Donald Trump boasts “promises made, promises kept.” Nowhere is that more evident than his consuming lust for retribution. It has his followers enchanted, his foes flummoxed and everyone else dazed.
And with his administration’s growing affinity for neo-Nazis and other bigots – and with co-president Elon Musk apparently getting a free hand to reshape the federal government to his murky specifications – the Jewish organizations charged with defending the community’s security have mostly decided to take a pass, focusing instead on safer issues like campus anti-Israel protests.
Trump has a long history of offensive comments and memes, and Musk has a strong affinity for fascists, notably endorsing Germany’s neo-Nazi Alternative für Deutschland, telling a party rally to be “proud” and “move beyond” their “focus on past guilt.” During Trump’s inaugural parade, he gave what many considered a Nazi salute and later posted on X some Nazi humor.
But most Jewish leaders would prefer talking about something else.
Musk’s Nazi-like salute was shrugged off by Jonathan Greenblatt, leader of the Anti-Defamation League, as an “awkward gesture.”
That apparent indifference did not occur in a vacuum; the group that considers itself the nation’s preeminent defender of Jewish security is apparently too afraid of being labeled partisan, or too wary of offending big givers, or too focused on making nice with right-wing supporters of the Jewish state, to actively fight the fact that one of this country’s two major parties now apparently considers the most extreme elements a valued part of their coalition.
President Trump’s blanket pardon of January 6 rioters, including some who proudly proclaimed their antisemitism, produced barely a whimper.
It took Greenblatt several days of shaming and Holocaust jokes by Musk to wake up and smell the rat, finally declaring “the Holocaust is not a joke,” but his group – and many others among the biggest Jewish organizations – are acting as if the community is not facing an existential threat as Trump/Musk forces wage all-out war against government civil liberties protections. They are wrong, and the consequences could be dramatic.
MUSK’S ILL-DEFINED job is not established by law, and he has no accountability except possibly to Trump, who appears to have given him a free hand and seems unfazed by his flirtation with antisemitism.
This week more than 160 Jewish leaders, mostly left-leaning activists, called for a boycott of X, calling its owner “an urgent danger to Jews.”
While most Jewish organizations found Musk’s salute offensive, they seemed anxious to move back to their usual agenda of Israel, Hamas, hostages, campus antisemitism, and Iran.
Nor do they have much to say about the new administration’s unprecedented offensive against undocumented immigrants, an offensive that includes mass roundups and a possible internment camp at Guantanamo.
Support for a compassionate approach to immigration has long been a priority issue for many Jewish organizations, but the massive assault by ICE and other agencies at the White House’s behest have produced little outrage.
Generations of Jews have called America the Golden Medina (Country of Gold) for welcoming those fleeing the pogroms and ovens of Europe. We were strangers in a strange land; don’t we have an obligation to other strangers? Or are today’s Jewish leaders cowering in the face of Trump’s xenophobic nativism?
A few Jewish organizations are speaking out, mostly smaller and on the Left. J Street has expressed alarm about the rise of right-wing extremism in the administration and the Congress. New Jewish Narrative (former Americans for Peace Now and Ameinu) condemned the foreign aid freeze as a “reckless” move that “undermines both America’s moral leadership and its strategic interests.”
Eliminating USAID funding for health services, food, disaster relief and shelter in developing areas weakens American ties of friendship and creates a vacuum China is anxious to fill.The Jewish Council for Public Affairs organized a letter signed by 88 groups condemning the administration’s anti-immigrant policies.
But most lacked the courage to do more than offer letters and press releases. One leader explained to me that Trump keeps changing his mind so rapidly that it is hard to keep up. Today’s policies might be forgotten tomorrow so don’t go out on a limb about to be sawed off. One day he declares a trade war and the next he shelves it.
SOME OF his most controversial cabinet nominations are too close to call and are before the Senate this week. Weighing in might have an impact on whether Tulsi Gabbard becomes director of national intelligence, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is secretary of health and human services and Kash Patel becomes director of the FBI.
All three are egregiously unqualified and should be roundly rejected, especially by leaders of Jewish organizations that say they care about national security, the health of the American people and the justice system.
Fear and institutional self-interest appear to be behind the silence. Trump has a well-earned reputation for vindictiveness. “Trump doesn’t tolerate criticism,” one leader told me, and “we can’t deal with every one of his eruptions.”
Groups like the Jewish Federations of North America, the umbrella body for federations around the country, don’t want to rock the boat because it will be asking the administration to fund their programs and policies.
The professionals are also fearful of alienating partisan big donors and board members who reject any criticism of Trump. They also worry that if they disparage the administration, they will lose access to the agencies and lawmakers they need to meet.
They are not protecting Jewish community interests by their silence but acting out of fear of being targeted by Trump and his followers or, the worry of all organizations, being ignored, not getting their phone calls returned.So, it is easier to stick to the old Israel-centric themes, antisemitism and the demonstrators waiving Palestinian flags and cursing Zionist genocide.
The real existential threat to American Jewry is not the powerless activists on the campuses but the powerful politicians in government systematically chipping away at the democratic foundations treasured by American Jewry – and legitimizing factions that are proudly open about their antisemitism.
The writer is a Washington-based journalist, consultant, lobbyist, and a former legislative director at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.