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The day after the election: Jewish community reacts

The day after Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States, the editors of Jewish Insider — a division of TRIBE Media, which produces the Journal — emailed prominent readers on the meaning and implication of the victory.
[additional-authors]
November 16, 2016

The day after Donald J. Trump was elected president of the United States, the editors of Jewish Insider — a division of TRIBE Media, which produces the Journal — emailed prominent readers on the meaning and implication of the victory. 

What follows are some of the thoughts of former Anti-Defamation League director Abe Foxman, columnist Leon Wieseltier, attorney and author Alan Dershowitz, author Daniel Gordis, fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg and Republican Jewish Coalition board member Michael Epstein.

JEWISH INSIDER: Are you concerned about a rise in anti-Semitism?

ABE FOXMAN: Revolutions usually don’t have good consequences for the Jewish community. But I think in this revolution, the good news is it’s not about us. We were not an issue in the election, although some wanted to make Jews an issue. Israel was not an issue, the Iran deal was out there. But this revolution happened without us. We were not central. Not even Jewish money was a major thing. I think that’s a good thing.

The bad thing is that for this revolution to happen, it had to break taboos. What worries me is Trumpism — the ugly element in our society. What Trump did was break taboos, all kind of taboos. And when you break [those] kind of taboos, you give a certain hechsher (license) to the bigots that are there. But now we are talking about Donald Trump the president, a leader, and not a candidate. I am optimistic. And I think what we heard in his victory speech, we will continue to hear because what motivates people like him is that they want to lead, and now he’s got to lead everybody.

LEON WIESELTIER: The Trump campaign’s malign neglect of the anti-Semitic words and images in its midst was contemptible, and no amount of visits by [Trump’s daughter] Ivanka and Jared [Kushner, her husband] to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave will absolve it. But the chief threat from the Trump right is not to Jews. It is to Muslims and Mexicans, to immigrants, to African-Americans, to all the “others” in our society. We must have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, obviously, but we must not mistake every expression of it for a dire emergency. This ugliness is not primarily about us. At this moment we owe our solidarity to the main targets of the Trumpist bigots.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: It may embolden anti-Semites of the alt-right.

DANIEL GORDIS: No one knows what this means for anything. Trump himself has no idea. America will lurch conservative, that much is clear. But what that will look like is anyone’s guess. That is also true of the anti-Semitism issue. There were undeniable anti-Semitic tropes in his campaign. The question isn’t whether Trump himself is anti-Semitic.It almost doesn’t matter. What matters is that his election legitimates a mode of discourse and a set of beliefs among others. There has never, in all of Jewish history, been a society that was mean and hateful that despised some minorities that didn’t eventually get to the Jews. Which is why the fact that Ivanka is Jewish could not possibly matter less. 

JEWISH INSIDER: What will life look like for the Jewish community with a President Trump? 

WIESELTIER: Pretty much the way it looks now. This is — still! — America: We pursue our religious and communal lives regardless of who the president is. Trump’s presidency will polarize our community, which is as it should be. The Jewish right will follow the Israeli right into the dangerous illusion that the two-state solution is now a thing of the past. The Pesach seder in the White House will include shemurah matzah.

DERSHOWITZ: Life will probably not change for most Jews.

GORDIS: As divided and mean-spirited as we all knew America is, it’s much worse than we allowed ourselves to think. Such societies have never been good to or for the Jews. The openness, tolerance and gentility which made Jewish flourishing in America possible has now ended, at least for a while. Jewish accomplishment, success and access will not end overnight, but if this persists for the long haul, it is not at all unlikely that the golden era of American Jewish life has begun to wane.

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG: Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. We must believe that our future is in our hands. More than ever, we must believe in good and the good of people. More than ever, we must study, learn, be open-minded, be generous and have compassion. More than ever, we must be an example of good and influence the good. Whatever voice we have, we must use it to influence others so that our country celebrates what we cherish about it … its openness and inclusiveness. 

JEWISH INSIDER: What effect will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cozying up to Trump today have on pro-Israel progressive outreach?

DERSHOWITZ: Every leader of every country will try to establish good relations with Trump. To single out Netanyahu for criticism is to apply a double standard.

WIESELTIER: Of course, it’s bad. Everything Netanyahu does is bad for gaining progressive support for Israel. Alienating vast precincts of American Jewry is one of his greatest skills. Meanwhile, the Israeli-Palestinian problem will only get worse.

GORDIS: American progressives have the luxury of preaching at Israel from the safety of their American perches. Israelis — and Bibi — have the responsibility to stay alive. Bibi clearly would have preferred Hillary — “the devil you know.” Having gotten Trump, though, Netanyahu has to worry about Israel’s security, with the U.S. now in the hands of an inexperienced, not terribly smart, easily offended leader with no policies in mind. Even the Palestinians are cozying up to Trump; it would be suicidal for Netanyahu to be doing anything else.

JEWISH INSIDER: What about the anti-Semitic trolls empowered by Trump?

MICHAEL EPSTEIN: The Republicans have to continue to disempower them. The far left has these issues too, especially on some college campuses. The Democrats have not disempowered them the way they should. … I didn’t think Trump’s closing ad was anti-Semitic. We Jews are small in number but great in influence, we work hard and have great intellect. Are we supposed to shy away from that? Jews can be oversensitive to those things but the ad wasn’t anti-Semitic.

To sign up for Jewish Insider’s morning briefing providing a succinct overview of the news, buzz and stories of the day, go to http://www.jewishinsider.com.

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