What is Antisemitism?

Rav Elchonon Wasserman (Wikipedia)

There is no question that most American Jews that are Orthodox support the President. Although I believe that it is more prevalent among the right than the left, I nevertheless believe that support is broad based and encompasses both the right and left of Orthodoxy.

This is in stark contrast with the vast majority of non Orthodox American Jews. whose opposition to the President surpasses the rest of America. In statistics  cited in the New Jersey Jewish News, only about 20% of American Jews approve of the President while the percentage of all Americans is 37%. On the other hand Orthodox Jews that approve of the President is currently at about 75%.

Part of these statistics might be related to the President and antisemitism. Non Orthodox Jews see the President as a bigot that encourages it. They will point to his refusal on many occasions to fully condemn it – only having reluctantly done so after much public criticism. As was the case after Charlotesville.  Orthodox Jews on the other hand seem to ignore that believing that Trump is the most philo-Semitic President in American history.

How is that possible? How can a man whose behavior is right there in front of everyone’s eyes - be judged so differently by people of the same religion? Aren’t we all witnessing the same thing?

The explanation for that might be found among the words of Eliyahu Stern in a recent Tablet article. Although I do not agree entirely with his somewhat startling analysis as I understand it - I believe he touches upon the mindset of these two segments (Orthodox and non-Orthodox). Which helps explain why there are so many Orthodox Jews that support Trump and so many non Orthodox Jews that don’t.

In short he sees Orthodox Jews not caring all that much about antisemitism – as typically understood. Traditionally in this country, antisemitism has been defined as discriminating against Jews in material ways. Such as barring access to certain schools, professions, and in other ways hampering their pursuit of material success. These are the things that concern non Orthodox Jews the most and it is the kind of antisemitism that has been fought from day one. Successfully I might add.

According to Stern, it is the spiritual component that concerns Orthodox Jews the most. Material success is at best secondary. So that when the centers of power promote polices that enhance the spiritual component of their lives, they see it as the ultimate value. As such they will support whomever will advance that agenda first. 

Citing the research of Professor Marc Shapiro, Stern noted that this was demonstrated in pre-Holocaust Europe when Hitler and Stalin first came to power. Both of these dictators were seen as an unfavorable option for the Jews. But Jewish leaders like Rav Elchonon Wasserman chose Hitler over Stalin. Meaning that given the choice to live under one over the other, the clear choice was the guy whose political views only wanted to destroy us physically. That was Hitler’s Nazism. Stalin’s Marxism wanted to destroy us spiritually.

Now before anyone asserts the obvious, no one knew that Hitler wanted to commit genocide in 1933 when he first came to power. Genocide obviously accomplishes both aims. Most Jews believed that despite Hitler’s oft stated antisemitism – including his virulently antisemitic rhetoric in the Reichstag (Germany’s parliament) it was just that: rhetoric. Jews apparently believed they would somehow survive Hitler. Especially of that belief, says Stern, were Orthodox Jewish leaders: 

German Orthodox leaders directly appealed to the German chancellor (Hitler), arguing in 1933 that “Marxist materialism and Communist atheism share not the least in common with the spirit of the positive Jewish religious tradition, as handed down through Orthodox teachings obligatory on the Jewish People. … We have,” they recalled, “been at war against this religious attitude.” Orthodox leaders sought to find common ground with Hitler by demonstrating their own virulent hatred for left-wing and progressive Jews. They proclaimed: “We have always combated the corrosive spirit of materialism with religious idealism.

In their attempt to curry favor with Hitler, Orthodox leaders not only stressed their own loyalty to the German people, but went out of their way to stress the structural similarities between Hitler’s position. “We seek a Lebensraum within the Lebensraum of the German people,” they maintained.

The German rabbis’ position was reaffirmed by the leaders of the Polish branch of the Agudath Israel party who aligned themselves with Pilsudski’s nationalist union.  

That, says Stern, is similarly reflected today by Orthodox Jews in America who overlook Trump’s less than enthusiastic condemnation of the Nazis who marched in Charlottesville. It also allows Trump to criticize other Jews like leftist George Soros without fear of being accused of antisemitism. 

Stern implies that it is almost as if  Trump only cares about Orthodox Jews and sees antisemitism through their (our) eyes. The old time antisemitism about quotas etc, hardly matters at all to Orthodox Jews who as a whole never looked at being admitted to Harvard or Yale as a prize worth fighting for. 

Orthodox Jews look at what Trump does for their spiritual values and pay little heed to what he does about the other aspects of antisemitism in society. A society which in any case is seen as one in which to minimize our participation in that it hurts the very spiritualism we seek

Non Orthodox Jews, on the other hand hardly saw antisemitism in spiritual terms. Their fight was mostly - not about our religious rights. But mostly about our civil rights.

That said. I part company with Stern in the sense that Orthodox Jew do in fact care about the material welfare. They (we) do care about our civil rights. I would add that many of us that support the President’s policies are nevertheless just as abhorred by his lack of  character and other flaws that make him unfit to hold his high office. I count myself among them.

Nor do I think we can draw a direct line of Jewish support for  Hitler in prewar Germany - to support in 2019 of the current President of the United States. Any comparison of Trump to Hitler – even in this context is itself abhorrent. Furthermore to suggest that Orthodox Jews somehow tolerate any antisemitism in any form is equally abhorrent.

But I do think that there is an element of truth to what he says motivates both sides and it is definitely worth thinking about.