Even if Donald Trump were “good for the Jews” that cannot and should not be the narrow basis on which we Jews understand our politics and Trump shows us why, write Sarah Sackman and Emily Hilton
February 1, 2017 12:41
We've just passed week one in the job and we’ve had the order to build a wall with Mexico, an order removing federal funds to health organisations who give women choices over their bodies, an axe to healthcare insurance for millions of poor Americans, a ban on refugees and insults handed out indiscriminately to every minority and reputable news outlet you can think of. The problem with Donald Trump’s relentless deluge of divisive and demagogic politics is that it can come to seem like the new normal. It is not.
Over the coming weeks and months fresh outrages will follow. Trump’s whole politics relies on generating “shock events”. That is how he thrives. He will have to go to greater and darker lengths to generate the same shock value and the danger for us is that we tire of the protest and cease to be outraged.
I’ve heard it suggested (mainly before the inauguration it has to be said) that though the President has his faults at least he might prove “to be good for the Jews”. There is nothing wrong with wanting our community to be well-treated. The prayer that many of say in synagogues each week that the Queen and her advisers should “deal kindly and justly with all the House of Israel” seems a reasonable wish but should it be the litmus test for evaluating our leaders?
Even if Donald Trump were “good for the Jews” that cannot and should not be the narrow basis on which we Jews understand our politics and Trump shows us why.
This week’s executive orders may not appear to have direct implications for most Jews in the US or around the world. However, they are inspired by and couched in a rhetoric of bigotry, hate, racism and misogyny. None of that is “good for the Jews”.
The executive order halting the entry of refugees to America was signed, without irony, on Holocaust Memorial Day. As a people we know from our history of the persecution directed towards refugees and minorities and where that leads. To mark the day, the White House issued a statement about the Holocaust which failed to mention the Jews. Was this the start of new alternative facts?
A politics of disrespect and shock value will guide every move of this administration and that includes policies on the Middle East. The appointment of the settlement-supporting David Friedman and promises to move the US embassy to Jerusalem are designed only to inflame. Does any of this sound good for the Jews?
Judaism does not dictate us right-wing or left-wing but it does demand that we engage with the concerns of the wider society in which we live and demands that we do not let hate go unchallenged.
The Talmud says “If one can protest the misdeeds of his or her household, yet does not, the person becomes guilty with them. If a person can protest the misdeeds of one’s townspeople and does not, the person is guilty with them. If one can protest the misdeeds of the entire world and does not, that person is guilty with them”.This might be a lesson to our Prime Minister and to the rest of us as we begin to grow used to the new normal.
For progressives in this country it means speaking out on the appallingly low number of refugees taken in by the UK, protecting the welfare state and challenging the rhetoric of domestic demagogues who seek to exploit rather than tackle economic inequality.
On the Women’s March I was struck by a placard carried by an older protester. It read “I can’t believe I have to protest this in 2017”. It was a reminder that the “arc of history is long” and it is up to us to ensure that it bends towards justice. The challenge will be how to maintain the moral indignation and to channel it towards creating a more tolerant, compassionate politics. That will be “good for the Jews” and for everyone else.
Sarah Sackman is Vice-Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement and Emily Hilton is a JLM member
