Trump’s challenge to American Jews

For once as Jews, we are not first in the firing line, but that does not excuse us from the duty of defending those who are.

By ALAN ELSNER
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2016 Policy Conference (photo credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP)
US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2016 Policy Conference
(photo credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP)
ONLY ONE in four American Jews voted for Donald Trump in the US presidential election, according to exit polls, so his unexpected victory came as a huge shock and crushing blow to the vast majority.
Now, individually and as a community, we have to figure out how to relate to an administration headed by a man who behaved like a playground bully on the campaign trail, whipping up hatred of minorities, deploying crude racism, misogyny and images suggestive of anti-Semitism as vote-winning tactics. Trump has already appointed Steve Bannon, an evangelist of the white nationalist “alt-right” movement, as his senior strategist, which strongly suggests that more of the same – and perhaps much worse – is to come once he takes office.
For progressive groups like J Street, the correct response is clear.
We will stand for and defend the American and Jewish values we were raised to believe in – respect for human dignity, the rights of minorities, immigrants’ rights, a diplomacy-first foreign policy and what might be termed derekh eretz or common decency. We will seek to build new alliances and broad coalitions with like-minded groups and present an opposition that stands without compromise on principle for what is right against what is wrong.
We need to acknowledge that the election of Trump has created a potentially dangerous and unpredictable threat to our democracy – one it has not faced arguably since the anti-Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. Muslims, immigrants and refugees suddenly feel vulnerable – and attacks on them have spiked. We may comfort ourselves that for once as Jews, we are not first in the firing line – but that does not excuse us from the duty of defending those who are.
Despite this, several traditional, mainstream American-Jewish organizations have already signaled they will try to do business with a Trump administration. An interesting divide emerged in the response to Bannon’s appointment. While the Reform and Conservative movements, the two largest religious denominations in American Jewry, joined the Anti-Defamation League and J Street in condemning the appointment, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) both remained silent as did the Conference of Presidents.
AIPAC, which gave Trump a standing ovation as a candidate at its 2016 National Policy Conference, will likely roll out the red carpet for him as president at its 2017 conference – a sight many American Jews on the progressive side of the political spectrum will find deeply disturbing.
AJC CEO David Harris laid out his position in a Times of Israel article in which he wrote, “Our goal is to work with each incoming administration as best we can. We have policy priorities that can’t be put on hold for four or eight years. And to advance these priorities, we need to be in touch with those officials who have a say in outcomes.”
At the same time, Harris insisted that the AJC would resist efforts to stigmatize minorities or religious groups and oppose the emergence of the “alt-right” movement. Unfortunately, it has already emerged and will soon be making itself at home in the White House.
This mantra of “business as usual” with the occasional show of defiance, when faced with the most egregious attacks on our democracy, inspires little confidence and fails to meet the challenge of the moment.
Many American-Jewish organizations have grown used over the years to viewing US presidents almost exclusively through a prism of their relations with Israel. Trump may make the same argument – that because he is pursuing policies to the liking of the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, he deserves our support.
This facile reasoning may satisfy a few on the extreme right but will be roundly rejected by most of the community, whose core values stand in such stark contrast to those practiced by Trump and his acolytes.
This is a watershed moment for the traditional American- Jewish institutions and a huge opportunity for those prepared to stand and fight on principle. American-Jewish organizations that seek to “go along to get along” with Trump, or which stay silent as he pursues policies that victimize others, will lose legitimacy and support. Even before the advent of Trump, they were increasingly out of touch with the community as a whole.
That gap will now widen to a chasm, and other more relevant organizations will grow to fill the moral and political vacuum they leave behind.
In the long term, this can only strengthen our community. In the shorter term, we should fasten our seatbelts and prepare for turbulence.
The author is special adviser to the president of J Street.