This comment was posted before President Biden announced he will not seek re-election in 2024. Yet, even after Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, the same theme continued on various threads my Jewish friends have posted. So it's not really Biden, per se, it seems it's Democrats that these friends don't want to support. This division amongst Jews isn't new, but it sure has been magnified in the past couple weeks. Energized, excited Democratic Jews are eager to express their support for Kamala Harris, but they are met with anger, fear, and near-hatred when it comes to the responses from their Jewish Republican friends/family members. This has caused quite the on-going discussion and musings in my own inner circle of family and friends. My cousin, my dad, several friends.... they say they can't believe that anyone who considers him/herself even a little bit Jewish could even consider voting for Democrats. Ironically, I'm similarly baffled - but by their support FOR Trump. So, I wanted to sit down and write out why I'm so damn confused and why I could never possibly vote for that guy. (A quick aside before I go on: A totally separate post could outline the reasons why I support Kamala and the Democratic candidates up and down the ticket. I'm not totally sure which is more important to me: voting for Democrats because I highly believe in and agree with the Dem platform or voting against Trump - both equally acceptable reasons to vote for Kamala.)
Judaism, like other religions, teaches values that have been passed down through text, custom, and culture. These values teach us how to live, how to behave, and how to treat the world and everything in it. They are a set of moral and ethical guidelines to help us determine what is desirable or not. Throughout my childhood, I was taught by various Jewish organizations (camps, Sunday School, youth groups) and my family and close family friends what these values are. Some were taught explicitly - with a lesson plan and direct instruction, while others we just sort of gathered along the way. Many, if not most, of the values I was taught were also taught in secular school and seemed to be part of what I thought everyone in America valued. Ideas such as giving to others in need, using kind words and actions, respecting the elderly, accepting differences in others, taking care of the earth and other living creatures, having empathy and compassion for others, being grateful, solving conflicts peacefully - these are the values that I learned growing up, and these are the same lessons I taught as a teacher and then school counselor when I worked in public education. These, and many more, are the things that make us "good," that make us caring and kind human beings.
So, it is absolutely mind-blowingly baffling to have friends and family who would support someone like Donald Trump. I don't mind that they are Republicans. I don't mind that we have different stances or views on policies. What I do mind is that they would throw support behind or even think about voting for this guy who defies nearly every Jewish value I can think of.
Every single one of them will tell me it's because of how they feel about Israel and/or antisemitism. Supporting Israel IS a Jewish value, yes, absolutely. You don't need to know all the ways Israel is close to my heart (how my best friend in elementary school was from Israel and how much I loved her telling me about it, how I made her sing "Hatikva" to me allll the time, how I toured Israel for 6 weeks as a teenager and went to stay with that friend when her family was living there again, how we planted trees in Israel, donate to Israel, have savings bonds in Israel, want our children to go there, etc, etc, etc.) to know that loving the land and people of Israel is a value I hold just as dear as my Jewish peers. But supporting Israel isn't just a Jewish value. Like the others I mentioned above, valuing Israel and wanting it to succeed as a nation, as a people, as a democracy - those are American values, as well. So for my Republican Jewish friends and family members to believe the lies they are being told about Kamala Harris not supporting Israel also blows my mind. She has said time and time again that she believes in Israel's right to exist and defend itself. She has stated her unwavering support for Israel many times.
EVEN IF she were anti-Israel (which she isn't!!!), a vote for Trump is a vote against nearly all other Jewish values. And, if all we vote for is Israel, what exactly is left?? This question reminds me of Banner's Torah portion. His D'var Torah (speech about his Torah portion at his bar mitzvah) brilliantly captures this very issue. If you want to read or hear the whole thing, email me or message me, but I'll summarize: God tells Moses to tell the Levites that they are to be guards of the Tabernacle, the holy tent of meeting, and that if anyone encroaches on Aaron's leadership of the Tabernacle, they should be put to death. Banner says "that's a pretty big consequence, which led me to ask 'What exactly are the Levites guarding the Tabernacle from and why?'" He goes on to discuss what it means today to be a guard of the "Tabernacle of Judaism and the Jewish community" - guarding against antisemitism and protecting our culture physically AND spiritually. He says we have to guard our community from external and internal threats. What is an internal threat? He claims it's anything from assimilation to internal conflicts among Jews (ah-hem) and losing hold of our values. "These internal threats remind us that we need to guard the Jewish future in ways a security guard cannot." Banner is stating exactly what I'm worried about when it comes to a vote for Trump - a guy who might (MIGHT) support Israel, but at what cost to all other values? What good is the physical space without the values it upholds? A liar, convict, cheat, racist, misogynistic, bigot doesn't hold up our values. Are Jews really willing to let everything else go for this guy's empty words (which he seems to go back and forth on daily)? When my Jewish friends and family want to vote against all the other Jewish values with magical thinking that their preferred candidate is going to have all the answers and fix a centuries-old conflict, it really just baffles me.
What do Jewish Republicans need to hear or see from Harris to believe she's pro-Israel? It is true Democrats have some far-leftists that seem antisemitic. But these people do not represent the whole party. Furthermore, they are not running for president. Trump, on the other hand, is - and while he doesn't represent the entire Republican party (and hence why many Republicans are leaving the party and/or endorsing VP Harris), he is the face of it and the far-right nut job who is up for president. What do Jewish Republicans think he will do for Israel? Bomb the fuck out of Gaza? Destroy Palestinians? Is that really good for Israel? What's the long-range plan there? And where do our Jewish values of respecting humanity come in to play with that plan?
Are they voting for Trump because they think he will do more to stop antisemitism in America? I'm confused. What do they think the guy who had dinner with a White supremacist, Holocaust denier is going to do for us? The guy who said there were "some very fine people on both sides" after violence broke out during the Unite the Right's rally in Charlottesville - the protest that included neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and people shouting Nazi phrases? The guy who reportedly thinks Hitler did some good things? This guy who just a few days ago promised Christians that they won't have to vote again because everything will be "fixed." As Emily Tamkin, author of Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities, said in an interview this week, Trump is "undermining the pluralism and liberalism that keep American Jews safe here. I think there's a reason that most Jews don't vote for/aren't planning on voting for Donald Trump, and there's a reason that Trump himself doesn't want to have these conversations. It's because being supportive of this one particular vision and version of Israel is not necessarily the most important thing to most American Jews," and his stance on Israel does not cancel out or excuse any of the other things listed above that are very clearly antisemitic.
Trump has stated that "any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion.... they hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed." He says Jews who vote for Kamala Harris "need their heads examined." This kind of rhetoric is dangerous and divides American Jews from one another. He is trying to define who is a Jew and who isn't, setting qualifications to belong to a certain group, a group that is just as politically diverse as any other group of people. It's okay to have differences of opinions within a group; it's fine to disagree with one another. Jews are used to disagreeing with each other! In fact, Jews are encouraged to ask tough questions - of our rabbis, of ourselves, of each other, and even of God. We are used to debating and often times value debate over consensus. BUT, to be pitted against one another by an "outsider" who is trying to define what makes a person a "good Jew" or a "bad Jew" or even a "Jew" at all... well, I do think this is antisemitic. It is alienating a huge group of this demographic, most of whom vote Democratic. Furthermore, if holding certain political opinions makes someone a bad Jew, I supposed over 70% of Israelis are "bad Jews" for not supporting or agreeing with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
When Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, moved into the Vice President's Residence, they became the first to affix a mezuzah to any executive residency. How is this indicative that Kamala doesn't support Jews in America? When she met privately with Netanyahu, how is this antisemitic? Oh, it's because she didn't attend his address to Congress? That's what my friends are saying makes her antisemitic. They forget that she had previously planned engagements during the overwhelmingly exciting week that she was nearly named the new Democratic presidential nominee. Perhaps she didn't feel the need to attend the "State of the Union" speech given by another nation's leader who was invited by the Republican-led House, but instead felt that she needs to win the votes of Americans so she can get get into office and have the power to help Israel. Speaking of helping Israel, does Trump plan to do that by giving Putin more power or withdrawing from NATO or ... what exactly was his plan again?
I think American Jews can agree that what happened on October 7th is devastating, disgusting, and despicable. We can agree that Hamas must be destroyed, that hostages must be freed and returned safely to Israel NOW, and that America needs to continue to support Israel, a country that celebrates democracy and many of our liberal values. That being said, we live in America, and if we vote for someone who wants to end democracy, our rights, our values, our freedoms will be gone. I don't know how THIS bottom line isn't the most important issue on the table for all Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike. Trump has laid out his plan for America - to hand it over to his loyal followers who plan, quite clearly, to destroy the foundation of our American (and Jewish) values. So, it is for alllllll of these reasons that I say, I don't know how any Jewish person could support Trump.
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