Haaretz After writing critically about Donald Trump in recent weeks, a series of Jewish journalists have expressed astonishment at the level of anti-Semitic vitriol directed their way. “I have never received the amount of anti-Semitic hate I currently do each day for the crime of criticizing The Great Trump,” noted conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. Another Trump critic, Bethany Mandel, recently wrote an essay entitled, “My Trump Tweets Earned Me So Many Anti-Semitic Haters That I Bought a Gun.”
Trump’s response to his supporters’ behavior has been coy. Asked on CNN about the torrent of Nazi imagery directed at Julia Ioffe after she profiled his wife Melania, Trump replied, “I don’t have a message to the fans. A woman wrote an article that’s inaccurate.” For her part, Melania conceded that some of her fans “maybe went too far,” but said that Ioffe “provoked them.”
Trump has said that, “Antisemitism has no place our society.” But he’s also retweeted messages from openly anti-Semitic accounts. He’s promised that the “major and overriding theme of my administration” will be “America First,” a 1930s-era slogan associated with the notoriously anti-Semitic Charles Lindbergh. And he’s told a Jewish audience that Jews love to “negotiate deals.”
So how does Trump defend himself against charges that he’s flirting with Jew-hatred? Often, he invokes his daughter Ivanka, who became an Orthodox Jew herself. In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition last December, Trump boasted that his daughter doesn’t answer the phone on Saturday. At a debate in March, he declared that, “I have tremendous love for Israel. I happen to have a son-in-law and a daughter that are Jewish, OK? And two grandchildren that are Jewish.” [...]
People buy Trump’s alibi because they assume that leaders who have Jewish family and friends won’t foment anti-Semitism. It’s a reassuring notion. Unfortunately, history proves it to be patently untrue. [...]
In his book, The Captive Mind, Czeslaw Milosz describes an anti-Semitic writer in 1930s Poland who “had many Jewish friends, and the very day he published his racist statements, he would come to these friends…and falling on his knees, would declare his love for them.” Notorious anti-Jewish polemicists of 16th Century Central Europe, Johannes Pfefferkorn and Anton Margaritha, were both Jewish converts to Christianity. Even Hitler himself expressed deep affection toward Eduard Bloch, a Jewish doctor from Vienna who had treated his mother. Calling Bloch a “noble Jew,” Hitler instructed the Gestapo to protect him even as Nazi forces sent other Austrian Jews to their deaths. [...]
For Trump, as for many other leaders throughout history, winking at bigotry is part of a political project. It’s not personal. It’s a technique for achieving power.
I don't believe Ivanka's so-called conversion contains a shred of validity. She used Haskel Lookstein to conduct her alleged conversion. She posted to her twitter account shortly after her supposed conversion date. She dressed against halacha at her wedding. Lookstein only would do this for moneyed men such as her husband's family. Lookstein himself attended Church services in Washington for Obama's inauguration at the National Cathedral. He was roundly condemned for this even by the RCA.
ReplyDeleteI am not a Trumpkin by any stretch of the imagination, but Trump's liberal critics say any amount of unsubstantiated, toxic crap about him (for example, that he is racist), but they are shocked when his supporters return the favor.
ReplyDeleteObviously they don't like Trump. The difference between Trump and the above is that he never said anything remotely anti-semitic. So he has an anti-semitic following because of his anti-illegal immigrant position which attracts the white supremacists who are generally anti-semitic. Why do all of their beliefs have to reflect back in toto on the person whom they are supporting? A very weak and silly argument.
ReplyDelete1. This idea that Trump has to disassociate himself from every creep who announces his support is ludicrous - an invention of the media. This is not asked of any other candidate,, who have plenty of lunatic supporters.
ReplyDelete2. There is not a shred of evidence he is an anti-semite even without his daughter. His statements on Israel for the past 4 months have been much more supportive than any other candidate.
3. This article is from Haaretz - need I say more.
Those who swim with the sharks get bitten....
ReplyDeleteIf a person is capable of hating any one group of people without just cause, s/he can easily start to hate another...
If he can hate on Muslims, he can hate on Jews too.... (Especially since Jews are all over wallstreet, and in every other major profession.) His "America is first, Make America great again" slogan is much like the slogan Hitler used.... And we all know how that turned out.
“ At a debate in March, he declared that, “I have tremendous love for Israel. I happen to have a son-in-law and a daughter that are Jewish, OK? And two grandchildren that are Jewish.” [...]”
ReplyDeleteWow, beautiful. We need more and more of such stories. I remember when I was down in America how the media would play up and talk and praise people that became openly homosexual. More stories of homosexuals make for more homosexuals and less stories of homosexuals make for less homosexuals. They say there’s a correlation between volume of PA stories and plays in their educational TV for Arab children that show bombing and knifing Jews and actual terrorism. We need more stories of converts like Ivanka. Yes, I’m a big supporter of Trump.
Kiwi strawberry you have it backwards. The Muslim countries were very pro-nazi during WWII.
ReplyDeleteAs the Muslim immigration to France continues, things are getting more and more untenable for the Jews there and more Jews are looking to leave France everyday. You want this to happen in America?
Doubt Hitler ever said make America First or make America great again. In fact Bill Clinton used 'make America great again' as one of his slogans.
Kerry would regularly trot out his brother in law, the jew, to show how pro jewish / pro israel he was. (B-I-L converted to marry a jew, under reform. Meaningless to us.)
ReplyDeleteHillary is trotting out her 'jewish' son in law.
I'm a Trumpkin.
ReplyDelete"Ding-Dong, the Left is dead..."
Lol, Hitler used the slogan equivalent of making Germany great again.
ReplyDeleteHitler decided to blame a select group of people for ruining Germany, and so is Trump. (Illegals).
Instead of just accepting the fact that our government, and governing ways are messed up, he feels the need to ostracize a select group(s) of people to blame....
If that's not a sign of danger, I am not sure what is.
Quoting Mussolini? That fact that his ideas very much mimic Hitler's ?
I don't know why everyone does not see the similarities....
Do people even study history anymore?
The similiarities of America to pre war Germany is eery.
Lol, but hey, at least Trump is undoubtedly American born, unlike Hitler who wasn't even German.... Good thing we have don't have to battle the birth certificate question anymore.
Now that's thats been crossed of the list, we can all relax and get back to our lives.
And don't forget Sanders, a Jew himself who makes Obama look like BB's best friend.....
ReplyDeleteUm, no we don't.
ReplyDeleteKeep crying, Jews.
ReplyDeleteTrump has become notorious, and his notoriety is now putting to shame the "Rabbi" who "converted" his daughter by shining a light on his shady conversions, which are all too common among Rabbis.
ReplyDeleteYes, this was an "orthodox" conversion. But perhaps we should examine the origin of the word "orthodox". There is no such thing as "orthodox". There is Torah Judaism and then there's everything else, which are assimilationist movements, including "orthodox".
Trump's daughter is most certainly not Jewish -- someone who converts in earnest does not then proceed to don an immodest dress to her wedding in defiance of the laws of Judaism.
Not to mention that it is forbidden to convert someone for marriage.
Forced divorces, invalid conversions, inter-species predation... Is this what the Jewish people have become? Are the "Gedolim" selling us out for their seat on the next Kastner train. Here's hoping the next train doesn't make it.
You ask who cares that Ivanka Trump is Jewish, but I'd like to ask questions that will challenge **your** points. Who cares that Trump retweets tweets from accounts that you say are openly anti-semitic? The whole idea of him making sure that people who he retweets align with his ideas is completely ridiculous. People retweet based on the tweet, especially if they have no reason to vet an account. Another question - who cares that Trump uses the phrase "America First"? It is a completely reasonable summary to his foreign policy, and it should not be taken as "anti-semitic rhetoric," especially by those who are only trying to find every minute thing to try to stop the Trump Train.
ReplyDeleteI disagree strongly with your "psak". Trump's daughter is Jewish according to halacha. You might want to read through the Igros Moshe concerning conversions involving someone who does not fully keep the mitzvos after the conversion process. Could you cite some poskim who agree with your "psak"?
ReplyDeleteThe question of whether such candidates for conversion should be considered is an entirely different issue.
Could you direct me to the teshuva in Igros Moshe you are referring to?
ReplyDeletelook in my Yad Moshe regarding the topic of invalid conversions and also their acceptance of mitzvos.
ReplyDeleteFor example if they wear immodest clothing - which it was claimed invalidated the conversion Rav Moshe Feinstein says
I started looking but there are many entries. I looked at 1 so far but in EH 3 page 423 but it doesn't say what it there so maybe you can help me find it.
ReplyDeletejust posted in my previous comment one of the teshuvos
ReplyDeleteBasically there is distrust for anyone who says they have Jewish friends. Normally we'd call t his racism.
ReplyDeleteIt's normal to put American first or any country first just like you'd put your family first. Anyone bad can hijack normal instincts and make them look bad.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I'm just following your brother's suggestion not to respect the words of Rabbis who go against halacha. He said that he heard this from Tabbi Elyashiv.
ReplyDeleteLECHATCHILA - Everyone agrees, and it is explicitly written, WE DO NOT ACCEPT people who are converting for marriage, even if it is only a suspicion.
BEDIEVED - Everyone agrees, if the conversion was done per the discretion of Beis Din, it's a proper conversion.
Today, there is no legacy of the Rabbinate as there was a hundred years ago. People who are clean-shaven and quasi-secular are not Rabbis, no matter how knowledgeable they are.
To them, the Torah is only a relative truth.
I will not count the children of their Converts in my quorum.
I'm not a bigot. I have great respect for Gentiles and I think the righteous among them are on a level on par with a Jew. But there have been terrible abuses caused by these so-called converts and their enabling "Rabbis", so a whore like Ivanka Trump is most certainly not Jewish. Just as a marriage declared annulled by the RCA is not an annullment.
To argue that I don't have a salient point here is to engage in cognitive dissonance.
Because of the issues you raised Rav Moshe Feinstein was not involved in geirus. Rav Chaim Ozer said most converts end up not observant and he discouraged conversion. Some countries have made decrees not to accept converts.
ReplyDeleteHowever once the conversion is done - in most cases they are to be accepted as Jews.
There are exceptions where we know that they made no attempt to observe Shabbos or other mitzvos immediately after the conversion.
regarding your above conclusions - did you find a recognized posek who agrees with you? If not your conclusions are wrong
No, there's not a single Posek who claims this, and this is explicitly stated in the Talmud. (Even R. Nehemiah only claimed that the converts of the time of Solomon were not Converts - and certainly not converts of a proper Beis Din).
ReplyDeleteBut R. Elyashiv laid out a precedent that we do not hold the corrupt in good standing as Rabbis, and we do not pay heed to them.
I never said this was a pleasant matter. You should give long, careful consideration to it. I'm not a bigot who goes around yelling at innocent people that I won't answer Amen to their blessings because their mother is a whore. I am nice to everyone, no matter who.
Use common sense... Daven with a Minyan of as many people as possible and avoid ones that only have ten people. These are just the times we live in, and hopefully that day will come when all doubt will be removed.
All the best.