Trump doesn’t care about antisemitism


I was not raised Jewish. I don’t consider myself Jewish. I take a back seat to no one in my abhorrence of antisemitism. 

As a card-carrying ACLU member for over 45 years, I’m pretty much a First Amendment absolutist. Accordingly, I also find the attacks by Trump on university free speech to be abhorrent.

Make no mistake. Trump doesn’t care about America’s Jews or about antisemitism:

“Trump is now using the Jewish community as a wedge to dilute free speech protections, control university curricula, and override immigration law. For some in the Jewish community, the short-term gains of shutting down anti-Israel protests may seem like a worthy tradeoff. But in the long term, the weakening of democracy will make Jews and others less safe. Once a government establishes the power to shut down discourse, it tends to use it to silence any critics or opponents. 

 

“If Trump were actually interested in protecting Jewish students, he would not be slashing the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, whose staff investigate bias complaints on campus. Nor would he appoint Cabinet members and staff who openly espouse antisemitic and other bigoted beliefs or pardon Jan. 6, 2021, insurrectionists who were members of antisemitic militia groups.

 

“Rather than protecting Jews, the Trump administration is fanning the flames of antisemitism by attempting to pit Jewish communities against others. Historically, antisemitism has thrived by making Jews into scapegoats in moments of political, cultural, or economic instability — conditions that this administration’s policies threaten to produce. 

 

“Anyone committed to stopping the alarming growth of antisemitism must recognize the Trump administration’s attempts to use the Jewish community’s legitimate concerns as a pretext for undermining democracy, and must reject attempts to drive a wedge between Jews and other Americans. The most important way to protect democracy, as well as the Jewish community, is to work together to ensure a strong democracy for all.”

Trump is cynically exploiting claims of antisemitism to divide Americans. Don’t fall for it.

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/21/opinion/trump-columbia-antisemitism-undermine-democracy/

 

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