By Butch Freedman
*Shanda is the Yiddish word for shame, a disgrace to the family.
It drives me crazy, as a Jewish person, that trump and the republican flunkies attack our elite universities with the excuse that those institutions are anti-Semitic. Not to mince words—that is a blatant lie. A case of the pot calling the kettle black. The only reason they go after Harvard, Penn, Columbia, etc. is to enforce their sickening attempt to eliminate any scent of DEI, right-wing kryptonite. Despite his disclaimers, trump himself is one of the most virulent anti-Semites around. He thinks because his daughter married Jared Kushner, an orthodox Jew, he is covered. Of course, trump does not limit his virulent racism to any one group. He likes only white aryans, and then only the males of the species.
What I find equally upsetting is how so many otherwise sane Jewish folks support this clown of a president, despite his various moral failings, his senility, his boorishness, his easily seen distaste for them—only good to serve as his lawyers and accountants. He still believes in the ancient trope that ‘the Jews are good with money’, casting us all with this shylockian slur. Yes, AIPAC, I’m speaking to you, your support for trump is an embarrassment — a foolish attempt to get on the master’s good side. How’d that work out for us under Hitler?
The majority of Jews in this country and in the diaspora hate what trump and his allies stand for. Even their supposed support of Israel is a lie. Some cultists here believe their savior will make a comeback in Jerusalem, and so they want to stay on his good side, or something like that. Trump’s support of Israel is only transactional. He wants to please those aforementioned wackos — a part of his base (a good word for them.) And he apparently likes Bibi Netanyahu — they’re two of a kind. Both destructive narcissists, desperate to stay in power so they can stay out of jail — where they belong. Their situations are also similar in that the majority of Israelis do not support Netanyahu or his vicious nationalism, just as the majority of Americans (growing greater every day) are outraged by the criminality, warmongering, and cruelty of our government’s actions.
Jews get further tarnished by all this, as so many Americans (both on the far right and the far left) now see all Jews as supporters of Israel’s right-wing government. That is decidedly not the case. Most of the Jewish community here rejects Netanyahu and the Ultra-Orthodox backing his unjust wars. And many Jews In Israel, like in trump’s amerika (spelling intentional), realize their country’s reputation is now forever sullied. It’s a shame (a shanda) that a place that was once something for Jews to be proud of, a needed homeland, has now become a country we can only shake our heads about and mourn the loss of their democracy and their decentness. I realize, as I was told many times by Israeli citizens, when visiting Israel back in 2013, that “it’s complicated.” That phrase has become almost a cliché — a dangerous one, as it allows good people an exit ramp.
But back to Harvard et all (full disclosure—I am an alumni), it heartens me that they are finding their backbone and standing up to the attacks both verbally and in court. In the process, these schools have lost billions of dollars in government dispensed research grants, but, for the most part, they have come to realize, as many other American institutions have, that if they don’t fight back, not only will our schools lose their moral footing, but all of society will.