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| Shapiro speaking to supporters (Washington Post) |
An example of that is a recent Washington Post story about the race for governor in Pennsylvania between Democrat Josh Shapiro and Republican Doug Mastriano. More about that later.
In that story they referred to a recent statement by Donald Trump as antisemitic:
...former president Donald Trump, a Mastriano supporter, recently writing on Truth Social that Jews in the United States must “get their act together” and show more appreciation for the state of Israel “before it is too late.”
It is obvious to me that Trump was referring to the fact that secular Jews do not support or appreciate what he did for Israel. The vast majority of non Orthodox Jews are politically liberal and probably more anti Trump than any other demographic in America. Which I believe is the primary reason he is so reviled by them. Fortunate are they to be able to point to his real flaws – which are considerable and then claim that their negative views of Trump are not about politics. Which of course in reality they are.
Liberal Jews will minimize all of Trump’s pro Israel policies and take every opportunity to show his antisemitism - as the Washington Post jut did. A claim that is beyond ridiculous. The majority of Jews in Israel belive that he was the most pro-Israel president in American history. Trump can’t believe that American Jews do not appreciate what he did the way most Israelis do.
But polls have shown that American Jewish support for the Jewish state is waning. Especially among younger Jews. But that should not surprise anyone since most of those Jews don’t even care about their Judaism and are willing to marry out at an over 70% rate. So Trump has a point. A point not lost on Israelis or most Orthodox Jews.
To be absolutely clear, I don’t think that Trump is morally and ethically qualified to be president for a whole host of reasons. Which keep increasing but are beyond the scope of this post. Criticism should not include lying about what he meant as did the Post. There is plenty of truth upon which to rely when talking about Trump’s lack of qualification. Antisemitism is not one of them. Although dog whistles to antisemites in order to get their vote is one of those truths.)
Back the race for governor. Politically slanted coverage of the campaign disguised as journalism makes it difficult to ferret out the truth about each candidate. But it is possible. In the case of Shapiro- Mastarino governor’s race, I think it’s pretty clear that Mastriano is an old fashioned antisemite and possibly even a closet white supremacist. There are just too many things that he has said and done in the past that makes that obvious. Even though he tried to explain them all away.
The latest of which was a comment he made about Shapiro’s Jewish education:
Mastriano (accused Shapiro) of having “disdain for people like us” because Shapiro and his children have attended a “privileged, exclusive, elite” Jewish academy in the Philadelphia suburbs.
That and many more such comments make it clear that by ‘people like us’ he means only white Christian Americans. This comment makes it clear who Mastriano is. A man who probably sympathized with the neo-Nazis that marched in Chalreston chanting, ‘Jews will not replace us!’
I don’t know if Shapiro is observant. But if he is, I think we would have heard about it by now. I also don’t know whether the school he attended was Orthodox. My hunch is that it more of a community school that views all Jewish denominations favorably. And probably did not teach Halacha as mandatory.
However, I believe that they nevertheless do instill pride in one’s Judaism and probably even encourage observance as a form of cultural identity. While this kind of education is not what Judaism is about, it does at least promote the idea of perpetuating one’s Judaism and discouraging intermarriage. Hopefully. I believe that Shapiro is one of those rare breed of Jews that - although not fully observant - still takes pride in his Judaism and wants to perpetuate it through his children.
But even putting that aside as irrelevant to the governorship of Pennsylvania, for me voting for Shapiro is a no brainer. Even though he is probably politically liberal as are most Jews in this country, he will make a far better governor than an antisemitic closet white supremacist like Mastriano would. I don’t live in Pennsylvania. But for those who do I urge all of you – including Orthodox Jews with conservative values like me - to go out and vote for Shapiro. Mastriano will be a major catastrophe for the Jewish people if he wins. Thankfully the polls show he will lose badly. But we need to be vigilant and do our duty to vote and insure those polls will prove to be accurate. God forbid they aren’t.