Why Won’t President Trump Denounce the Recent Anti-Semitic Attacks?

The People Behind Attacks Wants Jews to Be Afraid and Trump Doesn’t Care

Another round of bomb threats were called in to at least ten different Jewish community centers (JCCs) on Monday, Presidents’ Day, marking the fourth time multiple JCCs were the target of a coordinated terrorist threat during the first month of Donald Trump’s presidency. The Jewish Community Center Association reports 69 incidents at 54 JCCs in 27 states this year alone.

We’ve covered this before here. It’s becoming harder and harder to find new details to share, but, as the Anti-Defamation League has said, “[While we do not] have any information at this time to indicate the presence of any actual bombs at any of the institutions threatened, the threats themselves are alarming, disruptive, and must always been taken seriously.”

There’s something really important here that too many folks aren’t noting: These threats are an attempt to tell Jews that we are not welcome here. They are designed to scare Jews out of congregating together at community centers, synagogues, and, apparently, even burying their dead. These bomb threats are, without question, anti-Semitic attacks. And they are, by definition, terrorism.

Jewish community centers across the country often house preschools, after school programs, senior day programs, and in some cases, share campuses with Jewish day schools and synagogues. So, we’re talking about terrorism designed to target children and seniors, who both need to look to others for their most basic needs – including a feeling of safety and security.

JCCs aren’t exclusively Jewish, either. A significant portion of the membership at JCCs across the country are non-Jews who simply look to the JCC to be their community center. I grew up at JCCs. My first job during high school was at a JCC and even into my professional career I worked at a JCC. 

The person, people, or groups behind these calls want Jews to feel unsafe in the places they feel most welcome. They want Jews to remember that we’re different, that we have a history of being terrorized, and that we’re not wanted here. They chose Jewish community centers for a reason: they’re symbols of Jewish integration into the larger American community, and that type of acceptance and welcome frightens white supremacists.

And President Trump doesn’t care at all. 

Last week he told a Jewish reporter to “sit down” and be “quiet” while explaining (angrily) that he was, at least in his own mind, “the least anti-Semitic person you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” as though that was some sort of suitable answer in response to the sharp rise in anti-Semitism since he won the election. 

He never did mention the uptick in anti-Semitism. He did, however, replay his electoral college win. Again.

I’m not naive enough to think that President Trump can put an end to anti-Semitism, and I’m certainly not foolish enough to think that he’s single-handedly caused all of these anti-Semitic attacks.

For the life of me, though, I can’t figure out why he simply can’t say the words, “The sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks across the country is offensive and unacceptable and it must end now.” I don’t understand why President Trump refuses to say that attempts to terrorize Jewish communities are antithetical to American values and must be stopped.

Is it possible that this is nothing more than the handiwork of noted anti-Semite and presidential counselor Steve Bannon?

I don’t think Donald Trump is anti-Semitic himself. I think he’s so self absorbed he can’t possibly fathom what’s going on. I think he’s such a puppet of Steve Bannon he has no real idea what’s actually happening in the world. I think his staff have made him so insulated and ineffectual he’s nothing more than a symbolic figurehead at this point. 

Donald Trump’s silence on anti-Semitism isn’t a symptom of his own hatred; it’s a symptom of his complete impotence and ineptitude at being president.

And this is only his first month on the job.

  

Robbie Medwed is an Atlanta-based LGBTQ activist, educator, and writer. He’s dedicated more time than is usually considered reasonable to the study of anti-Semitism and really, really likes being super Jewy when white supremacists are around. Follow him on Twitter: @rjmedwed

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