Top Reform Rabbi Slams Donald Trump for Singling Out Non-Christians at Rally
Image by Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s joke at a rally, in which he singled out people who were not Christian conservatives, was “unacceptable,” said a top Reform rabbi.
“Raise your hand if you’re not a Christian conservative,” Trump said at a Sept. 28 rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa, after assessing that the crowd was overwhelmingly Christian conservative. “I want to see this, right. Oh, there’s a couple people, that’s all right. I think we’ll keep them. Should we keep them in the room? Yes? I think so.”
Iowa is competitive for the Republican nominee, and he hopes to turn out the state’s religious conservatives to defeat Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president. Ribbing his followers is part of Trump’s campaigning routine.
Rabbi Jonah Pesner, the director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, said in a statement that even as a joke, Trump’s remarks were unacceptable, and linked the joke to Trump’s broadsides against Muslims.
“Singling out people in a crowd at a political rally, based on their faith or lack of faith, even as a joke, is unacceptable,” Pesner said.
“This should go without saying in the United States in 2016, but it evidently does not,” he said. “A candidate who has called for banning refugees based on their religious beliefs and increasing surveillance at houses of worship has established a pattern of intolerance and scapegoating. America was founded on the ideal of religious freedom.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
