Donald Trump and Jewish Nationhood

By Lee Hoffman, AMERICAN THINKER

President Trump’s signing of an executive order identifying anti-Semitism as a violation of the Civil Rights Act and including it in that piece of legislation has created a hysterical reaction from the liberal, left-leaning Jewish community in this country.

Their chief complaint is that it identifies Judaism as a “nation” or a “people” separate from the rest that requires such protection.  Clearly, if Judaism is a “belief” rather than a nation or a race, than simply disavowing such belief disqualifies one as being Jewish, and the need for such protection is nonexistent.

Worse, from this perspective, it identifies Israel as a “Jewish State” as opposed to their perspective that Israel is indeed, not a Jewish State, but a secular state comprised of many Jewish people.  It also raises the uncomfortable premise that Jews may have allegiances to Judaism or Israel or both, that bifurcates and marginalizes Jewish commitment to the United States.

The argument is that this move fuels the fire of anti-Semitism in the United States by enabling attacks against Jews due to this bifurcated loyalty. This, opponents hold, neutralizes the effort American Jews have made in assimilating into the U.S. culture and downgrades Jewish loyalty to the U.S., which has so graciously accepted Jewish migration and citizenship.

The perception of potential disloyalty stems from the unique position that the U.S. has for the Jewish mindset.  It was the first country to provide for a separation of church and state, and a founding document providing for unmitigated right to religious freedom.  It was the only country founded by individuals seeking freedom from persecution.  The U.S. divestiture from religious dedication and the separation of Church and State provides for Jews the perception that secular government is not only preferable, but in fact mandatory for the success of the Jewish belief system.

This mindset, from the liberal Jewish perspective, mandates the need for Israel to also not be a Jewish state.  The very existence of Israel as a Jewish state, and the very concept that Jews themselves are actually a “race” of people, defeats the perception of loyalty to the U.S. and its secular concept of government.  The liberal Jewish U.S. concept was acceptance and support of Israel, if and only if it was threatened with annihilation, but not when it made strides to not only be able to survive, but to punish its attackers.

Thus, the question of Jewish “race” is anathema to liberal Jewish thought.  This concept rejects the orthodox version of Judaism with its dedication and belief in “Yiddishkeit” as a real, tangible, and factual thing.  There is no “soul” of Judaism, if indeed it is a monolithic theology of which anyone could believe in or reject regardless their personal genetic background.

While these are interesting and troubling questions, they have all been answered in the past.  While American Jews would like to be able to reject or accept their Judaism, and be considered as Jews or non-Jews at their discretion, the history of anti-Semitism would seem to indicate that this cannot be.

Countless times in the past, such identifying of Jews as a “race” specifically by anti-Semites, has been the norm.  A Jew can forget he’s a Jew, but others will not.  The Jewish community in 14th century Spain had risen to equality within that system, and Jews, some observant, others not so much, had assimilated into society.  That did not stop Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition from using physical torture to elicit conversions.  When many Jews voluntarily converted without the need to torture, they were still not accepted as “true converts,” and were still subjected to those treatments.  So much for the ability to abandon your Judaism at will.

After the rise of Nazi Germany, Jewish war veterans of WWI met the Nazis rounding up Jews for the transport to the camps wearing their medals, citations, and awards for their service in the German Army and the country.  Their former patriotism and dedication was not sufficient to save them from their fate.  A great debate within the Nazi party centered on exactly how much “Jewish blood” a German was allowed to have before being considered a “real Jew.”

Thus, irrespective of Jewish arguments as to whether we are a race, a creed, a nation, or rather a conceptual monotheistic spiritual belief, and as a Jew, regardless of which side of the argument you fall on, it is irrelevant to the world in general.  The fact is, the world has already made up its mind as to the status of Jews as a people or a nation of people, or as a race, and has provided proof by their conduct through the centuries.

Presumably, some would make the argument that the U.S. and its citizens are “different.”  That those perceptions of the past are not applicable today, here, in this country.  Thus, the inclusion of anti-Semitism in the realm of the Civil Rights Act admits that this place, and this time, are not different and those perceptions in distant place and different times are real today.

I would offer this.  Recent actions indicate that any difference in the perception of what Jews are, in the past, is indeed present here.  One can still be, regardless of devotion and pious observance of Halacha law, a true loyal citizen of a secular country such as the United States.  It is time for many Jews here in America to come to the realization of what you are, how you are perceived, and accept it rather than feel the need to tamp down your “Jewishness,” lest you be perceived as unAmerican.  Jews have answered the call in the U.S. in every age and in every generation, and will continue to do so in the future,  and no devotion to Jewish belief, or acceptance of our unique heritage, can or will undermine that.

December 17, 2019 | 3 Comments »

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  1. Another important contribution to this debate has by Liel Leibowitz is in this weeks’ Tablet Magazine:

    The Real Dangers to Jews – Tablet Magazine
    The past 24 hours provided a clear and painful picture of the momentous challenges American Jews face these days.

    The day began with news that President Trump had issued an executive order designed, the White House said, to fight anti-Semitism. Reporting on the order, The New York Times stressed that it will “effectively interpret Judaism as a race or nationality, not just a religion,” and that it “could be used to stifle free speech and legitimate opposition to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians in the name of fighting anti-Semitism.” Leftist NGOs echoed the same talking point, and a phalanx of pundits took to Twitter to decry the order as anti-Semitic because, allegedly, it somehow paved the road to defining Jews as something less than fully American. From the Hollywood actress who thundered, “You, stupid crook president do not get to decide this so your white nationalist pals get to stick me in a concentration camp,” to the law professor who blasted the order for deeming Jews to be “some nationality other than Americans,” our bien-pensants were whipping everyone into a wild frenzy, portraying the president as an unhinged anti-Semite and a clear and present danger to the Jews.

    And then something else happened.

    As Twitter was aflame with vitriol directed at the president, gunmen shot up a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey, killing three—including two Jews. Those of us rushing to report on the attack were initially reassured by a host of sources, official and unofficial alike, that there was no larger story here: The shooting, we were told, was random—not a hate crime specifically targeting Jews. The early reports in the press echoed these sentiments, with most not even mentioning the fact that the crime scene was a kosher establishment.

    It didn’t take long for the truth to come out. The shooting, we now know, was a premeditated attack, and one of the suspects was a black nationalist who had a long and proven track record of posting anti-Semitic screeds online.

    And then we learned something else. We learned that, unbelievably, it turned out that at the exact moment that Jews were being murdered for being Jewish, a bunch of blue checkmark assholes were inaccurately and outrageously railing against the president for doing nothing else but … protecting Jews.

    When Trump’s executive order was finally made public, it turned out that far from somehow defining Jews as this, that, or the other, as our self-appointed moral and intellectual superiors falsely and hysterically claimed, it did little but extend the same protections afforded to minorities under our existing civil rights laws to Jews as well. “Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), 42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq., prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving Federal financial assistance,” it reads. “While Title VI does not cover discrimination based on religion, individuals who face discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin do not lose protection under Title VI for also being a member of a group that shares common religious practices. Discrimination against Jews may give rise to a Title VI violation when the discrimination is based on an individual’s race, color, or national origin.”

    This is in no way, as the Times implied and many on the left have tweeted, an attack on free speech on campus or anyplace else. It is, in fact, nothing more than an extension of the Obama White House’s own legal guidance about the treatment of Jews and Sikhs under existing U.S. civil rights law. You may challenge the wisdom of designating groups of people as a protected class—as some on the right do, arguing that protections ought to be granted to individuals, not collectives—but as long as our laws exist the way they do, and as long as Jews remain America’s most targeted minority, affording them the same legal protection enjoyed by other minorities isn’t just right, it’s a moral and physical imperative.

    But none of this matters to the social media addicts in charge of public discourse. To our intelligentsia, no explanation is feasible unless it underscores the evil intentions of Trump, their sworn enemy.

    Even in a political climate rich with petulant outbursts and virtue-signaling, the reaction to Trump’s executive order sets a dangerous precedent. Portraying measures clearly designed to combat anti-Semitism and protect Jews from harm as being in of themselves somehow anti-Semitic is not only an affront to logic and morality, but also a reckless move when violence against Jews is on the rise.

    If you want to see this muddled logic carried to its extreme and ugly end, just look at what New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, said in a press conference after the Jersey City shooting. The attack, he said, “tragically confirms that a growing pattern of violent anti-Semitism has now turned into a crisis for our nation. And now this threat has reached the doorstep of New York City.”

    The doorstep? The threat has been far inside the mayor’s own house for years. But acknowledging that would mean fessing up to his own calculated inaction—and finally explaining exactly why he’s allowed targets to be put on Jewish backs.

    The mayor’s laughable campaign for president is one likely reason for his inaction in the face of all this violence, and for his belief that threat has only now reached his city’s limits. Another may be the fact that the majority of the hundreds of hate crimes against Jews in New York were perpetrated by African Americans and Hispanics, not by enraged white nationalists, who are frequent targets of the mayor’s rhetoric but have been found responsible for exactly zero hate crimes in the city of New York.

    Jews make up about 2% of the American population, yet were the victims of a whopping 57.8% of all religious bias crimes last year, according to the FBI. Rather than vocally and unequivocally demanding that their Jewish constituents be protected, the politicians representing those targeted—from de Blasio to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer—have been largely silent on this issue, while at the same time loudly and vigorously accusing the right of racism. Videos like this one, shot at the scene shortly after the Jersey City attack and featuring local neighbors blaming the Jews for Jews being murdered, are not likely to make any politician on the left take action, especially not someone like de Blasio, who has for years been kissing the ring of Al Sharpton, an anti-Semite best remembered for inciting an actual pogrom against the Jews of Brooklyn.

    Enough.

    What American Jews need right now is clear and concrete action that protects them from anyone who wishes them harm. Whether you like it or not, the fact is that yesterday New York’s senator and mayor took no such steps. The president did.

    Liel Leibovitz is a senior writer for Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.

  2. The idiot who wrote article does not understand what he writes.
    He first praises Trump for recognizes that we Jews are a nation
    And then when he talk about Israel is being a Jewish state he is referring to the adjective “Jewish” as if it meant religion.

    NO it does not, your poor Lee-Hoffman Imbecile.
    We Jews are a people, a nation, not a religion.
    Judaism is not and has never been a “religion”.
    In fact it has even existed.
    JudaISM is a term invented by Goys.
    It is as idiotic as calling patriotism “Japanism”, or “Englandism”, or “Czechism”, or “Swedism”, and then claim that these are religions.
    Because every nation indeed claims their rights to be divine.
    And of course every idiot, individually or collectively thinks that he or she, or they collectively are “SPECIAL”, or “CHOSEN”.

  3. The non-observant “liberal” Jews in the USA think of themselves as Amercans with some Jewish attributes. The Identifying NOUN is “American”, and one of the adjectives is “Jewish”. In the eyes of non-Jews, the noun is “Jew”, and the adjective is “American”, analagous to “Black American” – he will be Black even if he takes Ecuadorian citizenship: the NOUN is Black, the adjective is American. The truth of the matter is, that deep down, non-observant “liberal” Jews in America know that IF antisemitism gets worse, and the decide to emigrate, the best place they can go to is ISRAEL and they will be accepted – because the NOUN is JEW.