Organized Jewry hates Donald Trump and will do anything they can to stop him. Regular Jews like the guy. <\/p>\n
Is Donald Trump’s chutzpah kinda Jewish? Does he come across more Jewish or more WASPy or more black?<\/p>\n
Nathan Guttman writes for the Forward<\/a>:<\/p>\n “A mensch with chutzpah.\u201d Jewish Trump supporters have their own Facebook page, a Twitter account and even a rabbi. One rabbi. Many of these supporters and sympathizers seem to be drawn to the candidate more for his swagger and his image of business success than for what he is saying and proposing to do if elected president. Most important, they relish the prospect that he will bring this spirit to the presidential race to ensure that the Democrats don\u2019t win another four years in the White House. Almost across-the-board, mainstream national Jewish groups have denounced Trump<\/a> for his call to indefinitely ban entry of all Muslims to America, and his suggestion that authorities should close mosques judged to be extremist. They view Trump\u2019s move as an affront to American Jewry\u2019s own history, which included the government\u2019s exclusion of their European brethren when they sought to flee Nazism. But even before Trump\u2019s Islamophobic comments, his soaring popularity in pre-primary polls raised concern<\/a> within the Republican Jewish establishment, which has traditionally sought to back candidates closer to the political center.<\/p>\n Trump backers generally tend to be less educated and to earn less than average Republicans,<\/a> while American Jews, in general, fall into neither of these categories.<\/p>\n Some Jewish supporters of Trump still feel uneasy identifying publicly as being in the Donald camp. \u201cI don\u2019t need people asking questions,\u201d said a Florida Jewish resident who strongly supports Trump but asked not to be named. She argued that the media has distorted Trump\u2019s message and therefore expressing public support for him is considered socially unacceptable in her circles. She expressed full support for Trump\u2019s call to ban Muslim entry to America, arguing that Muslim immigrants have shown no willingness to assimilate into society and that the local Muslim community has not sufficiently condemned terrorist attacks carried out by violent Islamists. \u201cTrump\u2019s the only one forcing the press to report things they don\u2019t want to report,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But not everyone is embarrassed about going on the record. Trump recently got an unexpected endorsement from the legendary Jewish comedian Jerry Lewis. \u201cI think he\u2019s great,\u201d Lewis said in an interview<\/a> with Raymond Arroyo on \u201cThe World Over.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s a showman, and we\u2019ve never had a showman in the president\u2019s chair,\u201d the octogenarian comic explained.<\/p>\n Jewish backers of Trump interviewed by the Forward sought to distinguish between the outspoken candidate\u2019s achievement-driven personality, which they find attractive, and some of his positions, especially those relating to women and ethnic minorities, which they find unappealing.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the beginning I was very, very excited with Donald Trump. I admire his business ability and I think he is an amazing man,\u201d Rubin said. \u201cBut I was shocked by some of the things he said.\u201d But these comments did not make Trump any less of a legitimate candidate in Rubin\u2019s eyes. She initially thought that Chris Christie would poll more strongly and that Jeb Bush (\u201cHe\u2019s so nebbish, I can\u2019t believe it\u201d) would be a top-tier candidate. Trump, now in the lead, is just as good for Jewish voters, she said, as long as he defeats Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n Some GOP candidates, mainly Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, have already built bridges to the Jewish community, cultivating donors and arranging meetings with community leaders.<\/p>\n In contrast, in his RJC address, Trump voiced doubt about Israel\u2019s commitment to achieving peace with the Palestinians<\/a> and was booed after he refused to say whether Jerusalem should serve as the undivided capital of Israel, a priority for many in America\u2019s pro-Israel lobby.<\/p>\n \u201cDo me a favor, just relax,\u201d he told one of the people booing, in a trademark display of his accent on the chutzpah side of the ledger.<\/p>\n Trump also seemed to suggest that the wealthy Jewish donors in front of him sought to put a puppet in the White House. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to support me even though you know I\u2019m the best thing that could happen to Israel,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI know why you\u2019re not going to support me \u2014 because I don\u2019t want your money. You want to control your own politician.\u201d<\/p>\n This approach has done little to build more bridges for Trump into the Jewish world. But one Trump enthusiast, Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg of Edison, New Jersey, tried to change this reality, setting up a \u201cRabbis for Trump\u201d Facebook group,<\/a> only to learn he was the sole rabbi in the group. Rosenberg changed the name to the singular form, and now he runs the \u201cRabbi for Trump\u201d page.<\/p>\n \u201cCruz already had his following of rabbis, and I didn\u2019t see a lot of effort with regard to Trump,\u201d Rosenberg told the Forward. \u201cPolitically, it\u2019s not right to put all your eggs in one basket.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosenberg, who is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth El in Edison, chose Trump because of his \u201cpersonality, character and vigor to make change in this country.\u201d He dismissed Trump\u2019s use of offensive language toward women, Mexican immigrants and even to Jewish listeners as \u201chis sense of humor,\u201d which is \u201cpart of his personality.\u201d If Trump gets elected, Rosenberg added, he\u2019ll have to \u201ctone it down a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Trump\u2019s call to ban entry of Muslims to America, Rosenberg thinks it \u201cdidn\u2019t come out correctly.\u201d But he agrees with the need to halt absorption of refugees \u201cuntil we know exactly what\u2019s going on with the Muslim community coming from outside.\u201d<\/p>\n For other Jewish backers of Trump, the call to ban Muslims was a breaking point.<\/p>\n Jeremy Leyden, a journalist and international media consultant, was drawn to Trump\u2019s success story. \u201cThe man is successful; he knows business, knows how to negotiate and has a daughter who is an Orthodox Jew. I put it together, and it sounds very good,\u201d said Leyden, who divides his time between the United States and Israel. \u201cHis personality is very Israeli,\u201d Leyden observed. \u201cHe\u2019s very confident, just like Israelis are, and you need to be confident in the Middle East. If you\u2019re not, they\u2019ll treat you like a rag.\u201d<\/p>\n Leyden used his digital marketing expertise to set up a Trump outreach campaign in New Hampshire with its own Facebook page. Separately, he also launched a \u201cJews 4 Trump\u201d Facebook page and a Twitter account. Organized Jewry hates Donald Trump and will do anything they can to stop him. Regular Jews like the guy. Is Donald Trump’s chutzpah kinda Jewish? Does he come across more Jewish or more WASPy or more black? Nathan Guttman writes … Continue reading
\nThese were the yiddishisms that Republican Jewish Coalition board member Abbie Friedman deployed when he introduced Donald Trump at the group\u2019s candidates forum last December. It was, in part, an effort to ease the palpable discomfort of wealthy RJC donors with the brash billionaire who would be president.
\nThe problem, though, is that for many Jewish Republican voters, the New York billionaire\u2019s ratio of chutzpah to mensch leans too heavily to the former, leading them to throw their support behind other, more conventional contenders. Still, the GOP front-runner, now preparing for the official kickoff of primary season, has succeeded in charming some Jewish voters with his outsized personality and trademark bluntness.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m a NFH \u2014 Not for Hillary,\u201d said Joan Rubin, a Jewish Chicago native who spends her winters in Florida. \u201cI don\u2019t know who will win the nomination, but I will definitely vote for Donald Trump if he\u2019s nominated. We can\u2019t have what happened in the past seven years continue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThen he comes up with this proposed ban on Muslims,\u201d Leyden said of Trump\u2019s December 7 statement. \u201cThat really turned me off big time.\u201d
\nLeyden asked the campaign for clarifications, and when those weren\u2019t sufficient he raised his concerns on the New Hampshire Facebook page he had created, only to have the Trump campaign try to shut down the page. Leyden said he is now \u201cmoving away\u201d from the Trump campaign and looking toward Cruz as his candidate. But the \u201cJews 4 Trump\u201d page will remain active in the hope that the candidate will change his views on banning Muslims from entering the United States and state that he supports the unity of Jerusalem.
\n\u201cThere were many Jews who were initially turned off by Trump\u2019s bombastic nature, and others were turned on by it but later became turned off because of the ban on Muslims,\u201d he said.
\nJonathan Gould, a New York entrepreneur, expressed the dilemma facing voters who see value in Trump\u2019s anti-establishment posture while rejecting his policy on many other issues.
\n\u201cI feel Donald Trump\u2019s anti-Washington stance is worth continuing to hear even when it\u2019s contrary to core Jewish values along the way,\u201d he said. \u201cOur country\u2019s suffering from the lack of an effective government assaults my Jewish sensibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"