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New Book Highlights
Trump’s Impact On Anti-Semitism

F

uture scholars and historians will prob-
Indeed, when Trump was declared the win-
ably examine Donald Trump’s impact
ner on election night, David Duke, the former
on anti-Semitism during his 2016 can-
grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, tweeted it
didacy and presidency.
was “one of the most exciting nights of
Meanwhile, Jonathan Weisman,
my life” adding that Trump might be
New York Times deputy Washington
“one of the greatest Americans to have
editor, has given us the first in-depth
ever lived.”
look at the subject in his book,
Weisman also cites multiple
(((Semitism))) Being Jewish in America
accolades in the book from Richard
in the Age of Trump.
Spencer, president of the National
Weisman’s conclusion: Trump ran
Policy Institute, a white supremacist
the most anti-Semitic presidential
think tank.
campaign in modern American history. Berl Falbaum
Weisman understands that much
For anyone who followed, even super-
of the Jewish support for Trump came
ficially, Trump’s actions and disturbing
because “it would be good for Israel.”
silence at times this is hardly surpris-
But he astutely points out, “Anti-
ing.
Semitism and militant Zionism can
(The triple parenthesis, Weisman explains,
co-exist quite comfortably.”
are used by anti-Semites to identify Jewish
He writes that Bannon knew what he was
names on the internet and make it easier for
doing when he told the alt-right that Trump
their colleagues to find Jewish targets for their
was their man and “signaled to Jewish tribalists
bigoted venom.)
that Trump would give them everything they
There are no major revelations in the book,
wanted and more on Israel.”
but combining the disturbing episodes pro-
(Pending his Mideast peace plan, which
vides a very unsettling scenario.
the administration says is being prepared, the
Weisman recounts the following:
best one can say about Trump’s Israeli policy
• Trump’s “America First” slogan was used by
thus far is that Daniella J. Greenbaum was
the anti-Semite pilot Charles Lindbergh in the accurate when, writing in Commentary, the
early 1930s. Even if Trump was unaware of the neo-conservative political magazine staunchly
connection when he adopted the slogan, he
supportive of Israel, that his Israeli policy is
certainly was told of the implications but did
“schizophrenic.”)
nothing to change it.
Of course, Weisman discusses Trump’s infa-
• The appointment as chief strategist of
mous reaction to neo-Nazis in Charlottesville
Stephen K. Bannon, former chairman of
where they promised that “Jews will not replace
Breitbart News, whose principal audiences
us,” and the president responded that these
were white supremacists and anti-Semites.
protesters included “some very nice people.”
• The appointment of Sebastian Gorka as
Weisman, who is Jewish and was threat-
Bannon’s aide. Gorka, along with his family,
ened by anti-Semites and white suprema-
had strong ties to anti-Semitic organizations
cists, explains how Trump’s anger at the
in Hungary.
media incited incendiary attacks on Jewish
• The distribution of an anti-Semitic caricature
journalists and Jewish media institutions,
of Hillary Clinton showing her surrounded
many having to hire security.
by $100 bills with the Star of David as a back-
“I would never kill them [journalists] but I
drop.
do hate them,” Trump told cheering support-
• A TV campaign ad that featured prominent
ers. “Some of them are such lying disgusting
Jewish officials walking across the screen as
people.”
the narrator warns us about “global special
Weisman quotes Rabbi David Saperstein, a
interests,” code words used by anti-Semites
Reform rabbi, lawyer and former U.S. ambas-
who charge that Jews control the financial
sador-at-large: “The president is koshering
world. The ad could very well have been writ-
racism with his politics. He has also koshered
ten by the forgers of The Protocols of the Elders anti-Semitism.”
of Zion.
But despite this bone-chilling political
• A tweet by Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s
atmosphere, Weisman says, organized Jewry
first national security adviser, which touted,
remained silent. And, that is the overall mes-
“Not Anymore Jews. Not Anymore.”
sage and criticism in his book.
Weisman does not mention that at the GOP
Like Evangelicals giving new meaning to
the Bible and morality with their support of
convention, when the former Jewish gover-
Trump, 24 percent of the Jewish electorate
nor of Hawaii Linda Lingle was speaking, the
voted for him, turning a blind eye to the anti-
chatroom overflowed with 3 million ugly anti-
Semitism that he stoked.
Semitic messages while the campaign and its
That, Weisman writes, can prove to be dan-
candidate remained silent. Some of the gro-
gerous. He’s right, and for proof of how hate
tesque messages cannot be printed in a family
newspaper. Paul Manafort, campaign chairman unchecked can easily grow and how silence
fertilizes a malignancy, we simply need to
at the time, said he knew nothing about the
look at history. •
messages.
Weisman spends considerable time on how
Berl Falbaum, a West Bloomfield resident, is a veteran
Trump rhetoric and “his policies” rejuvenated
journalist and author.
anti-Semites and white supremacy groups.

8

April 12 • 2018

jn

continued from page 5

The Jewish people have had
many tragedies throughout our
history. But in terms of tragedy,
the Holocaust has no equal. No
matter how talented a person
may be with words, there are not
enough words fit to explain what
happened to the Jewish people of
Europe in the years 1939-1945.
Our generation had a pha-
raoh, a Haman; his name was
Hitler. The Nazi government and
its people forced us out of our
homes and put us in ghettoes. If
they would have treated animals
like we were treated in the ghet-
toes, they would certainly be in
jail.
Then the Nazi governments
of Europe packed us into freight
trains like sardines. Those who
were sitting did not have room
to stand. Those who were stand-
ing did not have room to sit. The
doors were locked and sealed,
and we traveled three days and
nights. No food was given to us.
No water was given to us.
When we got off those trains,
we did not know where we were.
We did not know why we were
there. We came to a tall gate; on
top was written Arbeit Macht
Frei, “Work will make you free.”
Please visualize this with me.
The people who stood at this
gate had just come from the
ghetto. We had not slept in a
bed. We had not had a hot meal,
many times not even a cold meal.
We had babies with us. In
those days, there were no dispos-
able diapers, no baby formula, no
baby food in jars. Those babies
were sick, miserable and hun-
gry. They had no cribs in which
to sleep. They hadn’t bathed in
six weeks. This picture is still in
front of me after all these years.
As we know, not many people
escaped from Auschwitz and
lived to tell the story after lib-
eration. I know of only one
young man, Rabbi Michael Dov
Weissmandel, who managed to
escape from the train headed to
Auschwitz. He got to England,
to the headquarters of the Allied
forces in London.
He told them that tens of
thousands of Jewish people were
being murdered in gas chambers
daily and then burned to ashes
in crematoriums. He told them
those people were being brought
to Auschwitz by train. He asked
them to please drop some bombs
on the railroad tracks that led to
Auschwitz or on the bridges that

led to Auschwitz. Bomb the gas
chambers and the crematoria
from the air; he said; “They are
sharply visible! More than 90
percent of those in Auschwitz
are brought by rail day and night,
and until they fix the tracks and
bridges, tens of thousands of
Jews could be saved,”
The Allied personnel officer
told the rabbi there were people
in the buildings and those people
would be killed.
“But you can save thousands
of lives by destroying the railroad
tracks, the bridges, the gas cham-
bers and the crematoria!” the
rabbi said.
Not one bomb was dropped.
Six million of our people were
murdered.
As a Holocaust survivor, I
believe if we had a Jewish state
before World War II, we would
not have had a Holocaust, for
sure, not 6 million martyrs. The
Israeli Armed Forces, the pilots,
would have bombed the railroad
tracks leading to Auschwitz,
Majdenek and Buna. They would
have bombed the bridges, the gas
chambers and the crematoria
before they started to operate.
Saturday was the last day of
Passover and we said the Yizkor
prayer with broken hearts and
lots of memories. We say prayers
and remember the martyrs, our
parents, the 1.5 million children
killed in gas chambers and
burned in crematoria.
We also remember those
who survived and have since
died. They were our husbands,
wives, our children … and we
remember all those people who
got killed in the Warsaw Ghetto
Uprising.
As we know, souls never die.
All 6 million are in heaven, and
on a day of remembrance, they
come in search of their fathers
and mothers. They come down
here with the Father, the God of
the Jewish children, crying of the
destruction of 6 million Jews.
They tell us, the living, “Do not
forget us. You be the guardians of
our Jewish memory, of our values
and hopes. Protect and safeguard
the state of Israel for which we
hoped and prayed and which we
did not live long enough to
see.” •

Michael Weiss, a Holocaust survivor, is
a speaker at the Holocaust Memorial
Center in Farmington and author of the
book Chimneys and Chambers.