The government’s fight against antisemitism: good for the Jews?

Within the last few days, major Jewish organizations put out a critical statement against the Trump administration’s use of antisemitism to carry out defunding universities. The statement objected to the hobbling of higher education and the closing of centers of life-saving, economy-building research. Beyond this, the statement decried the fight against antisemitism as a weapon to deport students and others without due process.

As Jews, we may not like or agree with the deportees, but governmental action that does not pay the slightest heed to the rule of law is dangerous for us. We are now in a situation where the present administration can call anything antisemitic and close it down. As Jews we should wonder what other seemingly “positive” initiatives can be turned to destructive governmental action that affects us. It is a moment like this, when so many democratic guardrails have come down, that as a Jewish community we should remind ourselves of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the heroic German anti-Nazi pastor. In a critique of the German people and its relationship to the Nazi regime, he said, “In Germany, they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.”

Many of us do not speak up when these attacks on the rule of law and freedom of speech occur because we believe the present government is protecting us in an America where antisemitism has become a daily event and an ongoing threat. But we need to recognize the hypocrisy of people in government at the highest levels being our protectors when they have made racist remarks and consorted with and continue to consort with known white supremacists and antisemites.

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They are not protecting us; they are using us. And when we are no longer useful, our history tells us what happens.

There are unfortunately too many examples of conflict between Jewish values and recent administrative actions. To comment on them all would go well beyond the scope of an op-ed. Therefore, I will comment on just one, namely, the dismantling of USAID, which has provided one of the most positive uses of American largesse and foreign policy since Congress approved it in 1961. The program has helped nations develop into self-sustaining entities and to improve living conditions in countries plagued by hunger and disease. It has won friends for the United States and has been a force for the growth of democracies.

While USAID was a secular governmental agency, its activities aligned with the best of Jewish values. USAID fulfilled the talmudic requirement that “…we financially support the poor of the non-Jews along with the poor of Israel, and we visit the sick of the non-Jews as we visit the sick of Israel, and we bury the dead of the non-Jews with the dead of Israel because of the ways of peace” (Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 61a).

Lest someone argue that “the ways of peace” principle exists only to ward off the hatred of the non-Jewish community, Maimonides tells us that it exists to emulate God and to act according to the Torah’s essential nature. As he wrote in his Code: “The Sages commanded even regarding outright idolaters to visit their sick, to bury their dead with the dead of Israel, and to support financially their poor among the poor of Israel because of the ‘ways of peace.’ For it says, ‘Hashem is good to all, and His mercies extend to all his creatures’ (Psalms 145:9), and it also says, ‘The Torah’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its ways are peace’ (Proverbs 3:17)” (Maimonides’ Code, Laws of Kings, 10:12)

As a Jew, no matter whom you voted for, the defunding and ultimate dismantling of USAID, which has left millions to suffer and many to die of disease and hunger, cannot be justified within the parameter of values whose source is the foundational documents of our faith. This is why I signed the following statement sponsored by 24 Orthodox rabbis: “As Modern Orthodox rabbis committed to the Torah’s vision of universal justice and the preservation of human dignity, we are deeply concerned by the freeze on USAID funding and the dismantlement of the USAID organization. Our tradition commands us to uphold the sanctity of life and to care for the most vulnerable, regardless of national borders. We have already seen how the funding freeze and dismantlement are literally threatening the lives of the sick, hungry and vulnerable in the most immediate and devastating way. While the priorities and administration of USAID may well need to be revamped and even transformed in the case of some programs, such actions must be carried out with care and wisdom. Meanwhile we call for funding to be restored and the necessary administrative staff of USAID to be rehired, in order that essential, often life-saving funding in nutrition, food security, health and education can continue, and massive loss of life and health can be avoided, and human potential can be saved.”

The name of the holiday Pesach generated a pun: Peh Sach, a mouth that speaks. Traditionally this pun has directed attention to the most basic aspect of Pesach and the seder: Speaking of the physical torment and spiritual degradation of slavery and the joys and preciousness of freedom. Peh Sach, a mouth that speaks, is a symbol of freedom as it implies the right to speak your mind without fear of retribution.

Recently, 100 Jewish organizations showed they had a mouth that speaks. They issued a sharply worded statement pointing out that “what we are experiencing now goes far beyond policy disagreements with the federal administration. It is a direct assault on the very principles that underpin our democracy – principles including equal justice under the law; the protection of fundamental civil liberties and civil rights; a commitment to rejecting dehumanization and political violence; and the upholding of checks and balances, accountability, and transparency in our government.”

Synagogues, Zionist organizations, advocacy groups, social justice organizations, and the mainstream denominations were signatories to this courageous speaking out against authoritarian governmental behavior. The only Orthodox organization that signed the statement was Uri L’Tzedek, the modern Orthodox social justice organization. It opened its mouth, thereby saving the Orthodox community from being a total outlier when it came to the defense of democratic norms that ultimately are our only guarantee of safety as Jews in the new America.

As an Orthodox Jew, I am saddened and disheartened by the present-day behavior of my compatriots. As a matter of policy, most Orthodox organizations presently have gone the way of Agudath Israel, an Orthodox organization that once stood alone in refusing to work with non-Orthodox Jews, even for the entire Jewish community’s benefit. However, even if for deeply held theological and ideological reasons most Orthodox organizations and institutions now feel they cannot join with other Jews in calling out the misuse of governmental power, why don’t they have mouths that speak from their own quarters?

Rabbi Michael Chernick of Teaneck is professor emeritus at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. He received his doctorate from the Bernard Revel Graduate School and rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.