Anti-Semitism in Washington

According to the Huffington Post, Trump did not attend this year's seder in the White House.  He was meeting with his generals, probably planning WWII or a nuclear holocaust because, well, he can.

The fact that he did not attend the seder may not seem like much in and of itself.  He may have had better things to do. That's hard to imagine, however, considering that he spends very little time in the White House doing his job.  In fact, 

Trump would rather travel - mostly between Washington and Mar Lago.  If this continues, by the end of the year, Trump will have spent more on travel than Obama spent in his eight years in office!

But not attending the seder points to a more serious matter.  Trump and his father were known anti-Semites when they were in business together in New York City and at one point had to pay significant fines for not allowing Jews to live in their apartment buildings.

Not much has changed, in spite of the fact his son-in-law in an Orthodox Jew and his daughter, Ivanka, converted to the Orthodox brand of Judaism.

Trump has surrounded himself with white supremacists, people who are out and out anti-Semites, and who have for years  paraded their anti-Semitism openly and proudly.  Trump was and is supported by anti-Semitic groups such as the KKK.  He is considered "their man" in the Oval Office.

Jews in this country should be concerned.  Jews have been persecuted, mainly by Christians, ever since the common era began and the Christian church evolved out of the teachings of St. Paul (notice it did not evolve out of the teachings of Jesus, and in many cases, preached the opposite of what Jesus taught).  It is unlikely that this anti-Semitic streak endemic to Christianity will ever change.  Over two millenia, Christians have murdered Jews by the millions!  

Trump claims to be a Christian which should make Jews very worried.  Trump is not a Christian by any definition of Christian that I can find, thus as with the rest of his life, this claim, also, is fraudulent.  

But wrap that claim around the fact that Trump is a fan of Adolf Hitler and we have a problem.  According to Trump's wife, Melania, the Donald kept a copy of Mein Kampf by his bedside and referred to it often.  We have seen how Trump has copied Hitler by his outright lies and his denial of those lies.  That was a method Hitler applied often.  Trump's need for idolization and adoration is quite like Hitler's similar needs.  The "victory rallies" that Trump set up around the country, months after he had won the election is another example of Trump borrowing from the Hitler playbook.  

Steven Reisner has written an important article for the Huffington Post (4/9/17) titled, "Trump Has Taken A Page Straight From The Hitler Playbook."  What follows is a small piece of that article but I would suggest strongly that you read the entire article.

Toward the conclusion of the article, Reisner says this:

So when Trump stokes ethnic hatred by painting an immigrant ethnic group as criminals, rapists, and drug dealers (in much the same way that Nazi propaganda highlighted Jewish crimes); creates a special Office on Victims of Immigrant Crimes; and calls for a weekly report to "make public a comprehensive list of criminal actions committed by aliens," it does not feel like a leap to harken back to Hitler's creation of a special Office of Racial Policy, and the order from Hitler's Minister of Justice that called on prosecutors to "forward a copy of every [criminal] indictment against a Jew to the ministry's press division."

I play my language game very seriously because, as a Jew, I know that when one group is targeted, we must see all groups as targeted.  As a Jew, I know that when bystanders ignore one outrage and then another and another, they become complicit and less likely to protest as time goes on.  As a Jew, I know better than to confuse my current privilege with safety.  And as a Jew, I know that when they come for the aliens, the Muslims, the Mexicans, when they come for the [fill in the blank], they come for me.