A few years ago, I wrote an article titled “How Crazy Are We?” In the article, I decry the fact that so many Jews, including those with yarmulkes, are seen protesting Trump and his policy on immigration. I was upset that these Jewish kids had shown no appreciation to Donald Trump, warts and all, for all that he had done for Israel, but instead chose to trash him. I was also upset that these same kids did not see the need for legal immigration the way our parents and grandparents arrived in this country.
I received quite a few emails, some printed by the Queens Jewish Link, roundly criticizing my thoughts for the usual reasons: I’m racist, I hate immigrants, I have no business supporting Trump, etc.
I expressed in a recent column, “Lessons Already to Be Learned,” the hope that liberal Jews will see the folly of their ideology by virtue of how the beneficiaries of all our goodness have betrayed us – including the Muslims that Jews fought to bring here. I might have been overly optimistic in thinking that they perhaps will make a real change. Liberalism is baked into the DNA of these Jews. But I did think that at least their view of Muslim immigration would change.
It turns out that I was wrong in thinking that facts on the ground would change them. But I didn’t realize how wrong I was!
Somebody sent me a newsclip, I think from Arutz Sheva in Israel, reporting that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be arranging for thousands of Gazans to immigrate to Canada. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. No Arab country will let them in, for they know the terror they are inviting, yet Canada feels the need to host them! Do they not see the Muslim conquest of the West?
I mentioned this to someone who is familiar with Canadian politics, hoping he would tell me it’s fake news. His answer was even more troubling. He told me that liberal Jews are behind the push to get these immigrants into Canada. In the attached op-ed piece, which appeared earlier this week in the Toronto Star, you can see that at least two of the authors’ names are Jewish-sounding.
Here we have Israel at war with Gaza due to the horrible atrocities that their elected government committed against Israel just a few months ago, and some Jews want to bring more of them to disrupt Jewish life in college and in the streets to these shores. Even if you contend that not all Gazans are guilty, that’s very nice. But look at what their brethren are doing to us here. Besides – and do not minimize this – the general populace in Gaza celebrated the October 7 attack. How many clips have you seen of hundreds of civilians, young and old, joining in the festivities of desecrating the Jewish bodies of men and women captives?
What will it take to bring our fellow Jews to their senses? I know I said in my previous article that liberal Jews are married to their ideology. But can’t they see it’s time for divorce?
Incredibly, this past Shabbos, someone wrote in the weekly bulletin of an Orthodox synagogue in New York that we must be careful not to dehumanize the Hamas enemy in our mind. “We must be able to hear the cries of the stranger even as we vigorously defend our people and our state.”
An acquaintance of mine was discussing this article with someone and questioned if this is to say that even Hitler was to be treated as human. A woman nearby chimed in and replied, “Yes, even Hitler was human!”
Now, we know that Hitler was a human being, awful as he was. But to argue that even he be treated with the dignity of a human being?! How do those words flow from a Jewish mouth?
Everyone would do well to follow the words of the Psalms (120:5-7): “Woe unto me for my drawn-out sojourn, I dwelt with the tents of Kedar (Ishmael). Long has my soul dwelt with those who hate peace. I am peace – but when I speak, they are for war.”
I ask once more: How crazy are we?
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.
