{"id":45767,"date":"2018-11-07T07:55:48","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T13:55:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=45767"},"modified":"2018-11-07T07:56:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T13:56:21","slug":"op-ed-on-bari-weiss-franklin-foer-the-values-that-sustain-our-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/op-ed-on-bari-weiss-franklin-foer-the-values-that-sustain-our-people\/","title":{"rendered":"OP-ED: On Bari Weiss, Franklin Foer &#038; the values that sustain our people"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"block cols2 article-details\">\n<div class=\"sticky-sidebar\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"block cols4\">\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>By DAVID SUISSA<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"dateline\">(<em>Jewish Journal<\/em>)<\/span>&nbsp;&#8212; Are Jews who like President Donald Trump\u2019s policies on Israel making a deal with the devil?<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday on \u201cReal Time With Bill Maher,\u201d&nbsp;<em>New York Times<\/em>&nbsp;op-ed editor and writer Bari Weiss made this comment in the aftermath of the Pittsburgh tragedy:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hope this week that American Jews have woken up to the price of that bargain. They have traded policies that they like for the values that have sustained the Jewish people\u2014and frankly, this country\u2014forever: Welcoming the stranger; dignity for all human beings; equality under the law; respect for dissent; love of truth. These are the things we are losing under this president\u2014and no policy is worth that price.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In other words, American Jews are paying too high a price for President Trump\u2019s unbridled support of Israel, which includes moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, scuttling the Iran deal, defending Israel at the United Nations and enforcing consequences for Palestinian support of terror.<\/p>\n<p>So, for Jews who are appalled by Trump\u2019s incendiary rhetoric but who still appreciate his policies on Israel, what should they do? Tell the president not to bother trying to \u201cwoo\u201d us with Israel? That he so violates Jewish values that his favorable actions on Israel just aren\u2019t worth it? That after Pittsburgh, we\u2019re no longer willing to pay the price of that bargain?<\/p>\n<p>And how would that work exactly? Weiss didn\u2019t specify, but Franklin Foer, writing in&nbsp;<em>The Atlantic<\/em>, did have a suggestion to enhance Jewish security after Pittsburgh:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny strategy for enhancing the security of American Jewry should involve shunning Trump\u2019s Jewish enablers. Their money should be refused, their presence in synagogues not welcome. They have placed their community in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Never mind that after Pittsburgh, the president said: \u201cAnti-Semitism represents one of the ugliest and darkest features of human history. Anti-Semitism must be condemned anywhere and everywhere. There must be no tolerance for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Foer, however, any Jew who still supports the president must be ostracized and shunned.<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if Foer would be willing to stand outside a synagogue on Saturday morning with a sign repeating his message: \u201cIf you support Trump, your presence is not welcome. You have placed your community in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t mean to be snarky or cynical, but I\u2019m just chastened by this Jewish instinct to blame other Jews under any circumstances, even when a Nazi comes to murder us.<\/p>\n<p>Weiss could have said: \u201cWe can appreciate the president\u2019s support for Israel AND also speak out against his incendiary and divisive rhetoric. One doesn\u2019t preclude the other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Foer could have said: \u201cIf you have friends or community members who support Trump, make your case vigorously, but there\u2019s no need to go as far as cutting them out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both of those options would have been consistent with the values that have sustained the Jewish people.<\/p>\n<p><em>(David Suissa is editor-in-chief and publisher of Tribe Media Corp and Jewish Journal. He can be reached at davids@jewishjournal.com.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"OP-ED%3A%20On%20Bari%20Weiss%2C%20Franklin%20Foer%20%26%20the%20values%20that%20sustain%20our%20people\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1781,8781,8790,8795,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45767"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45769,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45767\/revisions\/45769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}