My Jewish Values in the Age of Trumpism

Growing up, I was inculcated with a highly-specific set of Jewish values. These values were rooted in both the Jewish immigrant’s unique place in the American socio-political firmament. And in our historic outsider position in America, in Europe and beyond.

These values can neatly summarized as such: Because of our own history of persecution and vilification, Jews as people are expected to be acutely sensitive to racial or religious injustice, to scapegoating, to pit one group of people against another in times of economic anxiety.

As the eternal outsider in this and other lands, we are meant to be particularly vigilant to fear-mongering, to race-based demagoguery, to the terrifying vulnerability, legal and otherwise, that a numerical minority can feel at the hands of a majority.

And as immigrants to this great nation, we of all people, should be able to empathize with the plight of other families hearing the clarion call of democracy and freedom. We of all people should encourage and defend those seeking to give their babies a better life than they themselves will likely expect.

I may have occasionally dozed during Hebrew school, but these values are as ingrained and entrenched in my DNA as a love of whitefish or a hatred of the Pharaoh.

With this in mind, I assumed I was on safe terrain as a Jewish-American speaking out against a president for spewing white nationalist rhetoric, for trying to win an election by sowing racial discord, for scapegoating immigrants and people of color, for inciting angry mobs, for praising Neo Nazi marchers, for separating families, and for allowing children to die in detention centers.

To me, these aren’t radical views. Nor are they partisan views.

They are the very definition of my Jewish values. And my American values.

Protect the underdog. Seek to give power and voice to society’s most vulnerable. Civil rights. Women’s rights. LGBTQ rights.

Every movement that grants Americans more equality with other Americans is a profound expression of my most cherished Jewish beliefs.

So, it is with great astonishment and great sadness that my most vitriolic critics in the age of Trump, on the topic of Trump, have invariably been other Jews.

Merely, opposing the “send her back” chants leveled against a US congresswomen and citizen got me branded “a self loathing Jew” and “the type of Jew who would have voted for Hitler.” Not to mention, another Jewish Facebook “friend” declaring that me and anyone who didn’t full-throatedly endorse the President should be “sent to live in Saudi Arabia” of places.

Mind you, I wasn’t endorsing Rep. Omar’s views on Israel or BDS. This isn’t about that. It’s about the repeated and systematic demonization of people of color by this president. From housing discrimination to wishing to hang the Central Park 5 to birtherism, the Muslim ban. Mexicans as “rapists”, White supremacists as “good fine people,” “shithole countries” or “send them back” chants, this president has assiduously sought to drive a racial chasm through America. All to win just enough white votes to cling to power.

Don’t be misled. This has nothing to do with one congressperson’s minority views on the Mideast. That’s just what people on my feed have torturously tried twisting it into, like a political Wetzel’s Pretzel.

Where I remain myopic and naive is in my continued belief that all Jews share similar worldviews. The massive spectrum of political beliefs in Israel is just one proof this isn’t true.

But I never thought I’d live to see American Jews on the side of the bully, the demagogue, the bigot.

So, I will continue to stand for inclusion. For tolerance. And against sowing the seeds of racial rancor for perceived electoral gain.

We as a people have seen this precise story in many counties across many centuries. It never ends well for us or the country as a whole.