A Rabbi Like Many Others, Battling Trump With Ongoing Zest
by Abraham H. Miller
Rabbi James Brandt, the CEO of the San Francisco Jewish Federation, recently issued a letter calling upon the Jewish community to oppose the appointment of Steve Bannon as President-elect Trump’s chief strategist.
Having lost the election, some Jewish leaders are fighting on with unbelievable zest.
Bannon, whose antisemitism stems from an unimpeachable source — testimony of his ex-wife in a custody battle — is now seen as furthering the alt-right contingent of Trump’s inner circle.
For months, we have heard of “Trump’s antisemitism,” which is laughable, since he is a major contributor to Jewish causes, has a Jewish daughter and has Orthodox Jewish grandchildren.
When Israel expelled Jews from former Israeli settlements in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip as part of the peace initiative, it was Donald Trump who stepped in to help create new communities in Israel for the evacuees.
Of course, our Jewish leadership is always quick to take the high ground when it comes to fighting antisemitism. When revelations came pouring forth about then-candidate Barack Obama’s association with the black liberation theologist and antisemite, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the Jewish leadership sprang into action, right?
Rabbi Brandt is quick to note the rise of hate crimes since the election, but he shamelessly neglects to note who is the aggressor and who is the victim. Simply put, erroneously assuming a causal relationship from a merely sequential one.
But the most moving part of Rabbi Brandt’s letter was the comparison of Bannon to Congressman Keith Ellison, the leading candidate for head of the Democratic National Committee. Ellison has proven relationships with several radical Muslim and antisemitic organizations. And Brandt condemned him, right? Oh, silly me — of course he didn’t.