Jewish Trump Haters Learning Wrong Lesson From History

Dear Jewish Trump Haters: It’s not 1933 and these times more resemble 1859 or 1959. We are not on the verge of a second Nazi Germany in the United States; the real risk is a second Civil War unless everybody calms down and stops demonizing the other side. And we have the booming economy of 1959, too. In an era of incredible religious tolerance, it is delusional to assert that President Trump is Hitler, and that Republicans are by implication, Nazis. This bizarre thinking is literally what a Jewish woman New Yorker told me recently, that she hates the president and cannot associate with anyone who supports him, notably me. No matter what I said, she would hear nothing of it: Trump is Hitler.

It is deeply problematic, and historically inaccurate to think that Nazi Germany is right around the corner

“He’s a narcissist and a criminal,” she said of the president. I tried to remind her that anyone who seeks the presidency has to have a huge ego, but she was unswayed. When I asked her what made President Trump a criminal, she could name nothing, although she hinted that she meant environmental atrocities. That’s why it’s 1859, and not 1933. For the battle lines are being drawn and people are choosing sides. In 1860, when Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the Democratic Party rejected the result, just as the Democrats have done with the presidential election of 2016, refusing to recognize the legitimacy of President Trump’s victory. From 1861 to 1865, it was brother against brother, the North fighting the South over slavery, States’ Rights, and secession. Today it’s the Mueller inquiry into Russian meddling, the Ukraine investigation, and articles of impeachment, all the flimsiest of accusations against the president. They are not flimsy if you believe this of course, but the reality is that 63 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in 2016, and apparently all are willing to support his re-election in 2020, despite unending vilification in the media. Donald Trump’s approval rating is now as high as President Obama’s at the same stage of his presidency. Indeed, Congress’ approval rating among the American people is around 9 percent, and Trump’s is around 50 percent. President Trump has the overwhelming support of America’s Orthodox Jews, of Israelis now living in the United States, and of Jews from the former Soviet Union, who experienced first hand the evils of Communism. As I have written before, Jews on the political Right now feel they have more in common with Evangelical Christians than we do with Jews on the Left. It is deeply problematic, and historically inaccurate to think that Nazi Germany is right around the corner. Anti-Semitism remains at all-time low levels in the United States. Today, perhaps 12 to 14 percent of Americans hold strong anti-Jewish views as compared to before the Second World War in 1940, when 35 to 40 percent of Americans told pollsters they did not think that Jews could be good citizens of this country.

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President Trump may be the most pro-Jewish president ever

Yes there has been Pittsburgh, Powis and Jersey City, and Jews wearing distinctive religious clothing in Brooklyn are attacked on a regular basis, but this is not because of Trump. Any uptick in Jewish attacks under president Trump can only be considered uncorrelated, and he is certainly not the cause. President Trump may be the most pro-Jewish president ever. He moved the U.S. Embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He changed American foreign policy to assert that Israel’s expansion into Judea and Samaria, frequently called the West Bank, are not obstacles to peace, nor do they violate international law. He reversed President Obama’s Iran deal that sent $150 billion to that country, which is world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism and the biggest threat to Israel. President Trump also signed an executive order protecting Jewish students on American college campuses from harassment. President Trump’s daughter converted to Judaism in an orthodox conversion and he has Jewish grandchildren of which he is very proud. American Jews are literally being loved to death. The overwhelming number of non-orthodox marriages involving Jews in the United States are intermarriages. American Jews are assimilating into the overall American culture and disappearing. I find it sad that many American Jews are so willing to join “The Resistance.” We are at risk of a second Civil War unless all of us “take a chill pill” and let elections and policy disagreements occur. But this is not 1933, when Hitler came to power in Germany. If that’s your position, I think it is indefensible and you ought to stop with the hysterics. Just because you don’t like Trump as a person does not mean he ought to be impeached, much less that he is Hitler. If that’s your opinion, comparing Trump to the murderer of six million Jews, there is no room for debate, and that’s a pity.