans. I'm the son of Holocaust survivors. As bad as the Trump administration is, it is decidedly not murdering migrants en masse or committing genocide. There are a lot of people, including American Jews, who know very little about the Holocaust. Perhaps if they understood it better they wouldn't suggest that the administration is launching a second Holocaust. There is plenty to object to without making false analogies.
3
WHY did it take Trump to cause the "revival" of the Jewish left? My grandparents never considered voting Republican - those were the people, according to them, that owned the country clubs where Jews weren't allowed. NOW we have Jared Kuschner, Stephen Miller, Sheldon Adelson and a host of Jewish collaborators with the defiler-in-chief who, in my view, have sold their souls to the devil. Although no longer practicing my religion, I will always have some affinity for Jews and Israel because it IS in my blood. Having that that, I've been beyond disgusted by these conservative turncoat Jews who support Netanyahu blindly. We know that Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir and Shimon Peres are turning in their graves. At the same time, the Democratic Party HAS allowed the growth of anti-Semitism within it's ranks in a way similar to the Labor Party in the UK. YES, a resolution was passed condemning such sentiments recently in the House but support has flowed too freely to members of the so-called "squad" who have gone beyond criticizing Israel and veered into deep anti-Semitic rhetoric. Anyone - Jew or otherwise - that supports Trump is by definition a racist. That goes for Jews as much as Christians because supporting this government is clearly in violation of the Judeo-Christian philosophy that so many claim to espouse but who never live up to fulfilling in life.
2
Trump's mistake is lumping secular progressives who happen to be Jewish with people who care about Israeli issues.
When criticized for not being the latter, the secular progressives take umbrage. It's their right.
1
It’s exciting to see Jewish Americans take the fight to the racists and anti-Semites inspired by Trump. It would be even more exciting - and honest - if people with the kind of platform Michelle Goldberg has acknowledged in a story about the newly invigorated Jewish left that there are powerful forces on “their side" that pose a threat to Jews, including Goldberg herself. This isn't about Israel. Ilhan Omar is an anti-Semite, period; her most notorious comments were aimed at American Jews. The co-chairs of Women’s March are anti-Semites, period; it’s why the founder of the group called on them to resign. There are sitting members of Congress who refuse to renounce Louis Farrakhan, the most influential anti-Semite in the US for 40 years.
Something is wrong when Jews who fight anti-Semitism can’t bring themselves to also go after haters in their own backyard. Maybe cowardice. Maybe hypocrisy. I’d say both.
5
I have long admired the Jewish community for the willingness to speak out, and to stand up for human rights. I pray the movement grows in this shameful period of American history.
4
Donald Trump is the best advance salesperson there is for anything left wing.
3
As an American Jew and lifelong Zionist, I studied in Israel many years ago when it tried to be true to its founding documents, to its goal of an ingathering of nations to a land of peace and harmony among all peoples and a light unto the world.
The government of Israel was, of course, socialist as it was established not only by the people themselves, but for the people, all the people. Sound familiar?
Then the nativists came along, the Likud, the sell-out's to the fanatical religious groups, the haters, and Israel became morally sick. And very, very "conservative", whatever that term means today.
Left behind was the promise of a land of milk and honey and freedom, in its place a country run by a right-wing government I could never support just as I can never support our Republican Party of the rich, powerful, and uncaring.
America is my home. We Jews have a proud legacy here, going back to when the Duke of Orange told Peter Stuyvesant that yes, he must let Jewish refugees and traders settle in New Amsterdam and contribute to this new American settlement.
Jews have fought in every war, contributed to the rise of the labor movement, helped bring America the minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, and all the social benefits of the Roosevelt era. We are in every profession, every state, every way of life, woven into the fabric of America.
And this bigoted fool Trump says our real country is somewhere over there? So what does he know, anyway? Nothing.
6
As an American Jew my loyalty is with the US 100%.I hope that the democrats put up a decent progressive candidate so I can vote Democratic again.HRC did not do it for me.
Donald Trump supports Israel the only Jewish State and I thank him for it.Blaming Donald Trump for shooting up synagogues is like placing the blame on Sanders when a supporter attacked a republican congressmen or Tlaib for the death of a 17yo Israeli girl killed this week.
1
Trump isn't some anomaly. Granted, he has galvanised the left but to say the Jewish left somehow just appeared is a disservice to Jewish activists and groups who have been fighting for decades against an increasingly rabid right (eg. Jewish Voice for Peace, more recently IfNotNow)
This didn't start with Trump or even Bibi. We know anti-Zionism isn't anti-Semitism, for one thing, most Zionists today are not good for Israel--take these so-called 'Christian Zionists' waiting for the second coming.
We shouldn't have to go through this rigmarole of 'yes, anti-Semitism is on both sides'. The threat is pretty obvious as is where it's coming from.
1
"A house divided cannot stand Trump".
1
Excellent column.
"He (Trump) tells Jews committed to life in America that they owe loyalty to Israel, which he sometimes calls, when speaking to American Jews, “your country.” He says this, and expects Jews to react with gratitude."
Precisely.
Trump is an equal opportunity offender and hater and everyone has to understand that about him and his minions. No one is safe from his brand of evil.
5
Thank you for this. I could not figure out why jews would support a president who’s immigration policies were so much like the ones that kept Jewish refugees from finding refuge of this country before WW II.
4
@JS
Those immigration policies were carried out by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The immigrants that are the subject now are not fleeing death. There is a difference.
I'm a lifelong Democrat, and I will enthusiastically vote for whomever the Democrats nominate to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 for too many reasons to list, including the very real danger he poses to the Jewish community. However, I reject the idea that Jews need to be silent about left-wing anti-Semitism because it's not as bad as what's coming from the White House. One organizer says, "No political party or movement is free of anti-Semitism..." Really? Jews are just supposed to accept that anti-Semitism exists on both sides and ally ourselves with the anti-Semites we find less offensive?
6
Another fantastic column by Michelle Goldberg! Start paging the Pulitzer Prize Committee!
3
What a great article, thank you so much. I can feel the countdown for a very nasty tweet from a very nasty clueless man.
Wear it as a badge of honor Michelle, you can't know how much you are appreciated by your readers.
4
This is a stirring column. I wish that a similar fervor would invigorate the Catholic left.
2
I fear that while Trump us an ignoramus incapable of intellectual endeavor, his instincts as a demagogue are very deep and highly evoved : he never intended to coax or cajole Jews to his cause; he doesn't need Jews' votes or count them as his base. He's just baiting them to stand apart and excite the protestant and Catholic bases' antisemetic layer.
Personally, I'm not Jewish, but I've never understood antisemitism either, and I am proud and fond of the many thinking, generous and wholly good Jewish friends I have known in my life, and this move by Trump makes me sick to my stomach.
I'm an atheist, but my prayers are with you.
3
Trump has a Jewish daughter who has a Jewish husband he has Jewish grandkids I am not buying into this, that Trump is anti-Jewish just because his views do not coincide with the views of some radically-leaning Jewish groups.
2
Michelle,
Thanks for the Yiddush in the headline, along with a dose of dark humor and reality refute the stupidity of those comments made last week. Frankly, I think the 'royal family' cares only about growing their bank accounts.
So, let's surprise them in 2020.
4
Goldberg writes of leftists who happen to have one or more Jewish parents, and not about Jews devoted to God, Torah, and Israel as a Jewish homeland, or to study, prayer, and acts of lovingkindness for the local Jewish community (regardless of its politics) and the health and safety of Jews worldwide, as well as the welfare of our planet. In other words, when we see a sharp rise in donations and volunteerism at local Jewish Community Centers, homes for the aged, Federations, Hadassahs, and the like, we'll know what she is writing about is real. But I wouldn't advise anyone to hold their breath.
1
Just as Trump does not represent all Americans, Netanyahu does not represent all Israelis. We cannot allow him to drive a wedge between American and Israeli Jews, to the detriment of both.
3
The BBC World News this evening (Sat. 8-14-19) got it right, displaying on a bottom of the screen headline banner: "Brexit: Donald Tusk and Boris Johnson clash over who is 'Mr. No Deal". And the banner was displayed many times during the live broadcast.
Wow! I do not think that that was a Freudian Slip ...
America is a great place to be Jewish. That's why there are more Jews here than in any country but Israel. Those comparing the threat from the left to the threat from the right should keep in mind that the number of both is miniscule when compared to those who pose no threat at all. The fact of the matter is that Jews have thrived here and any danger from either the left or the right is negligible. The FBI reports that hate crimes against Jews are on the rise, but less than 1% of these hate crimes -- a small handful -- are violent.
Jews have been accepted here as much as or more than anywhere else in the world. All of this talk about extremists is a big deal about not much. And I think it is harmful to wildly exaggerate threats. Things are pretty darn good here, and then some, and if there is ever an "again" as in never again", I am next to certain it won't be in the US.
2
“it’s imperative that we loudly speak for ourselves because if we don’t the loudest voices that claim to speak on behalf of Jews will be right-wing evangelical Christians.”
I am not Jewish, but mainstream Christian. However, I think this quote is quite accurate.
So-called “Christian Zionism” on the religious right—a major factor in the Trump-Pence White House—is inherently anti-Semitic.
The state of Israel has a role only, in this view, in a very unscriptural apocalyptic vision of the endtime, in which Jews must eventually convert to Christianity or perish.
That is not the view of the New Testament. That is not the view of mainstream, global, Christian faith, It is ONLY the view of white American evangelicalism, which has largely merged with Trumpism.
It is essential to hear from American Jews about the concerns of American Jews.
3
No doubt Trump cares more for white supremacists than he does minorities, and that includes Jews.
There was a time when there was room for Jews in the Republican Party. Many Jewish Republicans have been Republican office holders, governors, judicial officers, and members of Congress.
But anyone who heard the slights by Nixon on the Watergate tapes or is aware that Reagan began his campaign with support by Mississippi hate groups and appoined people like James Watt, or read the nasty columns and books by Nixon and Reagan political adviser Pat Buchannan, has to question why Trump's Jewish appointees don't object and resign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_G._Watt
And same for public television, also.
https://thinkprogress.org/public-television-to-bring-back-racist-anti-lgbtq-anti-semite-pat-buchanan-as-show-panelist-2eaab9f6dded/
2
@Daniel F. Solomon
Perhaps because President Nixon saved Israel by resupplying it during the Yom Kippur war, and Reagan was a good friend despite Bitburg.
I never heard that James Watts was anti-semitic or racist, although I seem to remember he made bad jokes, or something like that.
Jews started as a tribe, but over thousands of years developed into more than that. Judaism is a set of moral and ethical teachings. We are commanded to love the stranger, do justice, and refrain from doing to others what we would find offensive if done to us. Trump utterly rejects these ideas. Trump sees us as nothing more than a tribe, which is a logical extension of his nationalist and racist worldview. The Jews who adore him have forgotten what it means to be a Jew, just as the rest of the Republican Party has forgotten what it used to mean to be a conservative.
2
Absent from this column was Trump’s latest direct attack on American Jews, when he accused all Jews who vote Democratic of disloyalty to the United States.
That mortal insult should be a major headline in every mainstream medium. It is an accusation of treason against both Jews and Democrats.
2
@Jerry Engelbach
He accused them of beignet loyal to Israel, not the U.S.
When mainstream Jewish leaders worry more about cozying up to those in power than standing for Jewish values, Jews who haven't forgotten their tikun olam rush to fill in the gap. Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and their friends forget one thing: even if Israel were replaced by the State of Palestine tomorrow and all Palestinian refugees and their descendants were guaranteed the right of return, Jews throughout the world would still be committed to themselves and their values.
@Mark Lebow
If any are left.
Trump doesn't care about the Jewish left. He doesn't much care about Jews in general. There aren't enough voting Jews in states which matter. The only place with any decisive population is Florida; the one heavily Jewish state Trump might actually win and can't afford to lose. You need to realize Trump mostly isn't talking to Jews when he speaks about Israel. He's talking to Evangelicals.
For some reason I haven't entirely unraveled yet, Great Awakening US Protestantism at some point co-opted Old Testament theories of Zionism as a banner behind which white Protestants could claim persecution. Apparently migrating to free federal land in the West at the expense of Native Americans was a form of abuse to early Christian settlers. The federal government even intervened militarily to prevent the Mormon church from creating their own version of what would be a modern Israel within the US. Although Mormons aren't really "Evangelical," Salt Lake City is a walking history lesson in exactly this process.
Point being: The Zionist ideals stuck among non-conforming Christian religions even before Israel was a state. Once created, Israel became the exemplar of what Evangelicals wanted to create for themselves here at home: A religiously oriented state designed for their existential protection from all "others." Contradictory as it may seem, you can be a pro-Israel anti-Semitic. That's why Trump's positions on Israel don't seem to clash with his anti-immigrant white supremacy.
2
Remember when Trump was courting the evangelicals and was asked what his favorite Bible verse was? "An eye for an eye." Well, at least he had an inkling that it was in there somewhere.
Now Trump has a Jewish son-in-law and a converted daughter, so not only is he an expert on their religion, he expects all of the world's Jews to embrace his leadership.
About what we've come to expect from a sick, sick man who worships only himself.
5
Donald Trump is a magician.
He continually riles up blacks, Jews, white supremacists, and all sorts of other groups with his artfully hateful rhetoric. The press is kept busy.
Then he babbles about China, and while lawyers are busy examining a 1977 law that would allow the president to hereby order companies to uproot their plants, the markets tank, his family and friends buy stocks or reap profits, and then he's off tweeting again, on another mission to enrich his parasitic relatives.
And now that he has the Justice Department in his pocket and gutted the IRS, no one will examine stock transactions and bank accounts.
Mazel tov indeed.
2
The complaints of left-wing anti-Semitism are completely overstated. The most common talking point is that movements like BDS want to destroy the state of Israel, which is proof of their anti-semitism. This is factually inaccurate. BDS does wish to see the end of the Jewish state, but only so it can be replaced by a single multi-ethnic state composed of Jews and Muslims alike. This is not the same as wishing to see the end of the Jews. Now, one doesn't have to agree with the aims of BDS to understand the difference. Trump and the Republican party have made common cause with actual neo-nazis, who represent an existential threat to Jews This distinction can't be overstated.
1
@g. harlan
Replace Israel with a 23rd Mulim dominated state that will treat Jews like Syria treats its own people (250,000 dead and counting).
Palestinian PM Abbas is in about the 14th year of his first 4 year term and unoccupied Gaza main's product is missiles.
Thanks. but no thanks.
2
If you had told me we would still be fighting anti Semitic hate groups in this country in the 21st century, I would not believe it. But here we are. Every republican in office has forfeited the right to speak on behalf of any ethnic group. They are truly the party of white supremacy. I hope history treats them with the derision they deserve.
3
Lights in the darkness that descended when the U.S. got a president who enables hate rather than working to prevent it.
1
Why did it take him so long to admit he's one of us. Shame.
"The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism..."
I know a good number of people on the Jewish left that would not agree that blanket statement. It's absurd at best and insulting at least.
Trump’s anti-Semitism makes him assume Jews’ primary loyalty is to Israel, not to the real white Christian America, but potential allies, unlike Latinos and blacks. He’s preaching to his Evangelical base who believe Jerusalem is the landing pad for Jesus’ Second Coming.
His rhetoric inspires white nationalist terrorism, and Homeland Security and the FBI have labeled them medium security risks. He uses Representatives Omar and Tlaib as punching bags to distract us, and particularly Jews.
American Jewish activists saved the black Scottsboro Boys from being legally lynched, marched with Martin Luther King, and were prominent leaders in the anti-Vietnam War movement. Historically Zionism was a minor political trend from its founding in the late 19th century, competing with predominantly leftist trends like the Bund, socialism, and communist leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Leon Trotsky. The Holocaust brought Zionism to the fore, but more important, U.S. active support for Israel as a key ally in destabilizing Egypt, Syria, and the oil-producing Arab states.
American Jews face a turning point. Will they support a white nationalist and potential dictator because of his close relationship with Netanyahu, or will they unite with minorities, women, and young people to fight for a better society?
4
@Bruce Shigeura
So called American Jewish activists (the Jewish left) did nothing to even attempt to save European Jews from the Holocaust. The effort, however not very successful, was led by Peter Bergson and Ben Hecht, not left at all.
It was sabotaged by the left Jews who worshipped Roosevelt.
As Casey Stengel said, "you can look it up."
Sasson and Plitman - and Goldberg -- fail to honor the Jewish axiom that the land of Israel, as opposed to the current secular state, is a fundament of the Jewish mindset. Their stance reprises the old Reform-Jewish "Berlin-is-our-Jerusalem" trope -- but one more assimilationist apologetic. Their weltanshauung, then - Jewishness without Judaism.
1
American Jews are a diverse group with widely held often conflicting views on our religion,our identity,Israel, and a multitude of non- Jewish issues. This is one of our strengths and foremost contributions to American society.We should not let Trump alter our views nor drive a wedge amongst us. If we do,then he will have achieved his goals and we will all have lost more than a little bit. Believe what you believe not because of or in spite of his ugly ramblings. My two cents.
1
“But it’s hard to overstate the degree to which left-wing Jews feel alienated from and betrayed by the Jewish establishment, which often seems more concerned with left-wing anti-Zionism and rhetorical overkill than with right-wing white nationalism.”
It’s easy to understate the degree to which left-wing Jews have once again been made to feel that support of Israel and Progressive causes is a binary choice.
Thank you BDS, “The Squad”, et al for reminding me of my experiences in the late 60s and 70s when being part of the New Left often required supporting Black September, the PLO, and the anti- Zionist (read anti-Semitic ) party line.
Nothing has changed.
2
Encouraging words, Michelle Goldberg:
“Instead, many are reacting with a redoubled commitment to multiracial democracy and solidarity. Jews have been taking to the streets because no amount of support for a foreign country can redeem what he’s doing to this one.”
In our many years of living in Brighton and Rochester, New York, we had the good fortune thanks to our daughter and the friends she made of becoming close to Jewish families with the commitments you mention in your closing words.
And yet, by strange coincidence, yesterday 23 August 2019, I read an interview in the New Yorker about University of Pennsylvania law professor, Amy Wax, who mentions that she is Jewish, who rejects that commitment totally. The interview carried out by Isaac Chotiner appears under this title:
A Penn Law Professor Wants to Make America White Again.
Wax makes clear that a subset of people seen by the Census Bureau as “white”, Donald Trump included, is superior to all other groups, and the males in that group are superior to the females.
Then I listened to a New York Times podcast by Yale law professor Anthony Kronman about his new book “The Assault on American Excellence.” a book said to lament the politicization of academic life.
I could not believe what I read. Is it President Trump who has made it possible for even a law professor, born Jewish, to abandon the commitment made by the Jewish families I knew in Rochester.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
My father, born in Germany in 1923, was a Holocaust survivor, imprisoned in Buchenwald for 2 months following Kristallnacht in 1938; then sent to England on the Kindertransport to escape the worsening madness. His parents and every member of his family remaining in Germany were murdered. He came to this country at 17, enlisted in the Army a week before his 20th birthday and went to Africa and Italy to fight the Nazis for his new country. In 2015, we watched TV together as Trump was campaigning. "He reminds me of Hitler," my dad said. He knew. He and my mother, also a German refugee, are probably turning in their graves now. They would be the first to compare what's happening to families on the border to the events that led up to the Holocaust. "Never again" means never repeating history. To do that, we must know the history. The Holocaust did not start with mass murder, and it wasn't only about murder, but about stripping German Jews of their rights and their humanity, little by little, and getting the rest of the country to go along, and the rest of the world to virtually ignore it until it was too late. Trump has put a target on our backs by charging us with "disloyalty" if we don't vote for him. Yet, I hear some Jews saying "I can vote for whomever I want," without understanding the much graver potential impact of his words. I'm glad others are finally seeing something my father saw immediately. Nothing this president does or says is "good for the Jews."
6
As a Jew, I am doubly blessed. I have the right to criticize my President for being a crook and to criticize the Israeli Prime Minister for being a crook. Unfortunately, I only have the right to vote one of the crooks out.
16
I would think that it would be wise for Jews on the Right, for those who support trump, to remember just how easy it is for them to become this week's "ethnic out-group". Either everyone is safe or no one is safe.
659
@sjs,
Precisely so. Somehow Jews on the Right have convinced themselves that it is okay to align themselves with a political party that includes within its ranks factions of white supremacists, anti-Jewish manifesto-writers and synagogue-shooters. Jews on the Right have uncritically welcomed support from Christian evangelicals, even though those same evangelicals' "love" for Israel and Jews stems only from the genuine evangelical desire for an apocalyptic End Times war that would resurrect Jesus - once all Jews are killed or converted and only Christians remain.
We have so much history that points to the fate of all Jews (even the kapos) when Christian white supremacist groups take power and it never represents safety for Jews or any other "out-group". Right-wing Jews best take their blinders off and reconsider who they make hay with.
36
@sjs That's why the State of Israel was created for the Jewish people to finally have a safe homeland to go to after thousands of years of persecution of murder - I am an American and totally loyal to this country. I am eternally grateful for the freedoms and wonderful life I enjoy here with my family. I will defend America to the death as did my father and uncle may they rest in peace who fought in World War II. But if anti-Semitism really comes to the fore and God-forbid Trump or any other president tells me as a Jew to get out of this country I know that I ultimately have Israel to go to. And most Jews who are currently Anti-Zionists should rethink their position because democracy is very fragile and anti-Semitic hate is on the rise from both the far-right and far-left. The freedoms Jews have here in America can be gone in a generation. Europe and elsewhere have been emptying out of Jews who are emigrating to Israel because of rising far-right and Islamic anti-Semitism. America is the last true place of freedom we Jews have left besides Israel. But if America God-forbid turns on us Jews we will God-willing still always have Israel to go to.
11
@sjs Yes, with this man it must be " we stand together, or seperately we fall."
7
It’s all way too complicated, isn’t it? The seams are showing under the strain. They just might burst.
My niece, who is raising a family on the West Bank, sees Trump as a G-d-send, and simply doesn’t hear anything negative about him. However, she is positively down on this newspaper. Won’t hear a good thing about it. Thought it was funny to post a Fake News pic of the NYT on Facebook, riddled with fallacious anti-Semitic headlines. Friends objected, but she didn’t apologize.
I must say nothing or I will not have a relationship with her. We will be cut off from each other, and that will be that. It is a strange circumstance to find oneself in. Strange, strange, strange. I zipped my lip when she moved to the West Bank. But my silence only deepens. When is unzipping the rational thing to do?
4
Cut her off! Tolerating her behavior is endorsing her behavior and she probably thinks you can be convinced. Don’t enable! Her actions have consequences. Otherwise, it is proof that her convictions are indeed stronger and more deeply held than yours.
1
“it’s imperative that we loudly speak for ourselves because if we don’t the loudest voices that claim to speak on behalf of Jews will be right-wing evangelical Christians.”
Evangelical Christians believe in the Rapture, which requires that all Jews end up in Israel, where they will be forced to choose between conversion to Christianity and being killed in a final great battle of the forces of "good" and "evil."
If that is supposed to be "speaking on behalf of Jews", I hate to think what speaking against Jews looks like.
Obviously, the evangelical Christians see Jews as inferior beings who must be destroyed, one way or the other, rather than their "older religious brothers" (thank you, Pope Francis) whose values and teachings, like the 10 commandments that appear twice in the Torah, are to be emulated.
https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/pope-visits-synagogue-calls-for-end-to-religious-violence-1.5392013
There are probably 30 million evangelical Christian voters and probably about 3 million Jewish voters. Trump is looking for 30 million votes (as did George W. Bush in 2004), and if he can hornswoggle a few Jews into voting for him, he thinks that is good for him.
Most Jews are far too well educated to fall for that shell game.
We remember (and recite in our daily prayers and at the Passover Seder) that we were slaves unto Pharoah in Egypt for 400 years and we were taken by God out of the house of bondage, and we therefore can relate to others who are subject to abuse.
31
One can only hope that Christians/Catholics might feel an equal amount of outrage and begin to act. It is far past time for them to step out from the oppressive religious political rhetoric with which the evangelical movement seeks to define them and begin to act in accordance with the moral imperatives of love and care espoused by their namesake.
50
@Eric Lucas Mainstream Christianity has much culpability for the rise of evangelical extremism and the enormous damage it's doing to the country. Christians who claim to be moderates made a deal with the devil, publically wearing their support for inclusion and equality on their sleeves for political gain and influence, while simultaneously letting the extremists do the dirty work of pushing harmful legislation. That's because the religious mainstream actually agrees with and has the same values on many issues as the religious hard right. Where are the genuine religious voices of tolerance?
1
@Eric Lukacs
I would say that through history religion was never on the right side of it, so not much hope here...
They are just day traders, like the rest of his loyalists.
1
Very good article. As usual, Trump's wrecking ball achieves exactly the opposite of what he wants, at least when it comes to courting Jewish voters. As for evangelicals, they remain firmly entranced by the least Christian president our country has ever seen, even though he considers himself to be the Chosen One.
38
A few days later, a corrections officer drove a truck into a row of Jewish protesters who were blocking the entrance to a private prison in Rhode Island where migrants are being detained.
Private prisons should be abolished.
The corrections officer should be charged with attempted murder.
A private citizen should not take the law into his own hands.
If he objects to others' actions he should call the police and let the police handle it.
The CO in this case was not a public CO but a PRIVATE employee of a PRIVATE prison.
20
Observing the fall from grace of Aung San Suu Kyi over the past few years, I have been struck by the idea that the people's liberation movements we on the left admire so much have a dangerous propensity to transform, when they are successful, into "blood and soil" nationalism.
Zionism, I think, is teetering on this transition right now. And to be fair, Palestinian liberation if successful could easily go the same way.
In a world as populated, global and integrated as ours is now, we need to learn to stop categorizing ourselves by ethnicity and to instead see ourselves as all part of one tribe. I'm not sure that's possible—humans are what they are—but if we fail to make that transition, I fear we are headed for an era of unprecedentedly violent conflict. With our economy and environment collapsing at the same time our future—if we have one—is bleak.
17
@617to416
Maybe I should add that Michelle Goldberg and the Jewish left are reasons for hope.
1
Thank you Michelle; these are important, fine words.
6
Time has taken care of the Jewish Left. There may be remnants here and there, but rarely enough for a political minyan. Their time has come and gone. If fact, it left quite a while ago.
3
@Mike No, they are just quiet and live their lives without making lots of loud waves, unlike their lesser educated Co Citizens who tend to be loud yahoos who party and sport, but never bother to Learn anything nor have much of a spiritual life.
One need not be loud, outspoken and visible to be a large number of like minded folks, especially among the folks practicing Judeaism.
They are not obnoxiusly going from door to door selling their religion like it was a cheap plastic doodad, nor do they fill the air with glorious shows of huge crowds in their 'chapels' while begging in various ways for money.
Instead they quietly live their lives knowing how blessed they are to be able to HAVE a quiet life, modest security and economy to live in: They have seen much much worse in their history.
To say their time is gone etc. is only showing ignorance on Judeaism and the people who practice it...something like Trump's level of ignorance.
I was born to Jewish parents and was raised in the absence of religion. Nothing in my life nor in the Trump presidency and its collateral damage has altered that position and perspective.
My mother was the only one of approximately 1000 descendants of her parents who did not remain within the orthodox fold. My family had minimal relations with them during my upbringing. As my mother's passing approached in 2014, I reached out to them in an attempt to bridge what seemed to be, as an adult and at this important moment, a needlessly divisive almost silly family feud. Members of my mother's family did accommodate to a secular memorial service; I have maintained with an uncle than cousin ...until now.
The orthodox community, in my experience, is absolute and inflexible in its conservatism, ardently pro-Trump and intolerant of non-reactionary views regarding Israeli politics. Their stance towards Israel indeed places their own US citizenship second and their domestic political views are completely dictated by this single topic.
Trump's recent proclamations about Jews in general, and his treatment of the congresswomen in particular, were last straw events; I have communicated this to my maternal relatives and evidence suggests the thread of connection is once again severed.
I can't say Mr. Trump has 'revived a Jewish left' in my case. He certainly has brought into full relief the beliefs of most American Jews and those at the Jewish radical right.
12
Michelle Goldberg nailed it! I guess that not only should we say"Mazel Tov" to our so-called president, but we should also thank him for saying things that may encourage members of the Jewish community--left, right, and center-- to finally allow for honest conversations about the relationship between Israel and diaspora Jews. Although sacred arguing is a time-honored tradition in Judaism, you'd hardly know it from the accusations and disrespect one gets for raising uncomfortable truths and criticizing Israel's present politics and policies in most Jewish settings.
20
I appreciate the Jewish progressives! BTW, Michelle, a note for you on this excellent column. I don't think Trump is trying to court Jewish votes with his support of a particular Israeli faction. Rather, he's doubling down on the Evangelical vote. He couldn't care less about Jews, Evangelicals or religion in general. But his advisors know that Evangelicals care about the Rapture, and Trump cares about his poll numbers.
41
@Amelia
I would add that I have never believed for a moment that evangelicals share any love for Jews, other than as caretakers of the land of Jesus. If the same land were under the control of Palestinians, or Syrians, or Russians, evangelicals would "love" them as they currently "love" Jews. How many of you evangelicals have any Jewish friends here in America?
4
As a Jewish-American, a lifelong progressive and a veteran of many protest movements I urge my fellow Jewish-Americans: Do not frame your efforts as being a response to rising anti-Semitism. Frame them as being a response to rising attacks on all minorities, including Muslims. Only by working to create a united front can we counter what is happening. Remember: In the eyes of America, all minorities were created equal.
30
I watched Tammy Faye Bakker et al when I was in college because I believed the brown shirts would come from that quarter of our country.
I was not wrong.
Thank you, Michelle, for speaking out.
20
In an otherwise quite good column, Goldberg makes two errors, one of commission and one of omission.
Contrary to her saying "Donald Trump might have thought he was going to lure Jewish voters to the Republican Party with his lock-step alliance with the Israeli right", Trump is consciously appealing to that part of his base which is the segment of Christianity that believes in the necessity of Israel and its destruction for the fulfillment of its theological beliefs.
The omission, especially noteworthy given the history of Jewish Currents, which she references, is that Jews in the Old Left did not have to "apologize" for being Jews before claiming their leftist bona fides. In the New Left, and for the most part within today's iteration of the Left, Jews are expected to evidence a particular attitude toward the relationship of Israel and the Palestinians before they are allowed to come out of the closet as Jews.
13
Well explained. I fully agree with the greater danger from the right but the left enables them by feeding the brain with written word and spoken words among friends, families, in churches and mosques. The right doesn’t hide it’s hate of Jews, it’s in the heart. The left doesn’t admit their disdain for the Jewish religion, hides behind their antiZionism as an excuse or against Israel’s policies but only support, if they support anything policies that are suicidal.
Trump has to be challenged because he hates everyone and fans racism but not by separating Jews from the support of Israel but by challenging Trump because it hurts Israel.
For instance, moving the embassy to Jerusalem. It got a lot of criticism because it upset the Palestinians. I oppose it because it hurts Israel as another example of Trump’s leverage wasting. The Palestinians have no reason to complain except about Trump’s bragging because the capital has always been and the embassy has been moved to West Jerusalem, only disputed if Israel’s existence is disputed. None of the ME Arab counties established embassies in Tel Aviv(Egypt and Jordan excepted). Establishment of embassies could be a part of ME Peace and stability but Trump wasted it.
1
Thank you, Michelle, for another powerful, enlightening, and well-written piece. This goy is with you 100%.
12
Thank you for a breath of fresh air rationality! Right and wrong do exist and the good must be our goal!
4
Most of us did not ask to be where we are or even to hold the views (religious, political, social) that our parents taught us and that we still espouse despite our attempts to "be ourselves." If I were commanded to be loyal to some mythical country that is "mine" by inheritance, I'd have no idea where to turn. But I know that the one I'm living in is deeply flawed as are all the others scattered around our world.
I owe no allegiance to any nation when it is violating the laws of decency and fairness. Israel bears a storied and, to many, a sacred name but its actions violate the precepts that made that name hallowed.
To be Jewish is much more than to be Israeli. One can be Israeli and not Jewish. And one can be Jewish and detest all that the nation of Israel is doing in one's name.
13
@Mad-As-Heaven-In
Israel is not doing anything in your name. It is defending itself in a region where its neighbor, Syria, has killed 250,000 or so of its own people, and where Iran, 1000 miles away, is setting up bases, and where unoccupied Gaza is full of missiles and builds tunnels under Israeli kindergartens.
I understand you are against all this self-defense. Rest assured, it's not being done under your name.
1
@QI Israel has every right to "defend" itself and to do so in any manner that it chooses. I do not say that it is "righteous" in the choices it makes, only that it has as much right to make those decisions as do other nations.
What Israel and its evangelical promoters in this country do not have a right to do is to anoint it as the Biblical and spiritual extension of the Israel founded by Moses. Too much water has gone over the dam, too much mixing of populations, too much displacement of people, Jewish or otherwise, for that to make any sense to me.
If modern Israel wishes to be the Israel of Moses and the prophets they can begin to deal with the "stranger" in their midst according to the commandments of Moses and the admonitions of the prophets. Then I might just feel a little more sympathetic to their "plight".
This is one of the most encouraging opinion pieces that I have read for years. As a person on the left who deeply despises both anti-Semitism and anti-Islamic rhetoric, I am encouraged to see growth in the Jewish left -- which may be the only group that can save Israel from itself, the United States from itself, and speak to the core value of justice for all people.
5
It is not enough that most Americans that identify as Jewish vote. It is imperative that we all work to get out the vote to defeat Trump and his Republican party because his party does nothing to stop him. The last Republican that did anything to stop him was Sen. McCain when he voted to stop the Republican plan to murder people by taking away their healthcare.
9
Enough with the Republicans and their identity politics.
5
Does anyone have a grip on what's happening in the USA now? There are people who hate "the other" who don't really understand what "the other" is. First, they imported folks from other lands to help them build their wealth because they couldn't exploit the folks that were already in this land. Don't give me the argument that Africans were selling these folks to the Europeans, there were Africans selling enemies to other Africans for centuries but selling people to these Europeans who wanted wealth over the Atlantic was so different. Africans who were captured and enslaved on the continent were able to either find their way back or establish their own on the continent were very different. The colonies of the Americas made Africans less than human in many eyes. Even after the slaves were emancipated, the citizens of these settlements made the former Africans last class citizens. They continue to do this by stopping them when they consider something that these former Africans doing something that they shouldn't be allowed to do. How do we consider that Jim Crow has ended when Black folks are shadowed in stores, stopped by the police if they are in a nice car, stopped when they are doing things that normal people do every day, shot for doing normal everyday things? How is it that when black folks in the city make a little more money at work and want to move to a better neighborhood? Why? Why? Why? Why are some folks so against upward mobility of "the other"
5
This is, sadly, nothing new. Jewish groups stood with Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movements which was mostly focused on African Americans. It was partly our of a feeling of empathy, but more because they knew that once people of color were "put in their place", the Jews would be next.
And so it is today. Any Jew who thinks that Trump is sincere in his support for their people should take a look at his xenophobic rhetoric and know that it will apply to them someday soon, if he isn't stopped. To Trump and his supporters, Jews are "the other".
18
Excellent article, but with one annoying (to me) mistake: Kaddish is not a prayer of mourning. It is a prayer in praise of G-d, a Hebrew/Jewish "Allah Akbar", if you will. The privilege of saying it during group prayers is given to mourners, who recite it on behalf of their deceased parents, siblings and/or children, because the deceased can no longer praise G-d. Reciting Kaddish in effect scores some points for the souls of the mourned, who cannot praise G-d themselves. Kaddish can be said by non-mourners also, any time, any where. For you English speakers, read the English text, and you will see that Kaddish praises G-d and recognizes Him/Her as the creator of the world/universe.
@Andy Good correction Andy! In addition to that in the Kaddish prayer Jews aren't referred to as "Yehudim" Jews but as Yisrael,"Israel" & Beit Yisrael "The House of Israel" The Jewish people are repeatedly called the nation of Israel in the Torah/Old Testament & in all our prayers..We're also called the children of Israel. Who's Israel? Well that's another name for our forefather Jacob who wrestled with an angel of God so he's called Israel because he wrestled with God. The three essential parts of being a Jew are God, The Torah/Bible and Israel. Without Israel there is no God and Bible. Whether we are religious, secular or unaffiliated, agnostic or atheist we're still the children of Israel & part of a big family who can at once be proud of Jews like Einstein and Maimonides and disgusted and embarrassed by Epstein and Weinstein. We all have a connection to one another despite our differences. Indeed all the Jewish haters throughout history didn't make a distinction between us with regards to being religious or not. As much as the Jewish left says Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism I question if that really is possible because of the centrality of Israel to being Jewish. You can criticize Israel and its current government & its policies but if you deny the Jewish people's right to self-determination in the land of Israel or seek to destroy it through boycotts then you're an enemy of Israel and the children and family of Israel and there's only one word for that: Anti-Semite.
1
On my mother’s side, 3 of my 4 great-grandparents were Jewish, who left Hungary to avoid getting slaughtered. On my father’s side I have mostly New York and Pennsylvania farmers from the whole British Isles, Germany, the Netherlands and France, going all the way back to Plymouth Colony. (No, they didn’t come on the Mayflower, but one of the later boats. I call them my Pilgrim Slackers.) My husband descends from Irish immigrants, and my son was adopted from Guatemala. So my family is all American. And I fiercely, vehemently object to any people being treated the way we are treating immigrants at the border. Every bit of my DNA objects to how this President talks about Jews, Latinos, African-Americans, Muslims, women ... have I left anyone out? Apparently nobody is worthy of his regard except himself. I’m behind anybody who’s in favor of treating all people decently, humanely, and with respect, no matter what “group” they belong to.
15
@Kristen Rigney
Wonderful response, Kirsten! I think the same way. We are all humans on this earth and we need to treat each other kindly and humanely. Why is this so hard?
I group up in Brooklyn and although I am Jewish by birth I have no religious training. However, I do adhere to the fundamental tenets that Jews have: to help my fellow man especially the low end of the economic spectrum and be open to new ideas. Most Jews in Brooklyn were like me and generally voted for democrats since that party seemed to stand for things that we were sympathetic to. I have been concerned by the fact that so many Jews are voting republican and I think that many of these people are the very rich Jews who are better served by the policies of the Republican Party and moreover are staunch supporters of Israel irrespective of their policy. I think they are making a mistake since the Republican Party if the party where anti-semitism lives. It’s very encouraging to me that many Jews are having a renewal of progressive, liberal politics.
1
The Jewish left seemed to disappear as the Jewish right took over in Israel for decades.
The Jewish left is so important and I miss it dearly.
I hope it comes back full force. We need it.
Thank you Ms. Goldberg for the column.
6
Donald Trump's attitude towards American Jews is emblematic of his symbolic and divisive approach to governing. Rather than delve into the substance of this issue or that, he grasps only what he perceives to be the superficial instead of the nuanced or subtle.
This is wholly consistent with the manner in which he openly resorts to stereotyping ethnic and religious groups. It is one of the most insidious traits he brings to the presidency. What's worse is that the consequences of his limited understanding and malicious policies are often beyond his ability to grasp, let alone control. Instead of manning up and taking the justified heat for his shortcomings, Trump lashes out even more aggressively, ratcheting up his venomous rhetoric while fully loosing the dogs of hatred, along with its repercussions.
First, it was Mexicans and African-Americans. Then it was Muslims. Latin Americans of various nationalities followed. The LGBTQ community certainly hasn't been spared. Now. it is American Jews who are earning his wrath, based on his warped and anti-Semitic view of ostensible dual allegiance.
No one is safe. Anyone could be next. Where were you born?Where will you hide when it's your turn?
There is no mazel tov here, only a shanda. And an anti-American president who thinks he's God, aided and abetted by a complicit Republican Party that not only tolerates, but embraces the inexcusable.
8
Gut gesagt! But the real challenge to the vitality of Judaism in North America is whether there will be a strong renaissance of progressive Jewis cultural organizations and institutions. If we can only affiliate with progressive Jewish political organizations then the current revival will be unsustainable and the American Jewish community will devolve into a support network for a right-wing Israeli state and a political appendage to the Christian right.
1
I don't care how trump caters to the evangelicals who only love Israel and the Jewish people for the foretold role in the end of times. I'll leave that to Sheldon Adelson and Jared Kushner.
And I'm more than capable in opposing those squad members who hate Israel and the Jewish people.
But I will NOT align myself with a party that enables, embraces and gives silent cover to violent right wing anti-Jewish groups.
trump & Pense will not get my vote under any circumstances and neither will the republican party that cowers to trump.
3
I am confused. This column as others I've read in the NYT misleads the reader. Trump has nothing against immigrants. It is his job according to The Constitution, to enforce laws passed by Congress. In no case that I know of are legal immigrants being deported by ICE.
Now there are certainly legitimate issues that fellow Jews could be protesting. For example, the impact of big tobacco and food and beverage companies which are both responsible for illnesses that adversely impact the poor in our country. Nationwide about 15% of adults are smokers and this number has been declining. Yet, since at least the mid-1990's, about 35% of people below the poverty level smoke. Raising tobacco taxes help people to quit or never start.
The high cost of housing in cities such as NYC, Boston, DC, Seattle, SF, and LA is caused by primarily by zoning density restrictions at the city council level. Paying a high proportion of one's salary adversely impacts health. Why not protest these laws that make housing artificially high?
Regarding Israel, Trump might have cited how 4 Democrats voted against the Taylor Force Act in a senate subcommittee including Pres. Cand. NJ Sen Booker. The Taylor Force Act cut off US taxpayers funding $300 million for Palestinian terrorists and their families.
What does it mean, especially after we experienced 9/11, that 4 Dem Senators (esp. one from NJ) would be against terminating funding that rewards terrorism?
2
Simply put, Trump thought his words would inspire more votes for him.
It's always about himself.
That thumbs up he gave in El Paso seemed to me, a sinister gesture. It's as if he's saying, "Look how well my anti-immigration policy is working"
His treatment of blacks, hispanics, women, gays, etc., should alarm every thinking jewish person.
10
Trump's evangelicals only respect Israel as a means to an end - a tragic end for Jews and the State of Israel. I say this as someone who grew up an Evangelical with many generations of authentic Evangelical leaders in my family. Yes there are many (like my family) that have always treated all Jews with the dignity we owe all our neighbors, but they were not obsessed with Israel any more than they were with Denmark (and they still are not) the way Evangelical political "leaders" have opportunistically and for political expedience feigned support of Israel in recent years as only a means to an eventual fantastical Armageddon. I grew up a Republican, but those of us with true kindness and respect for the equality of all humanity do not support Trump and his vulgar vileness - he is the antithesis of everything our original faith taught us.
2
The idea that Trump and organizations that support the Israeli right-wing such as AIPAC are representative of Jewish Americans is patently ludicrous. In fact, the idea that Trump represents the views and desires of all Israelis is equally ludicrous. Israel has a Peace Movement. Human rights protesters in Israel oppose the settler movement and campaign for Palestinian rights, decrying the Likud and right-wing party. Supporting Israel has nothing to do with supporting a particular political position, and telling Americans that if they don't vote for Trump, they are being "disloyal" to their faith is deeply offensive on many levels.
8
If not me (we), then who (us)? If not now (today), when (act)?
3
My sister and I had a heated disagreement about Israeli policies recently. All our children had taken the birthright trip to Israel, and each was whelmed with emotional and thoughtful reactions to what they experienced.
The one thing that we have unwavering agreement on - every one of us no matter our different takes on Israel - is that we would never vote for Trump nor for any politician who shows even the slightest allegiance to Trump.
I’m this way, he unifies Jews who disagree on other important matters.
42
@SD Hatred blinds. "White supremacists" have long been present. Misguided immigration policies - that long pre-date Trump and that he seeks to change - give leverage to "White supremacists", who claim to fear being submerged by a "brown" tsunami.
Were Trump truly a "White supremacist", he'd encourage open borders, in the hope that newcomers' neediness and law-breaking would swell the ranks of racists, etc.
Most countries are administered by those at best negligent and at worst murderous (think Myanmar [Burma]). Were America's borders open, several hundred millions - almost all law-abiding, who seek to better themselves - would arrive.
An America with nearly a billion residents would for sure be more crowded and so less pleasant.
The first waves of such an immigration tsunami would turbo-charge "White supremacists". But Trump struggles for reasonable controls on immigration.
Thus, I find it hard to accept your argument that Trump backs "White supremacists". Whatever he says, his policies will deflate "White supremacists". That is what energizes those, who - in the grip of unshakable delusion - think that skin color matters much.
President Trump is not a man of any Faith. His words and actions are opposed to every teachings of both Moses and Christ. Did any of those twin Luminaries ever say "Thou shalt lie? Thou shalt cheat? or Thou shalt grab"? No...Any person of faith who looks up to Mr. Trump for guidance and protection is looking up in the wrong direction.
28
Dear Michelle,
In my years of following the NY Times online, this is the first time I see such a beautiful gathering of commentators, we are all glowing after reading your story. You have managed to renew a sense of hope in your readers; that isn’t a small thing to achieve these days. We need more articles from you. May I ask that you consider an article exploring the Ladino communities all over the World? Brutally expelled from Sefarad you can still find Ladinos in Turkey and very alive and protected in the cultural wealth of Puerto Rico & the Caribbean. Thank you. Kaminos de leche i miel.
15
Wonderful article. Thank you. One of the saddest revelations of Trump's election was realizing the depths of anti-Semitism that existed in our country. I was unaware, although my Jewish friends could have told me. I'm pleased to read that the vile sentiments of Trump Co. are motivating young Jews to action. It will take sane, sensible, and loud actions and reactions from all marginalized communities--and those who fit the new "acceptable" definition of American--to defeat this abominable administration. Never again.
20
Thank you Michelle Goldberg. Trump and his cadre of mumblers have stirred my non- observant Jewishness. I may attend a Unitarian service only because they support all or no doctrine. One evening I may get the courage to attend a reformed Shabbat service and I have been brought to tears while watching the streaming services from Central Synagogue in Manhattan. These are undeniably my people even though I stumble through reading the Hebrew transliteration. As for those Jews who voted for Trump believing that we on the left would turn our country into a socialist state, they have instead given power to the extreme right wing who in the end would reject them as outsiders.
17
"Older ones, like New York’s Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, one of the forces behind the Amazon action, are growing; once-sleepy organizing meetings have become standing room only." I so wish my LGBTQ community, like these once dormant Jewish groups, would rise up again. As a member of ACT UP in the late 80s into the 90s we made such a difference and still can. And as Ms Goldberg notes there's internal factions, such as Log Cabin, that are against our ideals. As we used to chant: ACT UP! FIGHT BACK!!
7
I am not Jewish but the comments I hear from Trump and his supporters are anti-Semitic. This includes his cabinet members and family members. The silence from Ivanka and her husband is frightening.
26
Thank you Michelle Goldberg. Trump and his cadre of mumblers have stirred my non- observant Jewishness. I may attend a Unitarian service only because they support all or no doctrine. One evening I may get the courage to attend a reformed Shabbat service and I have been brought to tears while watching the streaming services from Central Synagogue in Manhattan. These are undeniably my people even though I stumble through reading the Hebrew transliteration. As for those Jews who voted for Trump believing that we on the left would turn our country into a socialist state, they have instead given power to the extreme right wing who in the end would reject them as outsiders.
4
I am a non-jewish American who is mystified and saddened by Donald Trump's unique ability to victimize the abjectly vulnerable and then turn around and blame the reeling victim for the attack. When black and Hispanic voters fail to vote or, worse, vote to enable their tormentors, I lose heart.
I have a project tailor-made for enterprising Jewish organizations: go where Hispanic and Black people live, and do a little proselyting to them. Not everybody can do this right. Young Jewish people have the savvy, experience and patience to get this difficult but rewarding job done. Good Luck!
2
His daughter, who has embraced modern Orthodox Judaism and his son in-law, have remained silent; their silence is deafening.
18
As with so many issues, Mr. Trump's stereotyping of Jewish-American voters is beyond the pale. His inciteful, increasingly bizarre statements and actions should now be matter of concern for all Americans regardless of their political affiliation. We seem to be in a permanent state of "agast" resulting from his instability. Tragically, his Cabinet should evoke the 25th amendment of our Constitution and remove him from office due to his mental incapacity to hold the Office of President of the United States.
8
Great article by Ms Goldberg. As a non-Jew I appreciate and applaud Jewish activism against the caging of children and the demonization of immigrants. But, where are the Catholics? I see a few nuns have been arrested for protesting but have heard zilch from Dolan and the National Conference of Bishops. It they are saying anything it must be a whisper. And these poor kids and people are Catholics! It's become a church with no moral authority whatsoever. And as an American living overseas I wonder where are the protests? Why aren't the streets mobbed with people as they are in Hong Kong demanding this monster and his enablers be gone?
16
I believe all the nuns you imagine have aged out or passed on. Younger nuns are Asian or Latina. I don’t see them as involved in political demonstrations.
A militantly xenophobic government is building internment camps for members of ethnic out-groups, and Jewish leaders worried that critics of this project were disrespecting the memory of the Holocaust?
THANK YOU, Michelle, for saying this out loud, and succinctly. I have been getting hammered by some of my Jewish friends for saying the same. I now am in good company.
7
Three points:
1-I appreciate Ms. Goldberg's humanitarian concerns, but simplistically blaming the present President is historically inaccurate and ethically unsustainable.
He has been mislabeled to serve an agenda.
For example, the "fine folks on both sides" Charlottesville statement refers to the original small groups weighing in on the Robert E Lee statue, not the later violent groups. for example.[see Prager U on U-Tube]
2-History and common sense show that extreme rightist and leftist hate groups have been active and violent for at least 150 years in America. Care on labeling and use of controversial terms [which she opposes] -like "lock-step"- are in order.
3- Judaism includes consciousness of inequities,[this past week's portion- "care for the stranger because you were strangers in Egypt"]-but collapses if if the other components of Judaism are ignored.
1
@Hope Trump's precise words and broader rhetoric (megaphoned by FOX and hate groups) were echoed as their cowardly excuses for massacres in the tragic synagogue and E lPaso terrorist events. To parse away Trump's words and try to excuse them is misguided, at best, and complicit, at worst.
2
Creatures like trump encourage the righteous to stand up and unite, to counter the hate and evil that runs rampant under his rancorous guidance. His constant attempt to divide our nation must be stopped, we must all come together, become one, show the world we stand for justice and freedom for all. This man must be voted out of office along with the sycophants that have been enabling his vicious hyperbole.
8
Thank you Ms Goldberg for me your last sentence really says it all.
There is nothing that Trump can do or say about Israel that in any way can make up for the damage that he is doing at home .
Despite Trumps assertion that American Jews should consider Israel our country ,the reality is for most of us 'our country ' is the United States and we are royally p/o about what America has morphed into under his leadership .
This is why close to eighty percent of American Jews vote solidly for Democrats , a number by the way that is growing as time ticks towards 2020.
5
I am as torn as ever, because I can’t bring myself
to be on the right nor the left.
The voters in Israel elect a Knesset that is seemingly too divided.
Bibi has not fully won yet, though it appears so.
Jews worldwide are in chaos.
I felt when Trump won enough Electoral College votes there would be inevitable chaos.
Michelle explains the chaos he enables in a
previous column, and who disagrees.
2
Trump's support for Israel is merely a play for the Jewish and evangelical (end of days) support. He has no actual interest in the country except for his expectation of being rewarded at home.
4
At the end of days Jews become Christians BTW but I doubt if Trump has talked to Evangelicals about it or cares about it only if they vote for him.
That Jewish activists are drawing attention to the current crimes against humanity at the border including the separation of children and detention of refugees is a welcome sign of morality and compassion in these days when evangelicals claim that Trump was sent by God, and other religious groups only care about controlling women's bodies.
Trump claims now that when he said, "I am the Chosen One," it was a joke, but anyone looking at his face and hearing his voice at the moment knew he meant it.
Trump throws out welcome mats to white supremacists with his compliments and bigotry, builds fragmentary sections of a wall against refugees with misappropriated taxpayer monies, and seems to be confusing America with a feudal fiefdom that demands oaths of allegiance to himself or other overlords.
With his short and small-minded tweets and ever more grandiose claims (last night it was that he could have "Absolute Power!"), I am so grateful to those of conscience and caring who help rebalance the world.
"The only tyrant I accept in this world is the 'still small voice' within me." (Mahatma Gandhi)
5
Thanks for calling out the Jewish establishment for its awful reaction to AOC’s use of the phrase “concentration camps”. It infuriated me that they could be so clueless. And, by the way, some definitions clearly included the detention facilities at issue.
6
Almost every day I pull out my hair (of the few ones left) after one more comment or tweet of Trump. But I applaud the President for the move of our embassy to Jerusalem, for pulling out of the JCPOA, and generally for sticking to our traditional support of Israel, our beleaguered democratic ally that is surrounded by human rights violating dictatorships.
I regret how Trump's comments and tweets have turned our traditional support of Israel into a partisan issue, especially knowing that many Jewish Americans, mostly the less Orthodox, have traditionally been Democrats. But Trump is not the only one at fault, and the Progressive Squad's revolting take-over of the Democrat's image concerns me as much, if not more, as the President's comments.
Historically the Jewish Left believed in the human and social rights philosophy of the Democratic Party, being among the first to stand up for the rights of African Americans. It should not be either Trump or the Progressive Squad I understand why Jewish and Non-Jewish on the Left can be opposed to Trump, but if they are not equally opposed, and aware of their danger, of the so-called Progressive Squad and their influence on the Democrat's profile, then they are sticking their heads in the sand. Trump may not be qualified to be our President, but follow the Squad and you get Hugo Chavez, Hamas and the Ayatollahs. If my fellow Jews on the Left want to beat Trump in 2020, they need to change the horses they bet on.
1
@Harry Got it -- a vote for AOC is a vote for the Auatollah. You're so right. Also, I have some bridgefront property in Brooklyn I'd like to discuss with you.
2
@Harry There is an unequal balance of power and influence in the juxtaposition of White Nationalist President Trump and the left wing Squad. The president has exponentially more power and ability to rouse up hate groups and KKK rallies and terrorist massacres. The Squad hs the power to dominant a couple hours of the news cycle. Unless it's AOC on the 2020 presidential ticket, it would seem that your priorities should not be a challenge.
Michele, Great article. The real Beast lives amongst you. It is Adelson , Jared,the Mar A Lago crowd, all the "moneyed Jews"that voted for a tax cut. The ones that vote for BIBI to succeed and drive the Palestinians into the ocean and for Trump to start another war with Iran.
Let the voices that were so prominent in Vietnam Anti-war movement sing again.
5
Forgive him, father. Trump does not know of what he speaks. These are dark days.
A militantly xenophobic government is building internment camps for members of ethnic out-groups, and Jewish leaders worried that critics of this project were disrespecting the memory of the Holocaust?
THANK YOU, Michelle, for saying this out loud, and succinctly. I have been getting hammered by some of my Jewish friends for saying the same. I now am in good company.
2
Thank you for your essay. Trump is a brigand and a cad; The philosophical of american judaism is, largely, one of decency and ethics. Siding with the bad kushners and bibi does not make one a friend of the jews,,,just a friend of bad people. Trump, as a very bad person himself, doesn't know or care. Thanks Michelle for sharing an important voice.
3
Now if we can only get some of them to help out with the 20k (yes 20k) homeless kids in NYC.
Right on, Michelle. And it's going to be deeply satisfying to see President Mediocre Columbo Villain ending his life either as a) the victim of a rage-induced stroke/heart attack or b) in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison as a result.
3
Thank you for this beautiful article. There are many of us who are Jewish and who see behind this ridiculous dog and pony show which is the Trump administration. It is so odious and so toxic, that years from now I am certain that we will use Donald Trump and his administration as a benchmark for everything that an American president should NOT be.
It was not long ago that racism and anti-Semitism were seen as birds of a feather. It’s time for the rest of America to wake up and understand that the current occupant of the Oval Office is not just careless - he is dangerous. What he stands for, if he stands for anything at all is a threat to the fabric and foundation of what we refer to as our civil liberties.
3
Once again, we see the contrast between Jews and evangelical Christians. The former clearly understand the real meaning of Trump's pandering to Netanyahu's narrow interests in Israel, while he implies that American Jews have no future in this country. Many evangelicals, on the other hand, ignore the president's violation of virtually every value that Jews and Christians share.
Antisemites tiresomely repeat their slanders against the Jewish people, while they pay no attention to the corruption of an evangelical movement which has lost all credibility with anyone who cares about democracy and integrity. In this bizarre environment in which Trump and his 'Christian' followers have attempted to destroy all the landmarks that show the way to a decent society, the Jewish protest movement remains a moral compass with its needle pointed due north.
3
I'm glad the Times is finally publishing an article that emphasizes the large progressive contingent of American Jews. To read the mainstream media - - with its lionization of American Jewish Establishment organizations - - one would think that American Jews tend to be center-right. More Americans need to be made be aware that the American Jewish organizations usually quoted by the media (which tend to be centrist and right) do not represent a majority of American Jews.
4
"...because no amount of support for a foreign country can redeem what he’s doing to this one. "
thank-you.
2
"The Jewish left rejects the idea that anti-Zionism is equivalent to anti-Semitism, but even more than that, it rejects the idea that Israel is the guarantor of Jewish safety or the lodestar of Jewish identity."
I've often wondered why it's automatically assumed American Jews automatically support Israel no matter who leads it or what he does. The fact that Donald Trump has attached himself at the hip to Netanyahu for political reasons, and thus acts as if he's "owed" undying loyalty from American Jews is as arrogant as it's condescending.
Religion has no place in our politics, and yet this president--the most nonreligious of any we've had-- loves using it as a foil, whether it's evangelicals or Jews. What's rarely discussed is his despicable silence in the face of anti-semitism among white nationalists and use of anti-semitic symbols to attack political enemies like Hillary Clinton.
I can't imagine why any person of faith, let alone those suffering centuries of stigma and pain would condone Trump's behavior. Thank you Michelle Goldberg for tackling this immensely important issue.
7
Despite having Jewish heritage, for years I was afraid that I was anti-Semitic because I couldn't help feeling that Israel and Zionism were racist concepts and that the whole idea of a "chosen people" was divisive and antithetical to Democratic ideals. It took me a long time to accept Israel's existence as a non-negotiable entity which I now support 100%. But now I'm getting confused. Many of the doubts and concerns I once tried to suppress about Israel are now blossoming into full view in the Democratic Party. I'm afraid about where this might be leading.
2
"For Jews on the left, fear has been magnified by insult as Trump, the man who helped unleash a new wave of anti-Semitism, posed as the Jews’ savior because of his devotion to the Israeli right."
If there is a blessing to be derived from the present exercise, it is that Trump has forced his critics to become clearer and more precise in defining who they are and what they stand for. Vague generalities can be twisted into their opposites.
Israel under Bibi is a willing pawn in Trump's effort to pander to the Christian fundamentalist right. Israel is a cog in a fundamentalist prophecy machine that has assigned it a key role to play in generating an "end times" historical narrative. The payoff for Bibi is to be able to claim for Israel the support of the powerful American military apparatus as a loyal and uncritical ally, a claim that enhances Bibi's domestic political position.
American Jews mostly have been bystanders in this geopolitical drama. The Christian right sports a newfound affection for Jews based on its specification of Israel's historic role, not an intrinsic sympathy for Jewish thought or culture. The fact that liberal Jews may support Israel for reasons contrary to the thrust of the fundamentalist narrative has been obscured by the initial wave of political fervor generated by Bibi, Trump and some Jewish lobbying groups.
As Goldberg relates, Jews are now more carefully reading the fine print of the Trumpian bargain and starting to reject what they find there.
1
Brava, Ms. Goldberg. Brilliant.
4
About hereness: for the late Czech-American actor Jiri Voskovec (born Wachsmann) “home is where I hang my hat”.
3
Inspiring! thank you to all protesters & to Michelle Goldberg for the article. Your courageous protests uplift all of us to remember our common humanity. Goodness reigns thru your actions.
85
As a 53-year-old who has been involved in Jewish progressive activity since my 20s, it's clear to me that progressive Jews are middle-aged, as well. In addition, many are involved in Israel peace and justice efforts, which are the equivalents of American progressive Jewish organizations. In other words, as many of us in the U.S. are building Jewish commitment to a range of concerns here--from human rights to animal rights and environmental justice--so, too, are progressive Israelis trying to build Israeli - Palestinian peace from the ground up, advancing women's rights, GLBTQ freedoms, immigrant and refugee justice, and anti-racism in Israel itself. Israeli activists and diaspora activists can and do make common cause, and it's common cause for concerns outside the vision of the establishment, centrist, and often myopic mainstream American Jewish organizations.
30
Thank you so much for a beautifully written essay.
33
I read Ms Goldberg's article because I wanted to hear from the more open part of the Jewish community. I am impressed and I join you in saying “never again means Never Again for all.”
Maybe the best good of this failed Trump-GOP-Russia Admin that we have is how much it has shown what could go wrong. I can only imagine all those people who did not like HRC or were thinking Trump really can't be as bad as my eyes are showing me, who either voted for Trump or did not vote. I imagine many, maybe a majority, now thinking I could have prevented this terror on the world by giving a woman a chance.
Let's face it, even in the aftermath of Golda Meir & Margaret Thatcher, the presence of Angela Merkel & countless other good women leaders, even against a known misogynist, so many women still voted for Trump - because he was a man.
After reading all the info released after Charlottesville, Heather Heyer became a personal hero of mine, as she was the lone person who made the ultimate sacrifice for all humanity at that event.
Let there “Never Again” be a woman denied or majorly damaged just because she is a woman. I, a male, ask all women reading this really on the mark article to think about all the people vying for POTUS, as well the Miscreant who is, to give some hard thought to giving a woman the chance to lead us out of the quagmire we are in. Please, first vote Blue & from there, Vote Pink! Do so across the ballot.
Women, don't hate each other, support good women, our sisters.
44
@WorldPeace24/7
Believing that disgraceful Trump thing was patently unelectable, I excused myself from the 2016 ballot.
(Had there been a write-in option, my choice was Michelle Obama by reason of character, competence and the moral momentum she and Barack led.)
The popular vote count proved me correct by a 3 million margin. But the electoral college proved me terribly wrong in trusting that democracy would prevail.
And today, in Ms. Goldberg's essay and across the land, I hear the warning echo of The Question from the midst of the LA riots in 1992: "Why can't we all just get along?"
(attributed to Rodney King, RIP.)
It's a simple question and so is the answer, but it's hidden in the last place we choose to look:
the mirror.
I am grateful for this article. Most Jewish neighbors, colleagues and friends are wonderfully kind and open minded. People I truly like and admire.
However, I cannot feel the same for Netanyahu, and for Israel to some extent. I think Netanyahu is really a bad actor in the world. And Israel keeps re-electing him.
So I feel very conflicted sometimes. I cannot believe that any Jewish can support what Trump is doing to immigrants.
Nazy Germany did not start with concentration camps. It started with with the concept that those considered alien, or worst, “inferior” should be excluded. History tell us where all that horror ended.
I am not saying we will end up there again. The Holocoust was simply to horrific to contemplate and I pray that we know better.
But it is up to all Americans ( including Jewish Americans) to stand up to those who want to divide us and/or to exclude others. And at the end, we have to ask ourselves, If Trump and his sycophants can do this to one group, what is to prevent them to do it to another.
57
@CRL Thank you for saying what I and many of my friends struggle to put into words.
I simply cannot respect Netanyahu or Israel. I think the (mostly) older people who pressure the government to support Israel in the awful things it has been doing are no longer relevant and that they don't see Israel how it really is. I cannot understand why they have been allowed to exert so much influence for so long over our government--why we're supporting Israel--and look forward to the day that they're not here.
That's just my two cents as an observer. I'm not an expert on the history of Israel or Jewish Americans. I wouldn't dream of getting involved in discussion with anyone who is because those discussions are so often insane and acrimonious. My point is that I think there are many people like me, who don't feel invested in any way in Israel and don't see why we're continuing to fund Israel and support its actions. And the more nuttiness and unpleasantness I hear from the usual Jewish/Israeli voices, the more strongly I feel about this whereas in the past, people like me would have stayed quiet.
Until I read this article, I had no idea that there were reasonable Jewish people out there. I'm so glad there are and I hope they will become more vocal.
1
@CRL
my whole premise for supporting OTT(other than---) is immigration, and for being Jewish In the 1930s Jews were kept out of cuntries they wanted to flee as the clearly visible Nazi persecution got closer and closer. And the US wilted under FDR (one of the few but significant disagreements i have with FDR's history)
As a people fleeing imminent danger, and then clearly death (FDR knew about the camps but refused to bomb the rail lines ), Jews should know and behave in the most humanitarian way possible
Instead we get Netenyahu and right wing emotion driven fanatics who hitch their stars to a wagon that only sees them for their usefullness in fulfilling a mission to Christ: the Second coming requires Jews to be gathered in their homeland-ALL Jews... to convert us to Christianity
giving credence to these fanatics is clearly self destructive. Thankfully we Jews have a clear rational choice: helping tose who are seeking safety for themselves and their families...a great humanitarian crusade.
As for the radical extremists driven by an emotional lightening bolt: i truly feel sorry for them...and tell them that every single chance I get.
we all should do something similar...for if we even change only one person's outlook, we'll have done a great mitzvah
2
Jesus, took them long enough! Until reading this article, I had no idea there was any significant opposition to the views I have come to associate with Jewish voices, which, frankly, strike me as shocking and hateful. I'm particularly pleased to see condemnation of the criticism that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez received when she likened the detention camps to concentration camps.
The Trump Jewish voices don't seem to understand that things are changing and that they're only hastening the changes. The older people who support the Israeli government regardless of its actions are disappearing. People like me, who know only what we see on the news and who view World War II as a distant
event and a poor excuse for justifying what is happening now, increasingly wonder why on Earth we're handing over so much money to a country that ignores us and hurts people and why even saying that generates ugly accusations and defensiveness. Every hateful, intolerant, Trump-supporting comment from the traditional voices helps hasten this change.
I have often wondered what is going on in the Jewish community, what it means that no one has spoken out against Trump and the Israeli government. This article is reassuring.
24
@Ant
Excuse me @Ant. What could you possibly mean when you say "no one has spoken out against Trump and the Israeli government."? Jews have been among the loudest voices condemning this dangerous president. And while loving the fact of Israel and the ideals of the founders, American Jews have also been in the forefront of objecting to the occupation and the expansion of settlements on the West Bank.
4
@Ant The enthusiasm with which you greet this essay is refreshing. It is also a good reminder that no community should be seen as monolithic. There have always been Jewish progressive voices, far more than there have been conservative ones. The same variety of opinion can be found among Muslims, among African-Americans, among the LBGTQ community. While it is important to understand pervasive ideas that shape a community, it is equally important to assume, always, that there is a diversity of opinion and, frankly, to seek out opinions that diverge. Not to do so is to consider all Jews, or the totality of any community, cut from the same cloth. If you wonder what is going on in a community, you owe it to the community to find out, lest you become bigoted.
2
@Doris I'm telling you that as someone who makes a lot of effort to stay informed about what's going on in the world, I simply haven't seen any evidence for what you're saying. I'm sorry, but there it is.
Stoking fear is Trump's only tactic. To universal surprise, most of all his own, he eked out a win in 2016. For a con to persist, however, it's essential the rubes not know they are being conned. The little man behind the curtain has been revealed; and as seen in the 2018 midterm elections, a momentous wave or Trump repudiation will swamp all Republicans in 2020.
17
God, I hope so. ALL Republicans must be voted out, which, I know, is wishful thinking, as many as possible, then.
1
@Dave from your lips to g-d’s ears.
Although I am a baptized Catholic Christian I am heartened that the diabolical work of Trump and Netanyahu has galvanized a large swath of my fellow citizens who are Jewish, but like myself, lean left in their tradition. For far too long, the interests of Israel in the United States have been loudest from white Evangelical Protestants, especially in the Bible Belt. Mike Pompeo is the prototype for such a mouthpiece.
The GOP, but especially under Trump, cynically uses Zionism, the Diaspora, and American Jews to drive up enthusiasm among this most important constituency for national republican victories.
As I am sure most readers of this column are aware, these so called ‘Christians’ are a very self-serving lot, much like the president who they worship as if he is Moses or Jesus. Trump, of course, is all to happy to participate as in the blasphemy. The tragedy is Evangelical theology is morose and entirely self-serving, and cares zilch for our Jewish brothers and sisters. Every Jew and everyone else for that matter, except for Evangelicals they believe, will suffer in the tribulations when Jesus returns To Jerusalem at his second coming. The rapture as they call it. They, however, are the only ones to be saved. It’s all about them and their salvation this devotion, a cynical ploy that PM Netanyahu and Pres Trump are using for their own political gain, but are extremely dangerous for the long term peace and security of the state of Israel.
40
Thanks for this article as it clears up many issues that Trump has created.
7
I read Ms Goldberg's article because I wanted to hear from the more open part of the Jewish community. I am impressed and I join you in saying “never again means Never Again for all.”
Maybe the best good of this failed Trump-GOP-Russia Admin that we have is how much it has shown what could go wrong. I can only imagine all those people who did not like HRC or were thinking Trump really can't be as bad as my eyes are showing me, who either voted for Trump or did not vote. I imagine many, maybe a majority, now thinking I could have prevented this terror on the world by giving a woman a chance.
Let's face it, even in the aftermath of Golda Meir & Margaret Thatcher, the presence of Angela Merkel & countless other good women leaders, even against a known misogynist, so many women still voted for Trump - because he was a man.
After reading all the info released after Charlottesville, Heather Heyer became a personal hero of mine, as she was the lone person who made the ultimate sacrifice for all humanity at that event.
Let there “Never Again” be a woman denied or majorly damaged just because she is a woman. I, a male, ask all women reading this really on the mark article to think about all the people vying for POTUS, as well the Miscreant who is, to give some hard thought to giving a woman the chance to lead us out of the quagmire we are in. Please, first vote Blue & from there, Vote Pink! Do so across the ballot.
Women, don't hate each other, support good women, our sisters.
4
@WorldPeace24/7, I agree with most of what you said but I won't vote Pink just to be voting for a woman. I will vote for the best candidate regardless. I voted for Hillary Clinton and, unfortunately, I don't see any woman in the Democratic field that measures up to her, but I will vote for the Democratic candidate, no matter whether it is a man or woman.
1
I listen to the podcast that Michelle Goldberg does with Ross Douthat and David Leonhardt (The Argument). I recommend it. I don't agree with her about every single thing, but she's intelligent, quick, and insightful. I always learn from her. Douthat is also extremely intelligent. I almost never agree with him, but I learn from him also. Leonhardt seems to mostly serve as a moderator or balance to whatever is happening in the moment between the other two.
6
@Madeline Conant
Yes, it is important to listen and learn. . .we don't always need to agree. The question then becomes what do we do with our learning.
1
At the discussion of "The Paris Architect" by Charles Belfoure, by my book club I related an anecdote based on a question commonly posed among Jews (& possibly other groups persecuted by the Fascist regimes) after World War II "Who would hide you?"
I clearly remember this question posed, not by my parents, but in summer camp (Cejwin) and in Hebrew School.
I did not ask for an answer to the question but was heartened by some members of the book club automatically and clearly stating, yes, I would hide you.
After saying, "thank you" I said we really don't know how we would react in such situations until situation presents itself. Yes, these are righteous men.
BTW, this book club has been meeting for over 40 years and is composed of men of ten different religious (including atheists) groups and various political thought from conservative to ultra-liberal.
5
Trumpism thrives on causing division and fear. The best way to defeat it is for people of all persuasions to come together and present a wall of intolerance for those who hate and the groups who support them, no matter who or which groups those are. Once Trump is defeated we are going to have to have a conversation about the terrorists within our own country and the Republican party that they have found to be a home. A political party that accepts terrorist splinter groups within its membership, rather than forcibly and demonstrably eject and reject them, is a terrorist party.
25
If only more American Christians would do the same, reject this administration and voice their opinions. Our nation would be better for.it.
26
While Ms. Goldberg's column deals specifically with Jewish resistance to white right-wing ideology, it reminded me, an atheist, that mankind has an innate capacity for goodness that transcends national borders, races, religious beliefs, politics and all other ways in which man separates himself from others.
13
I'm sad it took such tragedy to bring this resurgence of the Jewish Left, but I'm so glad for this resurgence. As someone long committed to fighting both for Palestinian freedom and against anti-Semitism, I am heartened by the rise of this movement.
9
As a lifelong member of the Jewish left who lacks the adjectives to describe/condemn Trump, I have to *strongly* disagree with your statements that Israel is not an ally or a guarantor of Jewish safety, and that our primary concern as diaspora Jews is only ourselves and not the whole Jewish community (including of course, Israel). I can only partially resonate with your version of Jewish leftism, and I suspect many more will agree with me. Thanks for your article nonetheless.
6
I object to this article's lumping Jewish Americans into factions - left, right or center. Each individual is unique, with some preferences that are conservative, liberal,religious, secular and everything in between. The "Jewish Left" does not speak for me, any more than the Evangelical Friends of Israel does.
3
@JerryWegman the article specifically refers to the rise of organized Jewish resistance groups. Clearly it doesn’t refer to you, someone who appears to be satisfied sitting on the sidelines observing this rise of ant-Semitic violence by the American right.
1
Very very poignant and most altruistic.
I wonder however, if the shoe was on the other foot, whether our Muslim bretheren would be so proactive about the plight of Jewish refugees. I suspect not.
9
When we attach labels to a group we lose sight of the individual. I know many good kind Muslim that would step forward and and assist a non Muslim. We need to remind each other to stop and talk and listen.
@George What a shocking response, especially in light of the fact that, like Jews, those of the Muslim faith have had to deal with bigotry and violence - just because of who they are and what they believe. I would remind you of what happened after the massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. In the immediate aftermath, the Muslim community reached out in love and support. Statements such as this are at the root of the problems of racism and bigotry in this country. No one should condemn another group of people with baseless accusations that are so misguided
2
@George this is incorrect. After the Pittsburgh shooting, the Muslin community raised funds and was out front in their vocal support for the Jewish community.
1
There is ample bandwidth in the debate amongst American Jews of the risks and benefits of conservative versus liberal politics. For reasons having more to do with external influences, and to our collective detriment, and with few exceptions, the polarization has aligned according to measures of religious observance. One can almost guarantee that a discussion with a Chabad rabbi will lead to a smiling endorsement of Trump, while a Reformed sermon will mention him only with disdain. As both a Reformed and Republican Jew, I have started to look for unicorns. On the other hand, I think that splinter groups, whether on the right or the left, are toxic to the solidarity and bipartisan presence that has been the touchstone of political Jewishness.
Jews are a minority in America, albeit a vocal, active, and important force owing to our dedication to the well being of our country. It is collective foolishness to allow the politics of the day to further divide us. Accordingly, the formation of new activist organizations, whether on the left or the right, is the absolute wrong response. The awakening of previously apathetic people now motivated to participate is good; however doing so in the context of small, splinter organizations is like spitting in the ocean with the wind in your face.
3
@J as a Jew, I can say this comment reeks of guilt. Hopefully, others caught in the contradiction you now face, will show more courage and recognize that the Republican Party has long ago stopped being the party of traditional Conservatism (small government, fiscal restraint) and has been overtaken by soulless multinational capital, detached from patriotism and happy to foster racial and religious division in the name of consolidating power to consolidate wealth.
1
Jewish and left in politics is almost synonymous. We are a long ways from Marx or Lenin and the first 8 members, all Jewish, of the first Soviet and the definition of Left has changed dramatically over the decades, but the Jewish presence in the left’s intellectual vanguard is a constant since the Bolshevik Revolution.
3
I hate to burst your bubble, but I think--sadly--that Trump is courting a certain strain of upper- and upper-middle-class urban and suburban Jewish voters who grew up Democrat but are now swing voters, if not closet Republicans. The kinds of people who try to Israelier-than-thou each other around the High Holidays tables. People who grew up middle class and then went into one of the professions and have grown comfortable and complacent. People like Jared Kushner and his buddies. That's what I think this is about. Again, sad.
9
@Bill Rosenblatt Jews voted 71% for HRC and Dems in 2016. That number jumped to 76% in 2018. You are caught in a North Jersey bubble.
This is one of the most gratifying pieces I've read in some time. But we should be clear on what drove this situation: for decades, Israel has moved further and further to the right and been more and more brutal in its treatment of the Palestinians. The Jewish establishment in the US was happy to claim it was "liberal" and yet, at the same time, provide almost unquestioning support for Israel that translated into almost unified bipartisan support for everything Israeli governments did. There was always a massive hypocrisy in that and an even greater cognitive dissonance that, eventually, led to a situation where young Jewish Americans began realizing that their liberal values were actually at odds with blanket support for Israel. The Jewish establishment continued to put support for Israel before every other consideration. Not surprisingly, it eventually found itself in bed with Trump - a man who is, essentially, a much stupider version of Israel's Netanyahu.
12
@s.whether
Bernie Sanders should put his money where his mouth is. He talks about a political revolution where millions of people take to the streets to protest the current state of affairs. If he really has the power to motivate the masses to act as they are now doing in Hong Kong, he should do it right now to protest all the despicable actions of the Trump administration.
That would show the power of his words, help his campaign and prove his point.
After all, there’s plenty to protest against right now. Why wait?
4
Two things that are difficult to comprehend: why any woman would vote Republican and why anyone in the Jewish community would vote Republican? Two traditionally oppressed groups in America, yet some in those groups were downright proud of their vote for Donald Trump.
Is it stubbornness combined with foolhardiness that fills these voters with joy and assurance that their man, Trump, won despite all odds? There should be no joy, nor assurance, because their vote, in essence for male-dominated nationalism, unleashed really dangerous people who believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do; 1930's Germany redux.
8
American Jews have always supported causes that are only lately called left-leaning: They have always promoted justice, most notably in open support of civil rights’ advancement. And, there’s support of education, the arts, and philanthropy in general.
The president’s blurt is inexcusable, mostly because it shows, once again, his ignorance:
News Flash: Not all Jews blindly support all of Israel’s actions, both internal and international. Americans, including American Jews can, and do, discuss and debate, and sometimes agree with, and sometimes disagree mightily with, Israel’s paths.
I venture that the recent ‘left’ protestors’ path, against xenophobia and racism, and against the extremes of our shameful border policies, and frustration of voting and other civil rights, are promotive of a higher morality than many of Israel’s actions. So, the reaction by Americans, Jewish or not, to Trump’s thinly veiled ploy, is no surprise. Mazel Tov for saying so.
8
The test that I apply is this: What would the world say if a government was treating Jews the way Israel is treating the Palestinians? The world said little in the 1930's, to the lasting shame of any person with a conscience. That shame does not, and should not, excuse an open-eyed, objective look at the policies and actions being taken all over the world; the treatment of religious minorities by government power all over the world. We cannot condemn the treatment of the Rohingya people by Myanmar; we cannot condemn the treatment of the Uyghurs by China; we cannot condemn the enslavement of Yazidis by ISIL without also looking at the persecution of other populations based on religious differences. Were any other country to systematically treat Jews the way Israel systematically treats Palestinians, the world would condemn it, and rightly so. Treating Palestinians with the same respect Jews demand in the rest of the world might even be a start towards getting reciprocal treatment for Israel... perhaps that could be the basis for negotiation? Jared Kushner's "plan" was as dead on arrival as the protesters shot at the Gaza border fences... recognition that there is -no- innocence or 'right side' in this conflict might be a real start to a 'plan' that could work. Instead we get Trump's reflexive pucker when Netanyahu needs a political pick-me-up. Time for a new, and truly independent US foreign policy approach.
13
@Jim Brokaw
I agree. We looked the other way when Trump discriminated against the Mexicans calling them rapists and killers.
We did the same when it was clear he only liked Norwegians and hated brown and black people.
He keeps insulting our dark skin senators and leaders who oppose him.
After three years of demeaning and insulting Americans,
with great support by many wealthy American Jews in his cabinet and elsewhere, after three years of Bibi interfering
in our democracy and commanding Trump policies to help Israel, we now witness the American Jews outrage because Trump dared insult their intelligence.
Where were the American Jews during the islamophobic,
hateful outburst of Trump? What about the outrage of The apartheid in Israel?
As Americans we have to support all Americans and stay true to our values. Our policies should reflect our own values not Israel’s.
Sick and tired of American candidates’ credentials being tested by how loyal they are to Israel.
I guess there's a silver lining inside even orange-colored clouds.
1
And yet, if history has proved anything it is that a Jew, no matter how entrenched he/she may feel in diaspora, will always be looked upon as an outsider. And when the economy or politics takes a turn for the worse, the scapegoating begins in insidious ways. The only caveat is that now there is an Israel, despite its warts, that has its primary interest the safeguarding of Jews. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
5
Thanks, Ms Goldberg. You hit the nail on the head with yet another example of how Trump fails to consider the downstream repercussions of his actions. He starts a trade war with China and a strong base of his support (farmers) gets strangled. He promised in mid-June that a tremendous new healthcare plan would be rolled out in just two months without first checking with Mitch McConnell (who jettisoned the idea in less than a minute). He promised action on gun purchase background checks before he checked with Wayne LaPierre. (Same result.) And he promised to sign any bipartisan immigration reform bill before checking with Hannity, Coulter and Limbaugh. (Ditto)
By now you think he would have learned a lesson. But perhaps it is true what they say about old dogs....
622
@Tom Q
Nope not true. My 6 year old Golden learns new stuff all the time.
94
@Tom Q: Please and kindly refrain from referring to Trump with any expressions, axioms, metaphors and old sayings, that feature dogs; that's tantamount to insulting the species.
Talk about animal cruelty.
189
@Tom Q Don't compare the conman to "old dogs". Old dogs have compassion, show loyalty, are good comrades and fast friends. The Con is nothing like an old dog, unless that dog happens to have rabies.
24
Goldberg is joking, of course. Beginning with Trotsky the majority have always been on the "left"--even Southern Poverty admits that truth, I'm sure.
As everyone knows, especially in our Sovietized mass-media, the roots of America's left arrived in New York City running from Stalin during the 1930s, and so the tradition remains.
21
@Alice's Restaurant: Nonsense. You are clearly unfamiliar with the American Left, which was the seed that grew to become New England Values. And New England was the site of the first Jewish congregation in the colonies. It was New England veterans of the Revolutionary War who settled the Old Northwest Territories, and prohibited slavery from ever rising there. Massachusetts, which then included Maine and New Hampshire, established tax-supported public schools in this country, open to all children regardless of their parents' ability to pay. It was the first implementation of "socialism" in the new colonies that became "the United States."
1
I am happy to glean from today's column that Michelle Goldberg knows the two Hebrew words "Mazel Tov." I don't consider her anti-Zionism as making her a "good Jew." I don't think that the combined energy of all the Left-Wing Jewish groups she listed will redound that much to the survival and growth of the Jewish People. I disagree that the extreme Right in America today is more dangerous for Jews than the extreme Left. I believe that the verdict of history will be favorable about the strength, wisdom, and judgment of both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu vis-a-vis the respective antithetical qualities of their detractors. Personally, I am getting ready to switch my political affiliation to Republican. I do believe that I am a constructive American citizen in my civic and cultural responsibilities. I am hopeful that my vision of an autonomous federated entity of Palestine under the sovereignty of a "one-state" Israel will win the day.
49
@Edward R Levenson: neither of us will likely live to learn the “verdict of history” , but concerning at least “wisdom and judgment” I am fairly certain you will be proven wrong as to Mr. Trump. I wish I could understand how someone could even think that.
18
@Edward R. Levenson
I can't authoritatively speak to Mr. Netanyahu, but I have considerable familiarity with evangelical Christianity, and I can say they are not your friends. They support Trump because he pushes their agenda and it's mutual, purely pragmatic. Trump supports their positions as a quid pro quo. Otherwise, I don't think there's more than one or two commandments he hasn't broken.
The eCs, as I like to call them, support Israel because the New Testament tells them to. In their world view, facilitating Jews in Israel prefaces the second coming of the Messiah. They feel they share a common bond with the Bible with Jews, and finally, they wouldn't mind converting some before the end of days. In their minds, though, Jews who do not embrace Christianity will not be saved.
You know well the history of Christians and Jews is problematic and only recently this reverential to Jews and Israel. I would not take this as a long-term change of heart. There are still plenty of eCs who have great antipathy to Jews, which you must have seen.
Lest you get too comfortable with your new friends, maybe read Lucy Dawidowicz's "The War Against the Jews". If you've read it, maybe reread it. If you feel comfortable about the wisdom of Trump, I assume you also feel comfortable about the wisdom of Joe McCarthy, because they were both guided by the same man, Roy Cohn.
12
@Edward R. Levenson
"I am hopeful that my vision of an autonomous federated entity of Palestine under the sovereignty of a "one-state" Israel will win the day."
I wonder what that would actually look like. Would everyone living under this sovereign state have the right to vote in Israeli elections?
3
I started going to—participating in—a Shabbat service the weekend after Pittsburgh, and have not missed a week since. While I had always observed the major holidays and went to the occasional Shabbat service, I decided that day that it is my responsibility to be part of a community.
It was one of the best decisions of my life.
Chazak v’amatz: be strong and resolute.
14
I grew up in Long Island. My 6th grade teacher was Mrs. Strauss. She changed this young gentile boy's life, teaching me respect for myself and others, and communicated a profound sense of dignity and integrity, and commitment to higher purpose.
When I heard about "Never Again Now," I felt hope. which is so rare these days. I like to imagine my first mentor, Mrs. Strauss, looking down from heaven and saying, "Not on our watch!"
21
Thank you for this column Ms Goldberg. I am happy to hear about this progressive grass roots organizing in your community.
I wish more progressive black and jewish organizations were working together (perhaps they are and we do not hear of it). The two groups have a political and activist history going back to at least the founding of the NAACP 110 years ago. The relationship has gone through ups and downs (of course) for various reasons in different eras since then. Now once again we face a common enemy...
4
Thank you, Michelle, for this essay. My best friend is Jewish, and I quickly forwarded this piece to her. My husband's close friend (now deceased), and truly his mentor, was a Reformed Jewish Rabbi. He grew up in South Carolina and knew well the pain of bigotry. But he also empathized with those "others." In this case, they were southern African American men, women, and children. He marched with them in the 60's and was proudly arrested with them. As we fast forward to today, all I can say is that I am sorry for what our Jewish neighbors are subjected to under this Trumpian paradigm. All I can say is that I am with you all in heart and soul.
11
Although I was raised by liberal-leaning, highly educated parents (Protestant roots,) sadly, politics and social activism weren’t much discussed with my brothers and sister and me when we were young, and I can’t say I had anything resembling a social/political conscience when I became a teenager in the early 60’s.
I do remember however all the shock and horror I felt when the black civil rights activist James Chaney, along with Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1964. The fact that Goodman and Schwerner were young Jewish activists always colored my perception afterwards of the Jewish community as a guiding light in fighting oppression and social injustice, and it was reinforced in the protest movements of the 60’s.
I am very heartened to read this column by Michelle Goldberg about the “Never Again” movement and the pushback against Trump’s new exclusionary nationalism, by compassionate and progressive Jewish groups, as I was beginning to worry that they had gone to sleep. We need all engaged humane activists now more than ever.
8
Thank you, Michelle, for this excellent piece. You've given us something worthy of reflection. And I learned a new word from your essay, doikayt. I think tied to the concept of doikayt is inclusivity and connection. My ex served in Iraq, and told me Iraqis, who have their own complex mix of minorities, were impressed that the U.S. military was so diverse, yet still functioned as a cohesive unit. That is the strength of American soft power, which we often fall short of but should still strive for. If we move more to self-segregation, we will have less understanding, less tolerance, and a greater push for dominance that can lead to violence. We can't let the haters take hold of this narrative. Like JFK, we have to envision the world as it should be and work to make it so.
5
I was taught to respect human life more than anything else in life.? Human life not just Jewish human life. At home by my parents and grandparents (Holocaust survivors) and st Schul by rabbis and elders in the congregations. Jewish people tend towards progressive movements and socialism not because of anything more than the fact that they are taught to respect human lives.
Unfortunately many in the US follow their brethren in Israel who lost their way and what they were taught by history, a long and sad history.
I am delighted to hear we are moving in the right direction. Tikkun Olam is the principle we should all follow. Jews and gentiles alike.
10
Thank you for putting forth the nuances of the protest in such eloquent form. All of us up for this fight against the hate coming from this administration and anywhere must understand that it is as diverse as this republic and yet common in the mission. Silence is no longer an option. Never again.
8
“Where we are is our home. This is what we fight for. This is where we seek kinship,” said Audrey Sasson, JFREJ’s executive director. The first post-relaunch issue of Jewish Currents featured an essay by the publisher, Jacob Plitman, called “On an Emerging Diasporism,” which likewise celebrated the value of “hereness.”
After enduring another week in the world of Trump, this article gives me hope. And that is a wonderful and precious thing. Thank you Ms. Goldberg.
9
How Bernie Sanders hasn't captured the imagination of American Jews I can't understand.
He's the most authentic, articulate and consistent candidate and I agree with his policy priorities.
I'm not Jewish, but surely American Jews would like to see someone like that be the first Jewish President (as opposed to a flip-flopping sellout to insurance companies and other big donors like Lieberman).
2
Thank you Ms. Goldberg! The day this man was nominated as the Republican candidate I put on a Jewish star for the first time in over 20 years and have not taken it off since. My skin is 'white' but I wanted to be seen as what I am - part of an identified group by Trump and his followers like the immigrants, Muslims, people of color, LGBTQ . . . I immediately became a Jewish activist when for years I was simply an activist. My work in the theatre has shifted to use my Jewish roots in my projects connecting the dots to the social challenges we must confront. I became curious about 'my tribe' in ways I never have been. I suppose I'm grateful for this moment. In deepening my knowledge and commitment I feel far more connected to all other human beings. Jews play the human drama in our bones. With thousands of years of discrimination we certainly know how to survive it. We can gift that to others in solidarity. That is Tikkun Olam.
10
This received too little coverage: A guard at an ICE-contracted private prison in Rhode Island drives his pickup into Never Again protesters, sending two of them to the hospital. He parks the thing and in uniform strides into work as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, fellow guards follow up, under who knows what kind of authority, with pepper spray. Local police observe, but don't intervene. It was an assault on non-violent protesters by a federal contractor. Where is the outrage? Where are the Democrats?
25
@Teddy Chesterfield
Has anything happened since regarding this attempted murder, and that's what was?
2
Another bright light in the dark wilderness of our discontent. Keep these stories coming; it’s the only way I’m surviving this nightmare.
6
This article is refreshing to read ! I like to think these views represent the silent majority of American people of Jewish faith and ancestry.
One immediate contribution they can make is to equip non Jewish people with the proper vocabulary to denounce, Netanyahu’s - and his American backers, policies.
2
Thank you. Your article gave me hope for the first time in quite a while.
3
I can't help but notice that Trump is "very popular" - his words- in countries where he is not.
3
@Alan H.
He tells lies 20 times a day.
Consider the source!
1
Trump betrays everyone and everything when they no longer suit his purposes. There has never been an exception. Those who have joined with him to advance their own goals will be abandoned and vilified in their turn.
6
There are many of Christians who are right there with you. The idea that many of these "right wing evangelical Christians" ( it bothers me to even refer to them as Christians) have highjacked the true Christian teachings of "love", "charity", "forgiveness" and the principle of "there but for the Grace of God go I" with support for, "Gun Rights", the "Death Penalty" and "Hatred for the Other" makes me truly angry. The fact that many Right Wing Christians have started to deify Trump and that Trump himself recently implied that he was the "Second Coming" makes me feel that my head is about to explode.
16
ANY person who only became politically active because of DT shouldn't be allowed to vote. Being a citizen is a full-time job.
Michelle, I so appreciate your articulate voice and also enjoy seeing you on TV panels. You and Bari Weiss clear the path through the tangled woods of what it means to be Jewish and American. Growing up on the south coast of N.S.W. a Dutch post WW2 immigrant, I became acquainted for the first time with Jewish communities in the eastern suburbs of Sydney in the late sixties as a college student. As a Christian I hate how Trump has weaponized far right Christianity to his cause. In this essay you help us understand the insults felt as Trump "posed as the Jews' savior because of his devotion to the Israeli right". I love learning about "doikayt" or "hereness". Thank you for your sharp, instructive analysis.
4
I’ve spent six decades of my life as an evangelical, and I can tell you that the underlying motivation of evangelical Christian’s infatuation with Zionism has in my view nothing to do with guilt in silence or participation during the holocaust or the centuries of pogroms that proceeded the founding of Israel or affection for the Jewish people. Rather, it has to do with a plank critical to their identity politics.
Evangelical Christianity is primarily a political and cultural movement, not a faith. Politics is not informed by religious moral values. Rather, politics supersedes their religious beliefs. The fruits of the Moral Majority of the 1970s was a theology that was constructed to support Israel while mobilizing against the civil rights of gays, women, minorities, and immigrants.
The foundation of their pro-Zionism and anti-abortion derives from the end of times scriptures as they read it. This is why evangelicals are willing to overlook the contradictions of supporting unethical preachers and politicians and are equally willing to embrace, for example, the birtherism lies that gave rise to the Age of Trump.
7
Great Column Ms. Goldberg,
Is great that you separate the mess in Isreal/Palestine from the Jewish community in the US. It is simple to solve, but the world does not like simple solutions due to the power of the rich. Maybe someday it will be different,
Trump is the downfall of the US created world order after WW2. That will end if he is re-elected, if not before, and will be a sad and castastrophic day for this planet and all its many wonderful populations.
2
I’m an a non-observant Jewish immigrant from Brazil. I feel taken over by radical right in the country i was born, the country i became a citizen of, and my ancestral country. I feel lost. Perhaps these Jewish left organizations can help.
1
I’m pleased to see any form of push back against Trump and his rightist white nationalist agenda.
Given the degree of disagreement with Trump why are there not nation wide demonstrations against his administration?
The yellow vests here in France and the Hong Kong demonstrations are good examples of push back against authoritarian right wing governments.
3
There actually ARE nationwide (and international) demonstrations against his administration. They just don't get as much attention in the media because the occupant who has declared himself the "savior" is himself a circus sideshow. He sucks up all the air in the room, but there are many demonstrations against him.
Thank you for expressing my feelings and thoughts so directly! I've had countless arguments with Jewish friends and colleagues who have bought the notion of "Israel first," and turn a blind eye to the inhuman and racist discrimination of Israel's policies toward the Palestinians. Why can't we embrace one another and find peace and security through common goals? I was bewildered that comparing our immigration detention camps to concentration camps should be met with outrage - of course they're not exactly the same; the point is the similarities, the trend. I know one otherwise rational and progressive-thinking person who will support Trump solely because Trump is allegedly "the best" ally for Israel. All I can do is shake my head.
I am relieved to find that there are others who have reacted the same way I do.
8
Thank you so much Michelle for bringing truth, hope and sanity back into this conversation.
3
Now Trump says he was just kidding. We've seen this before, of course.
In the unlikely event that he is acting in good faith, here is some advice for the president:
1. Make your jokes funny.
2. When you make a joke, you should say, "That's a joke, son" a la Senator Cleghorn (and his cartoon rip-off Foghorn Leghorn).
3
Mazel Tov, Trump! Great article, insightful, inspiring.
1
I heard a comment on NPR that made some sense of Mr. Trump's bizarre language around Jews and Israel. The commentator suggested that Mr. Trump is really not very interested in American Jews at all, but instead is signaling to his base that he supports Israel. Evangelical Christians, who make up a large part of Trump's base, have a strong religious attachment to an *idea* of Israel as God's chosen land.
It makes some sense out of the president's weird ly-conflicting pronouncements about Jews if we assume he is playing to his base. He believes he can win with his base alone, and doesn't care about anyone else.
(As for trying to buy Greenland, that makes sense as just his ordinary greed; the island has a lot of rich resources.)
2
More outrage from people involved with the Women's March and pro-immigration protests. Oh yay, liberal activists are energized with outrage!
It sounds like the same story we've been hearing throughout the Trump administration, and just as likely to cause any change in the polls, or to improve Dems' chances in 2020.
In fact, the more pro-immigration protests are associated with Dems, the more likely Trump will be re-elected. Sad but true.
2
Bless you, Michelle. And thank you for this article. I've been quite despondent over the lack of what used to be a hopeful and strong voice for the principles of the left among Jews in the US. You've cheered me up considerably. But let me also compliment you on always having your ear to the ground of what's emerging and important in the country, and for so eloquently bringing it to our attention. I've grown ear-weary of the fast talking pundits on cable news shows and their constant hair-on-fire railing about Trump's despicable behavior instead of covering what's really going on under the chaotic side show Trump disaster -- the utter and intentional destruction of our institutions. But any time you're a guest on those shows I tune in, knowing the discussion will be a meaningful one, well researched, intelligently relayed and empowering for the listener. Thank you.
2
I sincerely hope that Progressives and Liberals learn a final lesson from our historic complacency. We've been reenergized by Trump. But, the fight never really ends, even if we're able to take back the White House and Congress. The reactionary and regressive forces that Trump represents have tasted their own victories. They also learned that the slow slog of take state houses, congressional seats, school boards and building power from the bottom up will win eventually. We need to remember that our staying home in all those off years without a shiny headliner to draw us to polls cost us redistricting power in 2010 may well cost us the Supreme Court and at least 20 years of horrid decisions. The lesson we need to learn from Trump is that the struggle never ends, that greed avarice and hate never really takes a day off. That means we can't either.
746
@AnObserver
If only we could get the money out of politics....relying on individual donations and not corporate largesse is one of so many reasons I’m supporting Senator Sanders for president. He is honest, consistent, and will work for all of us, not just the few.
23
@AnObserver well put and spot-on
In my experience - for instance from the 60s' civil rights and anti-war goings-actions, and being friends with and living in "Jewish dense" areas - gives me much admiration for them as people and as a philosophical group.
Reasoned - intelligent - cognizant of others - willing to fight for justice for all - no nonsense about rights.
No person nor group is perfect. But I am saying the individual Jews and the group as a whole scores high with me.
I hope that the progeny of "my" Jews do not turn a blind eye to the very real congruence between today and the 1930s.
This election in 2020 is NOT about the economy, health care, etc. etc. -- yes those things are important and need our attention - BUT we can float along while we correctly improve/correct them. And no one has all the right answers - I give that.
What we cannot float above is the realization of the existential dangers the GOP - especially the Trumpified GOP - poses.
The D Party truly is our beacon of hope. NOT perfect - but NOT existentially a threat. Oust the regressive etc. GOP.
Install D Party that at least is pointed philosophically to liberal democracy.
Then work together to scientifically and patriotically address our problems under an umbrella of our real higher values.
Progressives, Conservatives, in between - room for all if all have same aim - improvement of our liberal democracy.
Existentially important first step - OUST GOP!
80
@AnObserver
Thank you. I am memorizing your phrase that greed, avarice and hate never takes a day off.
28
About time!
I've felt a bit alone since my post-volunteer disillusionment of '67.
I'd vainly--and perhaps naively--hoped that UN Resolution 242 might be the answer.
Ironic that it takes an ogre like Trump to get things going.
201
I count the Jewish Left as one of my strongest intellectual and political influences. Michelle Goldberg’s piece here did a far better job than I ever could of explaining the roots, subtleties, and values of this growing movement. I’m still learning, as I will be for the rest of my life. But there is a feeling of such urgency now, of such palpable darkness from our country’s top political leadership, that it demands a response here and now. I’m proud of all the people in the Jewish left and its various allies for rising to the occasion. I truly believe this movement has a great deal of energy and staying power. And the best thing is that it has truth and righteousness on its side.
Thank you for this excellent piece.
759
@Matt F Judaism is the soul of Western civilization. Sadly, self-anointed "Christian" fundamentalists are systematic deniers of all that the later prophets, including and after Christ, taught. Republicans are the modern-day money-changers in the Temple, and Trump is trying hard to be the new Pilate.
14
@Matt F Thank you for your eloquent comments. I feel exactly the same.
7
Thank you Michelle.Thank you to all of the protesters.Hard to have hope these days, but after reading this I do.Thank you.
343
I found Ms. Goldberg's essay to be informative and well-written. However, I have disagree with this statement: "Obviously, American Jews have long leaned liberal, and have always been overrepresented in progressive movements." In my personal experience American Jews have not been "overrepresented". Instead, they are and have been the beating heart of many progressive movements, that have done so much to make our society wiser, more fair, and more thoughtful. Without them much that has been accomplished, would still be undone. I am not a Jew, I'm just a grateful American. For those many who have championed the rights and freedoms of us all, thank you.
909
@EVANGELINE Many thanks for your beautiful letter! It is much appreciated!
27
@EVANGELINE Brown
I agree. I am not Jewish but I highly respect and understand and see the invaluable contributions made by these generous people.
31
@EVANGELINE Brown
Thank you, Ms. Brown. Very gracious of you to say what you did.
22
Beautiful.
Your energy is contagious. Hereness we share in together.
I will help you hit at the head of the problem. We will have to make our way backwards out of the maze that led here, understanding recent and distant history as you yourself kind of said recently. I find you an inspiring writer, and I am moved to look for opportunities to make a more direct and leveraged contribution for our better world we fight for.
136
It makes me happy to read of this renewed activism. I remember when young that my view of Jewishness was of idealism- civil rights activism, young working on collective farms in Israel. This seems to be of the same spirit.
165
I applaud the human decency expressed in this piece, Ms. Goldberg. While such understanding and inclusion will never be universal, never have decency and respect for the “other” been under such assault as the fraud in the White House piles on. Please, America, remove him. And keep an eye on those w he exposed as allied with hatred.
218
To see the organizations that have billed themselves up as the representatives of the Jewish community, like the federations and JCRC’s fail so miserably to live up to Jewish values the very first time they were ever tested in this country was really quite a shock. Those organizations were really nothing more then self dealing and self interested. This article hit the nail on the head. Most Jewish people I know wanted to express their outrage at the policies Trump is pushing, specifically by pointing out that these kinds of policies are directly opposite of the Jewish religions values.
281
@Me
"Those organizations were really nothing more then self dealing and self interested."
No different than most black, Hispanic and Muslim organizations. Not sure why the double standards in expectations.
Reminds each of us, here where we are at home, that our rallying cry has got to be "DO SOMETHING."
179
@teach....like vote for the Democratic nominee on election day, 2020.
1
This encouraging essay does two important things: it separates support for Israel and the Jewish people from support for Israel’s current right-wing Trumpist pro-settler government, and it portrays a Jewish left that can help sustain a wider left that can renew the USA and the old liberal ( in many senses) American project. It’s ironic that Ms. Goldberg is a better spokesperson for the values that critics of the international right are trying to affirm—critics like Talib and Omar—than are Talib and Omar themselves, who can never seem to speak more than a few sentences without saying something that hands a talking point to their opponents. More power to Ms.Goldberg.
325
@Mike: I disagree with the gratuitous swipe at Talib and Omar, each of whom are very articulate, speaking the truth, and doing heroic work.
13
@Mike
A resounding second to your aside about the ham-fisted way that our Democratic Progressives quite honestly undermine their messages and give away points to the worst elements of corporate media.
Well, they are young. They will figure this out or not. They are smart but not wise yet.
7
@Mike I totally agree.
5
Bernie Sanders,a Jewish candidate for President, truly knows the meaning of "Never Again". We are going through a dangerous time in history. We need a leader that can relate to such experiences when a country is being taken over by a madman.
Bernie lost members of his family, he became a pacifist, a man for the people, for Democracy.
We will support Bernie Sanders for President.
92
@s.whether I think you make the same mistake as those in the Democratic party that are so critical of Tlaib. There is no question that Bernie is well grounded, but the case could be made that small minded loyalty to Jeff Weaver (not to Bernie himself) caused many Bernie supporters to throw the 2016 election to Trump. Sanders has long supported every progressive cause that exists, but the success of the effort to turn different factions of the left against others was very successful. Same issue this time. If you prefer Bernie to Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren will you sit this one out and give us 4 more years of Trump. We have one cult of personality in this country and do not need another.
152
@s.whether
I was thinking about Senator Sanders while reading this article, though being Jewish is not the first thing about him that comes to mind. I see him as consistently honest, never holding his finger to the wind to hop on some popular trend, always working for the common good and fairness for all. I’m proud to support him and fervently hope he wins.
5
@s.whether,
I support Bernie for president too,but if he should not become the democratic presumptive nominee,I will emphatically and without any reservation,vote for whomever the democratic candidate is. You should also make this commitment. Our democracy and country hang in the balance.
6
I think it highlights the difference between American and Israeli experiences. Israelis find security in a Jewish state. American Jews find security in the freedom of religion. The Jewish left in America will not stand for their beliefs being trampled on, and Netanyahu has made the mistake of ignoring the feelings in America for too long.
308
@NKM
Netanyahu is not the leader of America or American Jews and is the choice of the party that got the most votes in past elections for the past 30 years. Bibi is the favorite of the younger Israelis and the many Russian immigrants. He has provided security and arranged diplomatic ties that provide long term peace. What American Jews think is not the top priority of the Israeli government but rather what the administration thinks and what it does to support Israel.
2
@NKM very well said. I share your sentiments and am hoping for a center-left government come September.
5
@NKM- My father and granddfathers regarded America as their country, not Israel, although they realized the importance of Israel, particularly where the US would not accept persons fleeing from European anti-semitism. They hoped that the interests of Israel and the US would never be in conflict, but there was never any doubt that they would support the interests of the US in that event.
6
The President is enamored with the opportunities and platform the office provides him to sow division and/or hurl insults. He actually seems giddy and pleased with himself while he is doing it. The only qualification any person or group needs to be a target of his efforts is that he perceive them as an opponent to his perfect greatness.
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I was in awe as I watch the peaceful protest in Hong Kong, the sheer numbers brought tears to my eye as I said to myself why can’t we do that here wouldn’t that be a true representation of all of us. Not right or left but Americans doing what’s right for our neighbors and for us.
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@CathyK — I, too, am stunned at the numbers of people demonstrating in Hong Kong. I wish we could get similar numbers here in DC to demonstrate against what is happening to our country in all kinds of ways.
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@CathyK Do not forget the very successful 'Women's Marches' that started in 2017! More of these are needed throughout the country to remind citizens of what unity and idealism can do.
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@CathyK
While driving down a highway yesterday, the same thing occurred to me. I found myself wondering what it would take to shake some great number of people out of their resignation and onto the streets in opposition to Trump’s encouragement of fire in the political forest. I suppose we are all just gritting our teeth, waiting for November 2020 to roll around. Hope we have teeth left by then.
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The Jewish-American community has long been played a central role in promoting social justice and racial equality. A prime example was the civil rights movement in the postwar period. It's heartening to see that tradition continuing.
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@Bunnell But they betrayed themselves when 75% voted for Hillary Clinton.
An obvious felon and the co-founder of the abject coarseness that marks political discourse today.
Of course, it was their right. But they're marked by it. Consequences.
@Bunnell-Social justice and philanthropy have always been at the core of Jewish beliefs. The Democratic party haven given America Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. has been heavily favored by Jewish voters.
Events in Israel and bad advice from politicians and "religious leaders" is not going to change that.
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...Or helping to organize labour
...or helping to socialize healthcare in Canada.
I salute that effort and heritage.
Now the time has come straighten out the Chauvinist-Quasi-Fascist-Demagogic leaders who win elections by cynically dividing the people with imaginary wedge issues.
I am a retired member of the clergy, not Jewish, but I believe in the common thread of worshipping the same God. I would love to learn the Kaddish in Hebrew as I like to know how others pray. Since it is a prayer of mourning it would be appropriate as I strongly feel we all need to mourn what has happened to our country under tRump. I would join Jews, Muslims, Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentacostals, Baptists, all Orthodox, any one else out there, in prayers of mourning and prayers for regeneration, healing. While we cannot start healing yet our God knows how badly we need to heal. Bless these folks from Never Again.
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The Kaddish is said as the prayer for mourners, but its words are an exaltation of God. The message of the Kaddish is that even— or especially— in times of grief, we are centered by our faith in God.
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Thank you. P.S. The Kaddish is recited not in Hebrew but in in Aramaic, a language that uses the same alpha bet (aleph bet).
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@really fishy lady The Kaddish is not a prayer of mourning; that is a widely-believed fallacy. It is a prayer which praises God and does not mention death. However, recitations of it are set aside for mourners in most services, and of course at funerals, memorial services, unveilings, etc.
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As a 60+ year old this gives me hope for our next generation of Jews. My children were taught correctly, but until now they weren't tested in their devotion to Judaism as a way of life and thought. Trump has provoked their identity and willingness to survive as Jews. I'm proud of my children and their generation and am very appreciative of Michelle Goldberg. Thank you!!
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Unfortunately, our generation failed to transmit a Judaism that preserved the rituals, traditions and teaching which was the glue that held our people together. The Judaism of the Left is no different than the Christianity of the Left, which is social activism without God—no more, no less. And you don’t need to be Jewish to be an advocate for social justice. The fact that so many secular Jews have abandoned the religion says it all and they don’t know what they’re missing.
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Thank you. I love Michelle's editorials.
There is something I would like to point out and remind people of. This race/religious/political baiting is likely the precursor of something far more serious. I strongly believe that the sharply weakening economy and impending acceleration of the trade war will cause a significant decline in Trump's popularity. At which point Trump will double down on his pandering and racist connection to his base.
Trump knows that base is the only thing between him and impeachment/imprisonment. Yet, not being successful in resurrecting his popularity- he will find another avenue. And I am convinced that avenue will be war. And even if that war is intended to pummel a "lesser" power- it could very well escalate to a global conflagration.
So- my dear Democrats in the House and Republicans in the Senate- do not think for one moment the country will simply weather this President. Trump is indeed unprecedented- but in ways the imperil world peace.
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@Lowell Greenberg
With all seriousness, on election night I told my friends "If we escape without a nuclear war, we should consider it a win."
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Your comment explains so well what I’ve been trying to explain to people when they think everything will eventually be fine!
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@Lowell Greenberg
I have the same fear. I'm white and old, but I always hoped America could become better. Now I know it can become worse.
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Donald Trump has made many mistakes during his presidency. To date he hasn't paid a penalty for any of them. But maybe in his misplaced attempt to win the support of American Jews he has shot himself in the foot. Wouldn't it be wonderful if on election day in 2020 there were a large enough turnout of Jewish voters supporting the Democratic nominee that they, in combination with millions of their business associates, friends, and neighbors, put an end to Trump's calamitous tenure as president.
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@Dina Krain Unfortunately,at 2% of the electorate,we are not a big enough voting bloc to ensure a win by the Democrats (and most of us live in deep blue states, at that.) But yes, turnout by Democratic voters is the key. There are more of us than there are of them. And I do believe that the various constituencies of the Democratic party are sufficiently energized to make him a one-term President.
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@Dina Krain Yes! Fantastic. Let's DO IT! :0
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@Dina Krain
At this moment I want to be an honorary Jew. I want to recognize the fellowship between all peoples and all religions when heritage and religion is used to divide us. We are all humans.
All I can add to this column is a heartfelt AMEN!
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When I was a child, my father took me to his safe deposit box in Manhattan and proudly showed me his original Israel bonds. "I never believed I'd see my money again!" He was so proud to have supported Israel, and the strong democratic nation that it was becoming.
I grew up proud to be an American Jew, and proud of the Israel Jews were building. My rabbi and the members of our prosperous shul shared this pride and community.
Netanyahu and the Israeli right and their treatment of the Palestinians has changed my feelings. Israel is no longer a positive model of democracy and tolerance to the world. Trump and the American Jewish right do not reflect my feelings.
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Just be careful not to blame only Israel for the lack of 2 states. The corrupt Palestinian leadership and the terrorist Hamas must share blame. And you don't need to love Israel, just to be clear about the right of Israel to exist.
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@Randomonium
I am almost exactly the same age as the state of Israel. I vividly remember the pride and joy we took in its existence when I was a child. I remember wedding and bar mitzvah receptions opening with the assembly singing "Hatikvah".
I am saddened to see how broken that dream has become, and horrified to see the unholy alliance between Trump, the Israeli government, and fundamentalist Christians whose benevolence towards Jews is predicated on our forced conversion.
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@Golda,I am not Jewish but firmly believe in the right for Israel to exist. I just don't believe in Israel's annexation of territories. If you were Palestinian, would you easily come to an agreement with a government that denies your basic rights to territory and freedom? I think not.
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@Michelle Goldberg
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The Jewish left needs to confront the radical right- not an indirect path through Donald Trump.
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Not an indirect path at all. It’s a straight line
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Trump is the radical right.
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Trump is as complicit as those white nationalists because he’s proven time and again that his silence signals his full support for their horrors. The head of the snake so to speak.
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Netanyahu and Trump are both taking actions to shore up their short-term popularity. These same actions are harming their respective countries. Hopefully the US voters will kick out Trump and the Republicans, and Israel will kick out Likud and Netanyahu, before the damage becomes too massive to repair.
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@John M
Are you banking on the Israeli left to 'lick out Likud'? If you are then you have a long time waiting. After debacles of Oslo, the 2nd intifada, and the withdrawal from Gaza its fairly morbid these days. There is serious doubt that the Labor party, that of Ben Gurion & Rabin with get enough votes to earn a seat in the Knesset. Except for the far, far left Israelis don't think peace is very probably at the moment. Israel offers deals and gets rockets in return.
The only good news is that individual Palestinians are sick of the corruption of the Palestinian Authority & Hamas. Sick of the violence they sponsor. Sick of the brutal authoritarianism they, not Israel, inflicts on them. People who want to talk with Israel about trade and peace are considered traitors. A Palestinian man who rescued the children of a Rabbi and his wife when their car was blown up had to flea to Israel where he was given citizenship. He and his family were facing death threats from his own people for his act of kindness.
Correct. And it is unnecessary to compare Trump, his supporters and his silent accomplices to anyone, any movement or any events of the past. His brand of wink-and-nod evil earns its own condemnation. He doesn't join the mobs. He opens the gates for them.
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@Jack Levin
I strongly disagree with your assertion that, "it is unnecessary to compare Trump [et al] to anyone, any movement or any events of the past".
It is very important to learn from history, and people are very definitely formed by their past, whether direct experiences or indoctrination or whatever.
There are parallels from the past that can be learned from, movements and political ideologies that may inform us.
Consider some definitions of fascism:
"a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition";
-and-
"Fascism is a form of far right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe."
Both definitions basically scream Trump's name and suggest to me that Trump is a fascist just as much as Mussolini was.
So maybe there's something to be learned from history and from comparing Trump et al to movements in the past, yes?
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@Jp -Our once great public school system in NYC has changed. CCNY produced 32 Nobel Prize Winners and Bronx Science HS 8. But the children that go to those schools have changed also and so has the family structure and general society in which they live. Salaries for good teachers, good during the 30s and 40s is not now attractive enough to keep talent. But the CUNY gradujate system with CCNY, Hunter, Baruch, Brooklyn College and Queens College can still provide a wonderful education for those able to profit by it.
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@Jp
That issue has been well covered in WAPO and NYT. It is not the subject of this editorial.
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Thank you for this excellent article!
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Life is always more nuanced than a comment that can be fit on a placard or even in a tweet. I entirely agree with Ms Goldberg that Donald Trump's lockstep support of Benjamin Netanyahu and the current Israeli government is more about garnering electoral support for himself in the US (hence the King of the Jews remark) than it is about what is good for Israel or Jews wherever they might be. And while Jews should be considered as fully fledged citizens of their countries without canards about dual loyalty with the State of Israel, which Trump has made himself on occasion, anti-Semitism does, indeed, exist increasingly on the left (e.g., organizers of the Women's March, the BDS movement, the British Labour Party) which often tacitly or openly questions the right of Israel to exist even within the pre-1967 borders. It is also worth mentioning that most Israeli Jews don't have the option to immigrate easily anywhere else. Moreover, although in the US terrorism against Jews has largely been by rightwing, white supremacists, in Europe, and particularly in France, leftwing or Islamist terrorists have been more numerous. I think it is possible to be categorically opposed to both Trump and his GOP enablers as well as against the current Likud government and still call out anti-Semitism on both the left and the right.
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@James, Toronto, CANADA
I second that and also think that using the term "concentration camp" to refer to the immigrant detention centres was antisemitic.
Using the term associated with the Holocaust is intended to shock but it also tries to dilute the horror.
I could understand exaggerated language in some informal setting but it was used publicly and deliberately.
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@Anna -Concentration camps date to the Boer War, when women and children were incarcerated. But the conditions were humane, according to Pakenham, until the usual diseases supervened. Hygienic measures have advanced considerably since that time.
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@Anna - the notion of naming a prison meant to quarantine people based on ethnicity can be described as a concentration camp. The notion that one victimized ethnicity - Jews in this case - owns the term is untrue. To extend your premise, only Jews who resided in mid 20th century Europe would own the term - Jews from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americans would be in error to ever use that description of ethnic imprisonment self-referentially. Just imagine how that would go down in Israel.
Reality: The Boers used the term in the early 20th century, as did the Cubans. The USA used it to describe prisons for Native Americans during the same period. Based on the timing and purpose of the institution, it seems that the term “concentration camp” emerged concurrently with the rise of the eugenics movements- which in our understanding today manifests in White nationalism, Aryanism, etc.
There are reasons the political Left gets divided - mostly I think that while the Left broadly sympathizes with oppressed groups it is diverse. However, the Left’s unifying bond is respect for our shared humanity and resisting those that deny it. Arguing about the uniqueness of any one group’s oppression is a wasted exercise that only serves the interest of the oppressors.
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Thank you for the wonderful article. However, I wonder if this current phenomenon is less an awakening of the left and more so an uncloaking of the right. When did right-wing jewry veer so far off course? How? Why? Trump has been a real shock to me. That election created a strong division. I no longer identify with them. They belong to some amorphous cult now that I do not understand.
For some the Diaspora regards departure from a piece of land, but for others, it is the departure from the rule of law, of ethical behavior, of empathy and tikun olam.
I wonder which one of these tribes is lost.
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@Josh F.
The neo-conning of the American Jewish community flowered in opposition to the New Left in the late 1960s, and bore fruit with the rise of Reaganism. Trump is the logical outcome of Reaganism. See: Commentary magazine.
The confluence of Israel's founding as an antidemocratic theocratic state along with the development of the safest and most comfortable Jewish community in the world here in the US has meant that right wing and centrist American Jews are unmoored from the historic Jewish role as conscientious outsiders. They have abandoned the organizing principles that guided the American Jewish community for the first 60+ years of the 20th century: want the world to be safer for Jews? Work for democracy and minority rights for all.
I have no doubt about which path my Jewish ancestors expect me to take.
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Its all in a person’s psychology (psyche) why he/she identifies with Trump ... the negative qualities ... its very sad ...
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Another sad day on the calendar is Trump B'Av, the first Tuesday after November 1.
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As a left-wing Jew thank you Michelle for giving voice to our concerns and viewpoint. I judge Israel as I judge every country, on its commitment to human rights and equality. Which are sorely lacking when it comes to their treatment of the Palestinian people.
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@Jerry Harris
It is true that Israel is becoming a caricature but it is also true that Israel is singled out by lazy "leftists" as the one easy target of criticism. It is plainly doing an injustice to victims of genocide and persecution everywhere.
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