It is healthy for our community, and our society, to respectfully (but passionately) debate political and other issues. I believe that a vote for President Trump is both misguided and dangerous from a Jewish point of view.
The President, from his campaign days onward, has demonstrated disdain for the rule of law. He has berated not only politicians, but journalists, judges, and others, who disagree with him as not only incorrect, but treasonous. He has consistently praised authoritarian rulers such as Vladimir Putin, leaders in whose countries you can be killed or imprisoned for opposing the government. Authoritarian regimes always lead to social intolerance, and invariably Jews are among the first to be targeted.
The President has empowered right-wing elements in our society which are anti-Semitic. His infamous comment after the Charlottesville march about there being “fine people” among those carrying torches and wearing swastikas was terrifying to anyone who knows Jewish history. Nor was this an isolated incident. He has inspired those who seek to make the United States into an exclusively white and Christian country. He has supported conspiracy theories such as QAnon which feature anti-Jewish messages and images. It is no coincidence that physical attacks against Jews are at their highest rate in decades in this country. And, while many in our community express their concern over BDS groups (as they should), these are not the people who have taken up arms to kill Jews, as we have seen occur in Pittsburgh, Monsey, and elsewhere.
The President has enacted policies which treat human beings cruelly. Can any of us – particularly after the Shoah – truly support an approach which separates children from parents? Similarly, his initial ban on travelers from selected countries, made law just after his inauguration, left innocent people stranded in airports and in strange countries, not knowing fpr days what would happen to them. In both cases, a more well-considered and humane policy could have accomplished the same goal of securing the country’s borders.
The President’s casual and careless attitude about COVID has caused the U.S. to be one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic. In fact, he has repeatedly played down the warnings of doctors and scientists, who have been trained to guide the country in such situations. We know how devastating the disease has been, and how frum communities like ours have been hit hard. Can we not expect to do better, in a country that spends more on health care than any other? And should we not also be ashamed to see fellow religious Jews, sporting Trump shirts and banners, opposing COVID restrictions by rioting in the streets and assaulting other Jews who disagree with their tactics? Could this really be how bnei Torah behave?
The President has made lying and insulting others his preferred mode of behavior. If we look at the behaviors for which we said “al chet” on Yom Kippur, we see many that have characterized his time in office: “tumat sefatayim” (making our lips unclean), “lashon hara” (speaking badly of another), “azut metzach” (arrogance), to name a few. Can we simply ignore those and give our support to a person whose conduct is antithetical to the values we revere? Can we tell our children to act one way, and enthusiastically vote for someone who embodies the opposite?
Did we not just read on Yom Kippur what is “the fast that I [Hashem] choose?” It is to “Loosen the bindings of evil, and break the slavery chain. Those who were crushed, release to freedom….Break your bread for the starving and bring dispossessed wanderers home.” (Yeshayahu 57: 6-7; translation by R’ Jonathan Sacks). Concern for the other is paramount to the Torah’s vision of a healthy society. The current Administration has not demonstrated such concern.
Some will make the argument that the President, despite his flaws, is the lesser evil of the two major candidates on the ballot. This is incorrect, for two main reasons. Jews have thrived in America because it allows freedom of religion, without the government imposing a particular set of religious and social norms. The more those norms are set by the state, the less freedom we will have to act according to our traditions. It is therefore better for us when others are also allowed to live as they choose – even when we disagree with their choices – without government interference. The Democratic Party’s policies are more likely to preserve our communal autonomy.
Secondly, the President has attempted to describe Joe Biden and all Democrats as “socialists”, people who will take away Americans’ money and liberties. It is worth remembering that key programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, among others, were opposed when first introduced, by people who feared that the government was putting itself into areas where it did not belong. We all benefit from these programs today, as well as similar government programs. Many of these would not exist if so-called “socialist” legislators had not enacted them. These were people who believed in using government to achieve social good.
We must be guided, as always, by the values of the Torah. We cannot allow them to become secondary to those of any political party or leader. Considering these values, I urge members of our community to look past the rhetoric, consider the long term, and vote for Joe Biden.
Alan Goldman
University Heights
Jack Smilovitz says
With all due respect to this “opinion”, this statement “We must be guided, as always, by the values of the Torah. We cannot allow them to become secondary to those of any political party or leader.” Does not belong in a layman’s opinion piece.
We look to out Rabbinic leaders to guide us in this area. Nobody besides for our qualified Rabbinic Authorities is qualified to interpret Torah Values as they relate to societal issues that affect us all.
K says
Every Jew has an obligation to understand Jewish values. It’s not off limits for laymen to understand. It’s a religious imperative.
Every Jew has the right to voice their interpretation.
You can disagree. To act like only rabbis get to have public opinions on issues that impact the kalal is absurd.
Philip Setnik says
What was stated by Mr. Goldman – that we need to follow Torah values, and not discard them to give fealty to a particular party – was the truth, as I’m sure you will agree. Are you suggesting, perhaps, that only Rabbis are allowed to speak the truth? Do you think any Rabbis would agree with that notion?
Or are you saying he’s incorrect by stating that we must follow the values of the Torah? Do you disagree with that? Do you think any Rabbis would disagree with that?
Leah says
Yes, and Rabbi Mendel Kessin, G-d bless him, has consistently been teaching us that Trump is the “TOV SH’B’EISAV”, the embodiment of Eisav and is doing Eisav’s teshuvah. If you are yet unfamiliar, look up “Rabbi Mendel Kessin, Torah Thinking”. He offers a lot of support and Torah true understanding of what we are living through at this awesome time.
more accurate says
For what we, as Jews, said Al-chet for on Yom Kippur, and the standards of ‘concern for others’ as you mention, are the standards that we, as Jews, are supposed to live up to. Yes, we can tell our children to act as a Jew is supposed to act, without expecting the non-Jewish world to live up to those same standards. I am not excusing the wrong behavior of others, but we cannot demand adherence to our holy and lofty standards by those outside of our holy and lofty nation. The 7 Noahide laws do not include lashon hora!
& For those truly concerned to uphold the values of the Torah – how can you justify voting for liberal democrats who support abortion and same sex marriage?
Paul Porath says
I saw only reasons not to vote for Trump, but I saw no reason given to vote for Biden. What the author of this article is saying, in my opinion, is to vote for the lesser of two evils, but no virtues were given to vote for Biden.
robert m altshuler says
The title of this opinion piece is the case for Joe Biden. This is not a case for rather a condemnation of his opponent. Has to your comment about social security, yes it has been a major Boon to society that the money we earned while we were working is there now for us in retirement. What I don’t want is 4 the government to be the source Albion come and support for those who have not earned it. Or who are not entitled to it. Keep America America
Y.sel says
First, we do not take moral advice from anybody but our Gedolei Yisrael, and all of them have said that we should vote for Trump.
Second, we are not voting for the greatest rabbi or greatest pope to lead our country; we are voting for the person who will do the job best.
All one must do is read Parshas Noach to understand that Hashem brought the Mabul on the world exactly because the non-Jews were doing what they are doing today. What does the Democratic platform actively support and glorify? Gays and abortion. Hashem said that gays are abomination and the punishment is death. A person who votes for Biden is as if they are going to Hashem and slapping Him in his face.
Learn and Think says
Gedolei Yisrael said to vote for Trump?
With all due respect, only Reb Shmuel came out publicly to vote for Trump. Which other gedolim are you referring to?
Also, gays aren’t an abomination, homosexual relations are the abomination. Not condoning gay relationships, but get the Torah’s laws correct.
Abortion too is not cut and dry in Halacha as the Republican party makes it out to be.
We need to educate ourselves properly and make our own decisions. This is what democracy is and what Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l said in his famous letter about voting.
Let’s not forget for a second that לב מלכים ביד ה’
Yoni Romo says
There was a letter signed by over a dozen rabbonim in support for Trump. The pupa, munkatch, bobov and both Satmer rebbes as well as Reb Elya Ber Wachtofgel, Reb Malkiel Kotler and Reb Shmuel Kamenetzky among others, and even if it was only Reb Shmuel who said to vote for Trump he is the gadol hador , and besides for that there hasn’t been 1 Rov who’s endorsed Biden.
anonymous says
We must be guided by a proven track record.
What has the President done in four years vs. what the Vice President has done in 47 years in politics. You can’t call the Vice presidents 47 years in office as service, it was all politics and for the FAMILY NAME.
The President did not and does not need this position to survive. He is doing this as a service. As for the Vice President, he needs this position for the FAMILY NAME.
As for the rhetoric between the two candidates, it is a two way street.
Daren Bulley says
Thank you for writing this.
J.R. says
I get you may like the presidents personality and that he is not pc. You really need to look at what has been accomplish. I don’t know about you but I thought it was great seeing unemployment set around 3% and more people were participating in the work force than under obama biden. 10 million people were able get off food stamps. You really need to listen to the uncut words the president has said and not jut listen to people who do not like him. Actually Biden does not even have the backing of the law enforcement, because they are being attacked by the socialist dems who do not believe in law and order. They act just like a third world country. If you look at what is going on it is the dems cities that have been burn down. Harris has even bailed out the rioters. What is treason is bidens family working with china and allowing them to purchase a co in mich that makes arm forces defense equipment. If you believe in our great constitution you want judges who believes in it. We should not want a judge who is about making you happy as great as that sounds of course that would be great but if you broke the law you deserve to be punished. The pres does not want to take away your health ins. My insurance went up almost 2 grand under obama because he wanted socialist medial coverage for everyone. When you don’t have competition that is what happens. I don’t know about you but I do not want to pay for someone’s abortion that is what one of the things obama care aloud. Under the socialist dem from minns mich and other other anti-Semitic cities has gotten worse because they have aloud them to talk about their hatred towards Jews. I can go on and on. But fortunately I have better things to do like pray that we can keep our freedoms and liberty and not become another Germany. It sounds like we have become to comfortable just like they did in Germany. G-d bless America and G-d bless you and your family.
Shimeon Weiner says
Sorry, where did you present any reason to vote for Biden. All you did was attempt to dismantle Trump. I didn’t see any compelling reason to vote Biden. The previous opinion in favor of Trump presented a fact based point by point list of the accomplishemnts of Trump and short comings of Biden. Your opinion is typical – bash Trump and avoid discussing Biden.
TrumpJew says
• This is your daily reminder that Donald Trump has a religious Jewish son-in-law, daughter & grandchildren. The notion he wants to see them shipped off in cattle cars to die in a gas chamber is pathetic.
• How ironic that Alan opens his piece saying ‘it’s healthy to debate the issues…’ but then attacks Trump for doing exactly that!? Could it be his animus towards the media and Left is because they’ve been against him and misreported on him his entire presidency?
• It’s truly sad that Alan repeats the Biden propaganda of Trump’s comments at Charlottesville. He very clearly condemned the white supremacists and Nazis. His comments of ‘good people on both sides’ was regarding Confederate statues. Anyone seeking the truth can view the comments themselves.
• The leading white supremacist, Richard Spencer, has announced he’s voting for Biden. How does Alan feel about voting for the same candidate as Anti-Semite Richard Spencer?
• Note how Alan conveniently ignores all of Trump’s pro-Israel policies and successes. Is that another example of Trump’s anti-Semitism?
• The policy of child separation and building of cages began under the Obama administration. Did Alan protest it then? As it happens the Trump administration ended the policy.
• The original list of banned countries was actually created in the Obama State Department. It was the Trump administration who implemented it. Did Alan protest the xenophobic policy of the Obama administration?
• The social services we all benefit from now are bankrupting the country. There is a strong likelihood that many of these programs will not be available for the next generation. It was actually Senator Biden himself, who sought a complete freeze of all spending on these programs. Did Alan miss that clip?
• Religious Jews do not encourage their children to emulate any president of the United States. Thankfully, we have our own role models. As the previous commentator points out, we vote for policy, not for personality. And we do allow our rabbinical leaders to guide us in this regard. Virtually all of Cleveland’s religious rabbinical leaders are encouraging us to vote for Trump.
Maybe they have insight or knowledge that Alan does not, or maybe our rabbis are self hating Jews?
Vote Trump!
Anonymous says
Anybody voting for a Democrat is voting for doom and gloom, you can see this by the democratic controlled States where they have wrecked their economy like New York and California. You’re also voiding for the anti-Semetic party who allows The squad to perpetuate their anti-Semetic views.
Heaven help us says
We have lost our minds.
The democrats corruption and moral decay will destroy this country much quicker than Trump’s bad manners.
How a moral and sound free thinking religious jew or non jew can vote for biden is a sign the devil has taken control.
Spam me says
There is so many things wrong with this article on so many levels I genuinely don’t have the time to go around debunking every thing said. So I’ll go through a few till it gets too time consuming… First you said disdain for rule of law, trump has the backing of nearly every sherif department in the US due to his staunch support of them during the riots, second he has never overridden Appellate Courts stay orders on his executive orders regardless of how ridiculous the stay. This is in contrast to obama who often ignored federal judges stay orders an example https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jun/29/three-year-amnesties-not-fully-rescinded/ you can easily look up more.
You mentioned how trump called politicians who disagree with him treasonous..great has he even once so much as attempted to lock any one up for such reasons. He’s been talking about locking up Hillary Clinton for years and hasn’t even made an effort to do so and she actually violated the law just by virtue of having top secret government emails on a private server. That ignoring what the server was actually used for. In contrast if you want to talk about using federal powers to go after political opponents, the obama/biden administration put the irs on some 300 republican law makers before the 2012 elections while only about half a dozen democrat law makers got audited.
You mentioned trump praising authoritarian regimes, i’m not saying it’s right or wrong because there are arguments for being nice to an authoritarian regime if it means peace. But lets pretend it’s a bad thing, why is that an argument for Biden? His administration was cozying up to Cuba and Iran (who I might mention wants to nuke israel…). Also BTW Putins been pretty good to israel see https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/04/06/netanyahu-gets-a-timely-campaign-gift-from-putin-a65114
You mentioned trump empowering right wind elements in our society that are anti semetic. This is the most egregious of the authors claims considering the FACT that trump is likely the most pro jewish president not in modern history but in US history and he’s probably near the top in world history as well. Where to start? Ok forget that ivanka and jarred are jewish and Trump helped Ivanka through the conversion process in finding the right rabbi and what not. Literally lets ignore that lets just go off his record. He was discouraged by most of his advisors not to move the embassy to Jerusalem because it’d cause an explosion in middle east violence. Yeah he ignored that. He pardoned Sholom Rubashkin and jonathan pollard something prior presidents refused to do. When italy cracked down on jews and refused to let them attain the arba minim this sucot claiming corronavirus! trump intervened and said leave the jews alone and they got their arba minim (see: https://www.foxnews.com/faith-values/rabbis-sukkot-citrons-white-house-pandemic). Trump recognized the Golan heights as part of israel. He brokered a peace treaty between israel and many middle east countries without requiring israel to give up any land. Trump’s ambassador nikki haily through out her tenure to the UN lambasted the other UN nations on their anti israeli stances and trump has ensured that america always vetoed UN resoloutions against Israel. This contrasts with the obama/biden administration which allowed through numerous anti israel resolutions. Trump has lambasted anti Semites such as ilhan omar who said jews only care about money and his campaign has attacked dems for refusing to condemn Louis Farrakhan who said “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-termite”. As well as Rashida Tlaib who’s pro BDS. The trump administration has allowed federal money to funneled to private schools which are overwhelmingly religious schools (all religious jewish schools are private). Something the obama/biden administration refused to do. As i mentioned trump withdrew from the awful iran nuclear agreement which basically would’ve guaranteed iran a nuke within 10 years. Meanwhile iran themselves have openly and consistently called for the annihilation of israel. Trump also stood up to the UN on Israeli settlements in the west bank siding with israel. Trump halted the few hundred million dollars obama had send to the Palestinians upon leaving office (Money which always goes into weaponry and terrorism against israel. It was possibly one of the first things trump did as president. Ultimately Trump halted all annual payments the US used to send to the Palestinians. We now give them nothing. He also proposed a peace plan between israel and the Palestinians that unlike all previous peace plans didn’t leave israel as the sucker. The funniest part of this all is why does trump even do this? the majority of jews are irreligious lefties who will never vote for him none the less he stands with jews.
All I can say is if you truly believe trump is an anti semite at this point you’ve got be burying your head in the sand.
(Oh i forgot to respond to the infamous Charlottesville remarks: My god i’m so tired of hearing it just go and watch the clips. At first he condemns violence on both sides because that is accurate there was antifa terrorist’s on one side and white supremacist’s neo nazi’s on the other Democrats claim it wasn’t right because the neo nazi’s actually killed someone where as antifa didn’t therefor trump should’ve more harshly condemned the neo nazi’s. This is probably actually correct however is it even remotely a basis to say trump is a neo nazi? not really. You could just as easily say Trump hates antifa more because they’re a more prevalent and violent threat in america today. Therefore he was more biased to attack them. There’s a dozen reasons for why trump said what he said without calling him a white supremacism. Then in the follow up a reporter asks about trumps comment that there was bad people on both sides Trump doubles down which is something he always does (I don’t think he’s apologized or retracted anything he’s said since he’s become president.) Any ways then he digs himself in deeper by saying there was very fine people on both sides. This was actually his true error because there wasn’t fine people on both sides. The democrat side had some normal people, the neo nazi side however were all trash. Trump however with in that very statement says the source for his error. He quotes the monument argument about how antifa members are nocking down monuments of washington and other famous american heroes. This is a continual thing that annoys the avergae republican. rump very obviously erroneously thought there was republicans with in the crowd protesting the taking down of statues. This was false. And if you don’t believe this is what trump was referring to then your an idiot because he literally says mid talking point that “i’m not referring to the neo nazi’s and white nationalists, they should be condemned” go and watch the clips yourself here’s the links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMQWJDVg8PA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmaZR8E12bs
The first is where he says there were bad people on both sides. The second is where he says there were good people on both sides.
William Kushner says
We all face a common enemy it isn’t trump it isn’t biden…it’s the coronavirus..does anyone not know somebody that has died or become very ill,?
Trump has been very good for Israel some would say fantastic…and we are all happy about that…
But over 200000 people are already dead including many Jews sadly.
Trump has consistently downplayed the virus..he even admitted it to a journalist on a recording..and now as it turns out at least 700 people have died just from attending his rallies..which shows who you are dealing with…
If you would ask a gadol the following: if biden has a plan. That will save lives including many Jews..are we obligated to vote for him,? I think you will get an answer you didn’t want to hear….
There is no time left for political theory
Voting for Biden could save the life of someone you know
…
me says
If Biden has the magic bullet for the virus and has been withholding it, he should be tried for murder. He just keeps repeating that he will be doing everything that Trump is already doing!
Take a deep breath! says
Let’s be real! Both candidates are seriously flawed PEOPLE. Vote for the PARTY you support.