Articles

Recently, I explored on this site the Trump Effect, analyzing those generic elements that led to the two election victories of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States. Both, in earlier blog entries and in my 2021 volume covering Trump’s first term, I have studied this President’s impact on American Jewry. In this essay, we want to explore in more detail 47’s imprint on the Jewish community, especially in connection with his second term.

The ideas and policies that have defined and shaped Donald J Trump’s presidency were generated decades earlier. The “Trump Effect” has only partially been about the man and his persona, more directly, it has represented the ability of the Republican Party and a cadre of conservative think tanks to reframe the identity and ideology of Republicanism, allowing Donald Trump to emerge as its spokesperson.

In this moment, we are living “in the betweens.” Those times when societies must determine their future pathways or directions. In such a vacuum, communities often experience significant political and social disruption. Individuals encounter deep stress, even loss but also experience creative impulses navigating through these options.

Despair and resignation do not represent political strategies! Invoking the uplifting words of the William Ernest Henry from his poem, Invictus, however provides a personal way forward!

The Jewish community, long accustomed to navigating the complexities of identity, loyalty, and political allegiance, finds itself in a state of paralysis—caught between the divisive domestic politics of Donald Trump and the increasingly controversial policies of the Israeli government. This paralysis is not merely political but moral, cultural, and existential.

In a recent round of “war games” convened by a group of Jewish philanthropists, nonprofit execs and thought leaders, leaders and experts from across the spectrum of American Jewry explored what the next 25 years could hold for our community. The exercise considered both utopian and dystopian scenarios, ranging from revival through innovation and coalition-building to isolation driven by social fracture and rising antisemitism.

The 47th President of the United States is both a complex and controversial figure. History will evaluate his imprint on our society and evaluate the legacy and meaning of his Presidency. Having edited a volume dealing with his first term, I along so many other political scientists and writers are monitoring this second administration, and in doing so are also trying to better understand the personality, behavior and influences that have shaped this individual and impact his model of leadership.

The Johnson Amendment, a provision in the U.S. Tax Code since 1954, prohibits all 501(C)3 nonprofit organizations from endorsing or opposing political candidates. The amendment is named for then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson of Texas, who introduced it in July 1954.

As a minority community, Jews always understood that their political power and influence would be limited. The extensive investment of Jews in politics today is in part a response to their historical condition of powerlessness. In many ways the storyline associated with securing political influence is central to the contemporary Jewish experience.

In “Wicked,” the Wizard is not the benevolent leader of Oz as he was depicted in “The Wizard of Oz,” but rather a deceptive and manipulative dictator who uses his position to control the people of Oz. It is as if we have awakened, finding ourselves inside a scene from Wicked, where our leaders are proclaiming a “new Jewish world order.”