Sharp response to Trump comment that Jews who vote Democratic are 'disloyal'
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PROVIDENCE - Prominent members of the Jewish community on Wednesday reacted to President Donald Trump’s most recent provocative statement -- that Jewish people who vote for Democratic candidates are disloyal.
Trump made the comment at the White House on Tuesday and echoed a similar sentiment again on Wednesday, saying Jewish people who vote for Democrats are uneducated, or disloyal to their own people and the state of Israel.
“It’s ignorant and outrageous,” M. Charles Bakst, a former political columnist for The Journal, said of Trump's statements.
“There’s a whole long history of this kind of trope,” he said, referring to the idea that American Jews are more loyal to Israel than they are to the United States. “It’s an example of how incompetent [Trump] is that he just fires off something like this and doesn’t really explain himself.”
Trump made the remarks in the context of a recent controversy over Israel’s decision to bar two Muslim congresswomen, Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, from an official visit to the country because of their criticism of Israel’s policies toward Palestinians. Trump had encouraged Israel's move.
"Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone where they are defending these two people over the state of Israel?" Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, according to The Associated Press. "I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
David Talan, who is vice president of the Rhode Island Coalition for Israel and co-chair of the Providence Republican Party, said that he agreed with Trump’s sentiment, though he would not have used the word "disloyal."
“ 'Uninformed' I think would be a good word,” he said.
“I think Jewish people who support candidates who support anti-Semitic positions are not voting in their best interests,” he said, referring specifically to candidates who oppose many of Israel’s policies and support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which advocates cutting ties with Israel until it ends its occupation of the West Bank.
But many national groups criticized Trump and said his characterization of Jews who support Democrats as disloyal was problematic and anti-Semitic. Some noted that Jews have been accused of disloyalty throughout history, including in Europe during the years leading up to World War II.
"It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and 'disloyal,'" said Logan Bayroff, spokesman for J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group.
The Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Reform rabbinic leadership organization, also condemned Trump’s comments in a statement.
“Throughout our history, Jews have been maligned by the dangerous, antisemitic speech of individuals in positions of power who accused us of placing loyalty to Israel or Judaism over loyalty to the lands of our sojourn,” the statement says. “Often, those accusations have contributed to violence against Jews and expulsion.”
Recent polling shows a majority of Jews in America identify as Democrats. According to AP VoteCast, a voter survey conducted by the AP and the University of Chicago, 72% of Jewish voters supported Democratic House candidates in 2018. Similarly, 74% said they disapprove of how Trump is handling his job.
Rabbi Ethan Adler, of Congregation Beth David in Narragansett, said in his community, some of the biggest political issues are gun control and immigration, but one issue that almost always unifies people is a distaste for the president.
“There’s a certain commonality in hoping that the next election brings an end to Trump,” he said.
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