It’s been a really scary week for Jews because of Donald Trump’s six-pointed star tweet. Really really scary.
The only thing that was more scary was the Holocaust.
For the first time, there are indications that many Jews are turning against Trump. Prior to this tweet, they were all solidly in his corner.
Sad!
* I must admit I don’t get the whole Trump anti-Semitic deal.
What would be the point?
To get the David Duke vote?
How big can that be?
Finessing the situation while courting rich Jewish Republican donors?!
Also, the people complaining are bringing up amazingly insulting unsubtle stereotypes.
I would be more offended by the complainers.
I mean, Star of David on field of dollars.
Really?!
* You won’t believe it but the Washington Post had a big article today about the effect the six pointed star business was having on the Jewish community: sleepless nights, anxiety over anti-semitism, fears that Trump was pandering to violent elements in American society, and so on. I’m not sure what journalists like Goldberg are expecting from Hillary’s presidency. Ponies again?
* Hillary has been doing interviews on TV today. She’d adopting the language of whiteness studies, saying stuff like us white people need to listen to the cries of African Americans. I saw her doing it during two interviews. Will our glorious leader capitalize on this opportunity or will it be squandered as he gets distracted by something else?
* There are so, so many ways to legitimately attack Trump; the man is a walking example of a target-rich environment. (I say this as someone who will probably end up voting for him.) Of all the things they could hit him with, the idea that he’s some kind of crypto-Nazi itching to punish Jews is easily the most preposterous.
Besides the fact that one of Trump’s daughters is Jewish, anybody who’s been a big shot in New York business circles for as long as Trump obviously has an extremely high comfort level with Jews — probably much higher than the average American. A Midwestern Lutheran whose dad fought the Nazis and who doesn’t have an anti-Jewish bone in his body would probably be far more uncomfortable in a synagogue than Donald Trump. Even out-and-proud Jew-hating Trump supporters can see this and will readily admit it. Hell, coming from New York, Trump would probably be comfortable visiting a mosque.
Washington Post: Donald Trump’s vigorous defense of an image widely regarded as anti-Semitic has alarmed many Jewish Americans, who are growing increasingly fearful that someone who could be the next president is willing to stoke the kinds of stereotypical attacks that have haunted Jews for generations around the world.
Rabbis and other Jewish community leaders point to a moment of reckoning following a Wednesday night appearance in which Trump, with his voice raised, defended the use of a six-point star, which resembled the Star of David, mounted over a pile of $100 bills as part of an attack against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The image previously appeared on a website popular with white supremacists.
“That was a turning point for many,” said Lisa Spies, a veteran Republican fundraising consultant and former staffer of the Republican Jewish Coalition. “It forced people to say, ‘I’m going to hold off right now,’ or to say, ‘I just can’t vote for this guy.’ ”
Added Bethany Mandel, a conservative writer who has gained attention for past criticisms of the ties between some Trump supporters and hate groups: “This past week has been really scary as a Jew in America.”
…To some Jewish clergy, the disregard for their feelings demonstrated by a presumptive major-party presidential nominee, combined with online messages from hate groups cheering him on, was a shocking development.
“He was defending it with such passion. Shouting and screaming and regretting the fact that it was taken off and replaced,” said Philip Scheim, a Toronto rabbi who is president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the New York-based international association of rabbis from Judaism’s Conservative movement. “Before, there was this subtle tinge of anti-Semitism. Once it’s pointed out clearly — somebody took it off his account and replaced it — even then, to still stand up for it, is kind of mind-boggling.”
The controversy has put the Republican Jewish Coalition, a prominent group of GOP donors and activists that endorsed Trump earlier this year, in a deeply uncomfortable position. While the episode has subsumed the candidate’s campaign, the RJC has remained largely quiet. The group did not respond to requests for comment.
Trump was criticized in December after he told an RJC meeting that he was a negotiator, “like you folks,” but that he felt the group was not going to support him “because I don’t want your money.”
Chemi Shalev, the U.S. editor for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, criticized Trump in a fiery column Thursday, arguing that an apparent resurgence of anti-Semitism on the political right in the United States “will be disconcerting for many Israeli Jews, reminding them that support for Israel and animosity towards Jews are not mutually exclusive.”
Mandel, the conservative writer, tweeted about anti-Semitism among Trump’s supporters on the night he won the South Carolina primary in February, and she found herself deluged by hundreds of anti-Semitic tweets directed at her own account, she said. “Get back in the oven; the only good Jew is a dead Jew — it’s all Holocaust imagery,” Mandel said.
Since then, she has blocked tweets from a constant stream of people, some of whom seem to have researched her personal life, she said. The count as of Thursday: She has blocked 928 accounts.
Still, she grew more concerned than ever after Wednesday’s speech.
“I’ve been saying for the last year, I don’t think he’s anti-Semitic. I think he has anti-Semites that maybe work for him, among his supporters,” Mandel said. “After this week, I’m like, maybe he is.”
