DC Rabbis Urge Trump To ‘Reframe Your Agenda’
Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
By Ron Kampeas January 10, 2017
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Dozens of Washington-area rabbis urged President-elect Donald Trump to “reconsider” his campaign’s rhetoric and extend his agenda to all Americans.
The full-page ad appearing in Tuesday’s Express, a subway giveaway newspaper published by the Washington Post, welcomes the incoming administration “to our great city.”
“We expect that, first and foremost, your victory in this election prompts you to revisit your campaign rhetoric and the hate crimes it may have unleashed – even unwittingly – and reframe your agenda to include the voices of ALL the people residing within this great and pluralistic country,” said the ad, which was signed by 58 rabbis representing several Jewish religious streams.
Addressing communities that the ad said Trump’s campaign had made vulnerable, it said, “We are with you. We will not abandon you.”
“We understand that elections have consequences,” the ad said. “But we also must recognize that these consequences, should the campaign rhetoric be acted upon, could very likely cultivate a particularly precarious time for the vulnerable among us.”
The ad did not directly attribute hateful rhetoric to Trump, but described an elections cycle “marred by a disproportionate level of public vitriol and ridicule.”
The rabbis, saying in the ad that they spoke only for themselves, are employed by a range of congregations, including Humanist, Reform and Conservative, as well as an array of Jewish groups based in the area. There were no congregational Orthodox rabbis among them, although at least one signatory, who works for a group that reaches out to young Washington-area Jews, has an Orthodox ordination.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are expected to be in Washington to attend the Women’s March on Washington the day after the Jan. 20 inauguration. A number of liberal Jewish groups are organizing events for them at the historic Sixth and I Synagogue in downtown Washington.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
