The Republican National Committee unanimously voted on Holocaust Remembrance Day to pass a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. This resolution provides strong evidence of the Party and its leader, Donald J. Trump’s stance towards Jews. Nevertheless, if the Party leaders expect a positive response from the Jewish community in November, they may be disappointed.
For years, Donald Trump has been tirelessly trying to gain support from American Jews. In the current campaign, he is emphasizing his unparalleled support for Israel and highlighting the Biden administration’s inconsistent approach to Israel’s conflict with Hamas. In an interview on Real America’s Voice on April 8, 2024, Mr. Trump asserted that “any Jewish individual who casts their vote for Biden does not truly prioritize Israel and, frankly, ought to reconsider their stance.”
Trump obviously is not aware that the majority of American Jews are not motivated by concerns for Israel, nor are they motivated by the interests of the United States or by growing anti-Semitism in this country, especially on university campuses. None of this will affect how they vote.
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What America’s Jews passionately care about is “social justice.” In terms of helping the sick and the poor, social justice is deeply embedded in Judaism. The Industrial Revolution, which brought about a massive wealth generation, caused the plurality of Jews to broaden their vision of social justice to include economic equality.
However, the issue of economic equality eventually grew into an irrational obsession that ultimately led them to embrace socialism.
The Jewish love affair with socialism, which began in Russia with the fanaticism of the grandparents, has been transformed by the Great Terror into the fear of the parents and subsequently into the conviction of the children and grandchildren is embedded deeply in the Jewish DNA.
As the Democrat party leadership drops all pretenses and openly adopts socialist principles, these hereditary socialists, impelled by conviction, will ignore once again what rising antisemitism will do to them and vote for the Party that speaks their language. Thus, they won’t vote for a specific Democrat party nominee. They will, as always, vote for socialism.
Trump’s criticism of American Jews who intend to vote for Biden exposes the ideological Grand Divide within the Jewish community. The old saw, “There are two types of Jews: those who believe that Judaism is about social justice and those who know Hebrew,” contains more than a kernel of truth. By and large, orthodox Jews voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.
The divide boils down to a differing interpretation of the Talmudic concept of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). Those who know Hebrew engage in activities intended to complete God’s work, as revealed in the Torah. Those who believe that Judaism is about social justice are on a divine mission to change the world upon their verities.
The ideology of changing the world emanates from Jews’ two millennia of experiences living in ghettos and the lasting effect of prosecution and suffering. American Jews, in particular, have been struggling to reconcile their tragic history with the logic of contemporary reality.
The descendants of the first immigrants, who dug trenches and washed dishes in New York, have risen to become doctors, lawyers, senators, bankers, industrialists, and influential politicians. Unfortunately, they also inherited the genetic memories of their ghetto ancestors. They feel guilty for achieving a standard of living as good as or better than any other ethnic group in this country.
To assuage this guilt, they continue to fight for social justice, taking on and supporting the cause of every underdog and liberal movement in sight, no matter how unworthy, no matter how illogical, and no matter how it imperils their own interests or safety. Their religion is not Judaism but is, instead, almost every other ism (with the exceptions of conservatism and fascism), such as liberalism, socialism, Marxism, environmentalism, etc.
Although the commitment to socialism has resulted in a host of tragedies, including the Holocaust and Stalinist purges, Jews will not abandon their devotion to the cause. As prominent Zionist Zev Jabotinsky once said, “Logic is an art of the Greeks; a Jew has his own logic. Jewish logic is the logic of catastrophe. Jews do not detect danger; they face it when it comes.” Indeed, history keeps punishing willful blindness, and catastrophes keep reappearing.
The 1917 Bolshevik revolution, which brought so much suffering to the people of Russia, including Jews, was indeed a Jewish revolution. Jews later founded and shaped the Soviet state, only to have Stalin turn on them.
In the late 1920s, many German Jews voted for Hitler’s National Socialist Party, only to become victims of the Holocaust a decade later. They chose to ignore Hitler’s anti-Semitic rhetoric; he could not be bad, much less evil. After all, he was a socialist!
Jews passionately supported and continued to admire FDR, who in 1939 denied entry for Jews seeking asylum from Nazi extermination and condemned them to the Holocaust. Yet, they still love him—after all, the New Deal was a giant step toward socialism.
To reform Jewish habits, Trump must be emphatic on two points. First, he must expose American Jews’ devotion to socialism and shame them for inviting another catastrophe by betraying their own interests. Second, he must highlight that economic equality can only exist in poverty since equality in wealth is an oxymoron.
A few months back, I found myself in a Las Vegas restaurant with some Jewish companions, engaged in a political discussion during the meal. At a nearby table, there was another group of Jews. One of them turned toward our table and inquired whether we truly intended to vote for Trump. My friend replied that he would vote for a cockroach if it ran against Biden. This response reflected a glimmer of hope that some Jews might emerge from their intellectual ghetto and commence a wave of voting based on logic, not their ancestors’ conviction.
In retrospect, I was picking up the dinner tab, which may have tilted the table in my philosophical direction.
Alexander G. Markovsky is a senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, a conservative think tank that examines national security, energy, risk analysis, and other public policy issues. He is the author of Anatomy of a Bolshevik and Liberal Bolshevism: America Did Not Defeat Communism, She Adopted It. Mr. Markovsky is the owner and CEO of Litwin Management Services, LLC. He can be reached at alex.g.markovsky@gmail.com.
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