I have a friend named Jane. We met in the first grade. She is smart and talented, and I’m happy that we still get to chat all these years later. Back in late 2016, we talked about the threat to Jews from the election of Cheeto Führer. We anticipated that there would eventually be camps. Yes. Like in the 1930’s. We further posited that we Jews would not be tops on the Immigrant-Bashing Carnival Barker’s list because most of us were lighter-skinned than others and he worshiped Sheldon Adelson’s money.
And here we are. Yesterday, any doubt that ANYONE (I’m talking to you Sheldon) had about Trump’s anti-Semitism was permanently put to rest. This is not a surprise to any Jews with the exception of the far right uber-Orthodox, who have an absurd view of the world.
The response has been singular from Democrats, Republicans, people across the spectrum: condemnation of the anti-Semitic trope. There has been a certain amount of silence from the Klan, and the Proud Boys and the other White Nationalists because even they realize that it’s not a great idea to proclaim your hatred for Jews publicly. But they certainly got the message, (again) and we can expect EVEN MORE desecration of Jewish cemeteries, swastikas spray painted on synagogues, and then, the shootings.
Yesterday, I wrote about identity politics, and how I prefer inclusion to separation. And in certain ways, I don’t “identify” as Jewish. As in, I’m not religious – I only see the inside of a synagogue for Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and weddings. I don’t keep a Kosher home, and my Quaker husband has been known to throw pork on the grill. I’m agnostic. I tell people that I’m a “food Jew” — meaning that I love bliintzes, chopped herring and a bagel with a schmear.
My late mother used to say that it didn’t matter if I didn’t practice, the anti-Semites knew who the Jews were, hated us and meant us harm. And I know that the most fundamental Jewish ideals are inculcated in my being. That one should leave the world a better place the day he dies than how he found it the day he was borne. The ideals of charity and education. And פיקוח נפש (pikuach nefesh) the principle that the preservation of human life overrides virtually every other consideration.
It’s been politically incorrect to say that the Narcissistic Human Airhorn is akin to Hitler, and they he stirs up American Nazism. But I’m a private citizen, and until Trumpkin’s minions lock me up in the camps for being an activist, I still have use of the 1st Amendment (and I know there are FIVE parts to it.) I believe that Jews are just like everybody else. If you’re a long-time reader, you know that I say the same thing about every single identifiable group – all any of us want to do is come home at the end of the day, kiss the ones we love, get something to eat, sleep somewhere safe and live our lives.
And yet, I live in a country where the president hates me for being Jewish. For how I was born. Because he is like his father, who marched proudly with the Klan in New York in 1927. Not kidding, and he was arrested for it. He adores the “White Nationalists” who, if history is any guide, are spiritually aligned with the Aryans and the Third Reich. If that doesn’t make you think the Orange Slug is akin to Hitler, you haven’t been paying attention.
I still disdain identity politics. In large part because I believe that we all must stand up for one another. So when you look at the image on the left, replace “Communists, Jews, Trade Unionists, Catholics” with anything you like…Hispanics, Trans People, African-Americans…it doesn’t matter what you pick because the fundamental idea is the same — we must stand up as one against the Nazi evil that is the Trumpkin Regime and its minions. When they’re done filing up the camps at the border with all the asylum seekers they can find, they’ll start rounding up the activists, and then the media, and they’ll move on to everyone else who isn’t “pure enough.” You don’t have to believe me, just wait and watch. Or better yet — STAND UP — and, of course, Vote November 5th and vanquish every single Republican. Because the one identity I DO know is that if you are a Republican, you stand with the haters.
