Trump’s Rosh Hashanah message attacks majority of U.S. Jews for ‘voting to destroy America and Israel’
Former President Donald Trump on July 29, 2023. Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday posted an ominous warning to American Jews in honor of Rosh Hashanah, retreading well-worn territory of dual loyalty tropes and conflating support for Israel and American Jews.
Trump has frequently targeted Jewish Americans for not voting for him, including imploring them to “get their act together before it’s too late,” earning widespread condemnations for “Jewsplaining.”
He has also repeatedly used his unprecedented support for Israel as a deflection against accusations of antisemitism, all while invoking dual loyalty tropes and deeming Jews who vote for Democrats as “very disloyal” to Israel.
Trump’s opinions of American Jews, however, have deteriorated into stereotypes for decades – touching on tropes of wealth, power and status.
“Just a quick reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives! Let’s hope you learned from your mistake & make better choices moving forward! Happy New Year,” Trump posted on an image shared to his Truth Social profile.
The image added “wake up sheep. What Natzi/AntiSemite ever did this for the Jewish people or Israel,” before detailing several of Trump’s signature policy initiatives related to Israel.
The post detailed Trump’s moving of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem (“no other president had the balls to do it”), as well as his recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and “settlements in Judea and Samaria.”
The Trump administration took a variety of policy measures shifting the legality of Israeli settlements under U.S. law. While the Biden administration has opted to no longer transfer funds to research institutes or academic projects taking place in the West Bank, it has opted not to reverse the key tenets of Trump’s settlement policy.
The post further noted that Trump signed an executive order deeming Judaism a nationality in addition to a religion so it would fall under the category Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in a move widely viewed as targeting critics of Israeli policy on college campuses as a political attempt to limit free speech.
The post finally noted Trump’s signing of the “Never Again” Education bill that allocated millions to expand Holocaust awareness – a bill lauded by Jewish establishment organizations, though much of which works against Holocaust deniers that Trump has allied himself with in the months and years since his presidency.
The latter hashtag was particularly prominent before the 2020 presidential election, alluding to a supposed shift among Jewish voters – the vast majority of whom have traditionally voted Democratic – to the Republican Party, largely based on Trump’s Israel record.
A poll earlier this summer showed 72 percent of Jewish voters prefer U.S. President Joe Biden over Trump, with 80 percent holding unfavorable views of Trump. Orthodox Jews, however, prefer Trump by a 76-13 percent difference.
A Haaretz review of Jewish Republican donations over the first several months of the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign revealed that a notable number of pro-Trump donors will clearly back the former president no matter what as he faces a series of indictments, Jewish donors appear divided on who represents the best alternative to the former president, with several hedging bets by donating to several candidates.
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