Orthodox Jews celebrate Trump’s return to the White House – The Forward

People attending Wednesday afternoon prayer services at Rabbi Gil Student’s office building in Manhattan were treated to a delightful surprise: a birthday chocolate cake with “Trump” written in white frosting. He was devoured before the rabbi could take a photo.

“I have to admit,” Rabbi Student wrote in a post on X. “It was strange to say tahanun– an everyday prayer of petition, which is skipped on holidays – “due to a jubilant mood.”

American Jews have largely voted for Democrats for president for decades, and Tuesday was no exception, with various exit polls showing that from 66% to 79% supported Vice President Kamala Harris. But Orthodox Jews like Student have long resisted this trend. Three-quarters support the Republican Partyaccording to a 2020 Pew Research survey. And as poll results showed former President Donald Trump returning to the White House for a historic second term, some gloated on social media.

Posts on “Frum Twitter,” the nickname for Orthodox Jewish discourse on X, reflected feelings of joy and vindication. They appealed their remarks to the mourning democrats, ridiculed liberal topics for conversation, gave meaningful advice or conveyed outright schadenfreude. After all, Trump didn’t just excel at election math; he also won the popular vote by approximately 5 million votes, becoming the first Republican to do so in two decades. The traditional view was wrong. Let’s memes.

“We ruined everything, Joe.” pic.twitter.com/9nnDPKTkA4

— David/Dovid Bashevkin (@DBashIdeas) November 6, 2024

Trump’s return was a decisive response to the discontent of the Orthodox. It was a denial of Democrats’ claims that Trump was an anti-Semite and Jews would be crazy to support them. It was a rebuke to the awakening they believed was fueling antisemitism on college campuses and threaten religious freedom. It was the definitive exposure of the mainstream media’s liberal bias, which, in contrast to the insightful Orthodox commentatorcouldn’t place Trump’s wide resonance looking them in the eye.

“We were used to what looked like the new normal, and we were afraid that this was what America had become, this was what the country was comfortable with,” said Eli Steinberg, a commentator on the Haredi Orthodox community. “To see America look at this and say no is very encouraging.”

Representation matters

Trump’s approach to the Middle East during his presidency has won him many supporters in the Orthodox world. He appointed an Orthodox ambassador to Israel, moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and helped Israel normalize relations with several Gulf states under the Abraham Accords. He also gave access to Orthodox leaders: he has a daughter and son-in-law who are Orthodox, and they played key roles in his first administration. And before he leaves office, Trump got to work the prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin—the kosher food magnate convicted of bank fraud who became a celebrated event in the Orthodox world—and pardoned Israeli handler of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard.

“You get a lot of feedback from people who say things like, ‘How could you support this guy?’ Now 51% of the country said: “Yes, I can support this guy.” So who’s out of step now?”

Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, an Orthodox podcaster who teaches at Yeshiva University, said that record makes it difficult for Orthodox Jews to understand Democrats’ characterization of Trump as a Nazi sympathizer. Trump’s personal flaws – his coarse language, sexual indecency, even dinner with avid anti-Semites like Yeh and Nick Fuentes — were beside the point.

Orthodox Jews tend to have a “utilitarian, transactional” view of politics, Bashevkin said, viewing elections not as a way of discovering or expressing values ​​but as a tool for defending them.

“We don’t have to fall in love with our candidates,” he explained. “We don’t need to deify our candidates. There are role models in our community. And because of this, when we think politically, many of the arguments against Trump have failed.”

So when Trump’s former chief of staff said the former president met the definition of a fascist and expressed admiration for Hitler, many Orthodox voters found subsequent news coverage and Democratic attacks on him disingenuous and even disingenuous.

Steinberg, an Orthodox commentator, said Tuesday’s results showed it wasn’t just Jews who didn’t believe it. This was the majority of Americans across all demographic groups.

“You get a lot of feedback from people who say things like, ‘How could you possibly support this guy?’ – he said. “Where it is now, 51% of the country said, ‘Yes, I can support this guy.’ So who’s out of step now?”

Fighting anti-Semitism

Many Orthodox Jews have also been deeply disappointed by Harris’s sympathy for pro-Palestinian protesters, whom they see as peddlers of anti-Semitism.

Steinberg, for example, said that even Hasidic Jews who are anti-Zionists find the treatment of Jewish college students last year appalling.

“Any Orthodox Jew, when they see this, they think, ‘These are people attacking Jews,’” he said. “And it doesn’t matter what your position on Zionism is. You see what has been made possible by the Biden/Harris administration.”

Although the Orthodox Jews sent thousands of postcards to the White House last fall to thank President Joe Biden for his strong support for Israel, sentiments have changed over the year, especially as Biden—and Harris—became open critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tactics in Gaza and as as protests against the war grew. here in the USA

Rabbi Bashevkin, YU teacher and podcaster, recalled what he saw “Hamas is approaching” spray painted on a monument in Washington, and pro-Palestinian protesters motorway closures during rush hour. The people involved in these actions should have been prosecuted with the same ferocity as those who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he said.

“I think people are tired of the political establishment trying to figure out what reality is,” he said. “I have not seen the media or our country hold our political leaders accountable for what we have seen.”

Counter-awakening

It seems that the issue of “awakening” is where the Orthodox have broken with the rest of the Jewish fabric. Most mainstream liberal Jews support diversity, equality and inclusion, marriage equality, and transgender rights initiatives. In contrast, one of the leading anti-woke voices was Libs of TikTok, a Twitter account run by an Orthodox Jew named Chaya Rajchik.

The portrayal of Trump’s victory as a great reversal of wokeness seems to have enlivened much of the post-election schadenfreude among Orthodox Jews. “Wake up, go broke,” said one of Rabbi Student’s tweets.

Wokeness may mean different things to different people, but critics portray it as a performative expression of leftist values ​​based on the idea that the world is essentially divided into categories of oppressors and oppressed.

“The awakening agenda is in direct conflict with our timeless religious values,” Steinberg said, adding, “When this agenda comes into conflict with matters of religion, we are constantly told that we must step aside.”

As an example, he cited New York State’s secular education requirements for private schools, including Orthodox yeshivas. Also abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights: Awakening, Steinberg says, will force Yeshiva University to fund gay student clubor demand that an Orthodox doctor perform an abortion.

Bashevkin said the past year has exposed the empty rhetoric of awakening to Orthodox Jews. He pointed to Himani Jamesstudent activist at Columbia University, who was suspended for saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live,” noted that James began his remarks by mentioning his pronouns.

“There has been a real awakening of identity in this country and the need to preserve and center marginalized groups,” Bashevkin said. “And I think there is no demographic group or community that feels the double standard associated with these inclusion efforts more than the Orthodox community.”