I must admit: It is very tempting to gloat. After all, as one person texted me, “Rabbi, you were for Trump before it became popular.” This is true. I had been a supporter of Trump from the start of his first presidency. You may recall a year into Trump’s presidency, I wrote an article titled “How Crazy Are We?” – questioning the silly protests against Trump, even by Orthodox Jews. Till this day, I don’t get it.
In fact, an Orthodox rabbinic colleague (at that time from Queens) wrote a lengthy column in the Queens Jewish Link attacking my position. I am sure this rabbi, who is devoted to the Liberal religion, feels the same way today – despite everything we have witnessed, thanks to the Democrats in charge.
We know that the war in Gaza likely would have been over in a few weeks with the hostages returned if President Biden had allowed Israel to win decisively. But he has no stomach for victory. Afghanistan made that clear. His refusal to allow Israel to take care of business with Iran proved that again. We can point to Florida, governed by Republican Ron DeSantis, to see how quickly an anti-Israel rally on campus can be quelled. Look at the Democrat-run states like New York and California to see how hatred of Jews is allowed to fester.
Nebach. A major non-Orthodox synagogue on the Upper West Side gathered to formally sit shiv’ah due to Trump’s sweeping victory. Jimmy Kimmel cried to his audience, and Barbra Streisand says she is moving to England. Can’t wait till she becomes a “memory” here. People have lost their collective minds.
Perhaps the best result of the flipping of the political map from Blue to Red is that the beloved and heroic Chuck Schumer will no longer be Senate Majority Leader.
My kids know that if they ever want to get me on a rant, just mention Schumer’s name. When he first became a United States senator by beating Al D’Amato, I spoke to our Young Marrieds Minyan and proclaimed that we live in a great country. Imagine me, a rabbi, I said, being depressed over the fact that a Jewish candidate beat an Italian one.
But I knew then what became increasingly clear with the passage of time: Charles Schumer is an egocentric blowhard who will do what is politically best for him, at any cost.
It was painful when he took the prestige of his office to publicly denounce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for his overthrow. He figured he was buying his ticket to the “World to Come” with such a courageous speech.
Now we know that he also was complicit with the leaders of some of the New York colleges to ignore the anti-Semitism and Jew-beating surging on campus, as it is only a “Republican talking point.” I guess what took place in Amsterdam last week was also a Republican talking point.
We also owe him endless gratitude for fighting Donald Trump in Trump’s effort to curb the immigration of violent Muslims into America. Thanks, Chuck. Goodbye, Chuck.
It is one of the inexplicable mysteries of the Jewish people that they support and vote for candidates and a party that puts the welfare of Jews last on the agenda. If the candidate professes to care for the other minorities and touts the right slogans about the popular causes, he’s in.
Knowing all we now know about FDR’s refusal to save Jews from the Holocaust, many of today’s Jews would nonetheless “trip on their cloaks” to vote for him again (see Talmud Sanhedrin 102b) against any Republican.
Yet, I do not gloat. It was just a year ago that I wrote that I was rethinking Donald Trump. He met with notorious anti-Semites Nick Fuentes and rapper Kayne West in Mar-a-Lago. He seems to be close with Tucker Carlson, no longer a friend of the Jews. That is why, in the primaries, I voted for Nikki Haley, a proven great friend of Israel and the Jewish community.
We painfully remember how all of us in the religious community were ecstatic with the unexpected victory of Ariel Sharon over Shimon Peres in the early 2000s. It was considered on par with the arrival of Mashiach. The religious right just received its most ardent supporter.
Then Sharon turned everything on its head. Perhaps to gain favor in the leftist media’s eyes to avoid pending corruption charges, Sharon decided to unilaterally disengage from Gaza/Gush Katif. Surely, he and his supporters argued, allowing the Palestinians to self-govern will bring the long, sought-after peace. Anyone with a sliver of religious devotion to Eretz Yisrael knew that this would bring disaster (although all the organizations here, except for the NCYI, were shamefully silent). We are currently in a disastrous war because of that ill-advised withdrawal.
Will the leftist media here and in Israel learn from their huge mistakes? Surely they will not. The Left in Israel has doubled down on its messianic drivel about a Two-State Solution and the need to oust Prime Minister Netanyahu. The leftist media in America, following their big flub in the 2016 Trump-Clinton election, did not learn their lesson either. You will hear now, as then, about the need to have a reality check with the people. Yet they will continue to live in their own bubble and echo chamber.
While I am naturally thrilled with the Trump victory and the repudiation of the insane Left, I cannot gloat. However, I remain very hopeful and comforted in knowing that the bottom line is: “The heart of the king is in the hand of G-d” (Proverbs 21:1). At least this king’s heart is in the right place. His presidency cannot come soon enough.
Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld is the Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, former President of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens, and the Rabbinic Consultant for the Queens Jewish Link.
