The Trump era has magnified the faultlines in America’s Jewish communities
The tectonic plates opened by Donald Trump’s presidency continue to clang, New York City’s ethnic tensions have resurfaced, and sectarian differences are hardening.
The divide among evangelicals unleashed by the impeachment drive has been mirrored among Jewish Americans, and a spate of attacks during Hanukah has again brought our national schism to the fore.
New York’s Orthodox Jewish community is feeling angry, exposed, and sees no end in sight. For them, it’s looking like the Crown Heights riots all over again. In the aftermath of Saturday night’s stabbing attack, few were impressed by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s bromides.
As framed by Clyde Haberman, the New York Times veteran, antisemitism in the US is not simply a “blip” or a bug. Rather, as our politics become ever more factionalized and fractured, antisemitism has become an increasingly dark but unmovable spot. These days, it’s not just Europe
The Trump presidency has also magnified the fault lines that run through America’s Jewish communities.
In 2016, Jewish Americans gave more than 70 percent of their vote to Hillary Clinton and less than a quarter to Donald Trump.
But not everywhere. Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey were islands of red in seas of blue.
In Monsey, a predominately Orthodox enclave in New York’s Rockland county and the site of Saturday night’s attack, Trump bested Clinton by almost 50 points. Indeed, in one district Trump garnered over 90% of all votes cast.
Located just minutes from the Hudson River and 30 miles from New York City, Monsey may as well have been part of the Rust Belt or the Deep South, at least in terms of voting patterns.
Cultural conservativism, resentment of liberal elites, and devotion to Israel helped drive the vote.
The Jew-baiting that characterized Trump’s campaign mattered little. The things that offended the denizens of the Upper West Side and Scarsdale were either secondary or irrelevant in Monsey.
In case anyone forgot, during the 2016 presidential race Trump tweeted an image of the star of David, Hillary Clinton and piles of money. After the initial stir, the six-pointed star was replaced by Trump with a circle.
Fast forward. Rudy Giuliani’s recent proclamation that he is more Jewish than George Soros was not simply the ramblings of someone who had one Bloody Mary too many. In 2018 Kevin McCarthy, then the House majority leader, tweeted, then deleted:
“We cannot allow Soros, Steyer, and Bloomberg to BUY this election! Get out and vote Republican November 6th. MAGA
Despite his high level of support within Monsey, the president was slow to condemn the attack. Sixteen hours passed between the crime and Trump’s tweet, and the delay may have had something to do with local Republicans and Trump’s own base.
The Rockland County Republican Party had already come in for heat for airing an antisemitic campaign ad in the summer of 2019, and white supremacy is a part of what drives some of Trump’s supporters to the polls.
A post-Charlottesville Washington Post/ABC Poll reported that among strong Trump supporters nearly 2 in 10 found white supremacist or neo-Nazi views acceptable to some degree, and another 13% were indifferent.
