The Jewish people are more politically divided now than at any other time in my life. (I turn 78 tomorrow.) The differences cannot be more stark and were represented in the election. Orthodox Jews and non Orthodox Jews voted for two entirely different visions of America last Tuesday.
79% (or 66% depending on which poll you believe) of Jewish voters (90% of whom are non Orthodox) voted for Harris. I could not find statistics reflecting the percentage of Orthodox Jews that voted for Trump. But since according to Pew - about 75% of us now support the Republican party – it is not too much of a stretch to believe we voted for Trump in similar numbers.
This explains the near giddy excitement over Trump’s win in Rabbi Gil student’s office yesterday. As noted by the Forward:
There was a delicious surprise awaiting people who showed up for afternoon prayer services Wednesday at Rabbi Gil Student’s Manhattan office building: a celebratory chocolate cake with “Trump” written on it in white frosting. It was devoured before the rabbi could snap a picture.
“I have to admit,” Rabbi Student wrote in a post on X. “It felt weird saying tachanun” — the weekday supplication prayer that is skipped on holidays — “given the jubilant mood.”
This is not an outlier reaction. I have noticed a lot of joy and even celebration over Trump’s victory at the polls from a variety Orthodox organizations in the form of emails I received. Or articles like this one. Understandable of course. But I’m not sure that is the best way to react to it publicly
Harris supporters are incredulous over the results of this election. They find it impossible to understand how anyone that calls themselves religious could vote for a man that is the antithesis of the very religious values they live by! Can anyone spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-SY?
I have explained this phenomenon more than once and as recently as Monday– the day before the election. It is worth noting that I am not alone in explaining why this is NOT at all hypocritical and why voting for Trump is in fact quite in line with our values:
Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, an Orthodox podcaster who teaches at Yeshiva University, said (Trump’s) track record (on Israel and Orthodox Jews) made the Democrats’ characterization of Trump as a Nazi sympathizer a tough sell for Orthodox Jews. Trump’s personal failings — his crass language, sexual improprieties, even dining with avowed antisemites like Ye and Nick Fuentes — were besides the point.
Orthodox Jews tend to have a “utilitarian, transactional” view of politics, Bashevkin said, seeing elections less as a way to discover or express values than as a tool to protect them.
“We don’t need to fall in love with our candidates,” he explained. “We don’t need to deify our candidates. We have our role models within our community. And because of that, when we think politically, a lot of the arguments against Trump fell flat.”
To most non Orthodox Jews the values of the liberal/left are the values of Judaism The primary concern of which is social justice. Which is how they define Tikun Olam. In their ignorance what Judaism is really all about – they see Tikun Olam as the sum and substance of all Jewish values. Knowing little and caring less about what our foundational book, the Torah says about rest of our Godly obligations.
So when it comes to LGBTQ issues for example, the only way to treat it is to normalize it as though sex between two gay men is as ‘Kosher’ as the that of a married man and woman. Treating it any other way is considered bigotry on par with racism and antisemitism.
This – as I have said in the past - is what separates the two Jewish worlds. And one reason why between 66 ad 79 percent of non Orthodox Jews voted heavily for Harris – while the reverse is probably true for Orthodox Jews that voted for Trump. No one put it better than the Forward:
The issue of “wokeness,” more than anything, seems to be where the Orthodox broke with the rest of the Jewish fabric. Most mainstream liberal Jews have supported diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, marriage equality and trans rights. By contrast, one of the leading voices of anti-wokeness has been Libs of TikTok, a Twitter account run by an Orthodox Jew named Chaya Raichik.
Casting Trump’s victory as a great rejection of wokeness seemed to animate much of Orthodox Jews’ post-election schadenfreude. “Go woke, go broke,” read one of Rabbi Student’s tweets.
Wokeness can mean different things to different people, but critics paint it as a performative expression of leftist values, rooted in the idea that the world is essentially divided into categories of oppressor and oppressed.
Indeed, this is how many Orthodox Jews now feel about the massive victory Trump scored in both the electoral and popular vote. The unfortunate thing about ‘gloating’ is that it does not help us win friends and influence people.
While the so-called ‘woke’ side of our people are angry and upset by Trump’s election, Orthodox joyous public celebration of it is counterproductive to the ever increasingly elusive goal of unity.
Although bridging the gap between us now seems impossible. I do not believe it really is. Or at least that it will stay like that forever.
I believe that some introspection by both sides is in order. It would go a long way towards reversing course and eventually having a meeting of the minds where we can respect each others points of view without agreeing. And without rancor. That would be a huge first step towards unity.
Am I spitting in the wind?