If I had to pinpoint where this kind of polarization began, I would have to say it began with former President Trump. Not that our differences didn’t exist before. But Trump made it acceptable to ridicule his political opponents. That removed any and all inhibitions from his many supporters, freeing them up to ridicule those with different views the same way Trump does. And that has brought out the worst in us.
I am absolutely appalled that so many Jews from across the entire spectrum of Orthodoxy vilify those with whom they disagree. No where was this more evident than in how Trump supporters vilified Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson prior to her confirmation. This highly qualified, intelligent, moral, decent individual who does not have a prejudiced bone in her body was torn apart by Trump supporters in the Senate because of her liberal views. That prompted many Orthodox Jewish Trump supporters to follow suit - vilifying her in the same way.
Now it’s true that her liberal views might influence her decisions on the court. But it will not be because of any lack of character. It will be because of her deeply held liberal beliefs. Villifying her because of her politics is just plain wrong. But that did not stop so many of us on the right from painting her in the worst possible terms. Which had zero to do with her qualifications. What has happened to us?!
As Eytan Kobre noted in his Mishpacha column:
(It’s) essential for the welfare of America — and thus of the Jews for whom it has been an unparalleled safe haven — for its political factions to eschew the scorched-earth tactics and mutual demonization of recent years and instead return to disagreeing strenuously but amicably.
(It is important to take) the entire picture into account, to consider not just specific issues, but their larger context.
Not that I let the left off the hook on this issue. As noted by Jonathan Rosenblum in his weekly Mishpacha column:
My wife has one friend from childhood with whom she still maintains contact, usually in the form of birthday phone calls. In recent years, despite my wife’s attempts to avoid any political discussion, her friend invariably launches into a rant about how Donald Trump loosed the dark forces of anti-Semitism upon America.
I should add that this friend is quite bright, and on the scale of American Jewry, more identified than most. Yet I must confess that this obsession with the forces of anti-Semitism resulting from Donald Trump strikes me as unhinged.
For one thing, she speaks with a genuine sense of being threatened by anti-Semitic white nationalists. Yet I would guess that the chances of her or a loved one coming to physical harm from a carjacker is at least 100 times greater than the chance of her encountering a white nationalist bent on harming Jews any time soon.
In 2021, carjackings surged 55 percent in New York City, 85 percent in Philadelphia. There were 655 attempted or completed carjackings, invariably at gunpoint, in Minneapolis last year. And driveways in residential neighborhoods are one of the prime hotspots.
Those who see their liberal Orthodoxy as inviolable leaves a lot to be desired in the arena of civility. Believing that those with politically right wing views are morons, fools, or outright bigots. They see the right as completely blinded by bias and incapable of seeing their truth. The idea that conservative views have any validity at all is ridiculous in their eyes and is anathema to them. And if they are Trump followers blindly following Trump and parroting his rhetoric- they are seen as worthy of complete disdain. Blaming Trump and all his supporters for all that is wrong in the world.
It is quite upsetting to me how far the polarization among Orth0dox Jews has gone. I don't even care whose fault it is. It needs to stop because it is hurting us as individuals and as a community.
Both sides need to dial back the acrimony and return to a time where we can agree to disagree – agreeably. And stop treating their political Orthodoxy as the it was Torah.