Workers place headstones back on their bases on Feb. 21 morning at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in the St. Louis area. (James Griesedieck/St. Louis Jewish Light)
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump denounced anti-Semitism a day after bomb threats to at least 10 Jewish community centers across the country and a large-scale cemetery vandalism in the St. Louis area.
Trump told MSNBC on Tuesday, Feb. 21, “Anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s going to stop, and it has to stop.”
The president made the remarks at the National Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, DC, after taking a tour. His daughter Ivanka was with him on the tour; a day earlier she had called for the protection of religious institutions and used the hashtag #JCC, and called on her father to do the same.
Asked by reporter Craig Melvin if his statement meant he was denouncing anti-Semitism “once and for all,” Trump replied: “Of course, and I do it whenever I get the chance to do it.”
Trump later told Melvin in a one-on-one interview about the racial divide in America that the tour was “a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms.
Jewish groups and political leaders have called on Trump to speak out against anti-Semitism, especially after four waves of bomb threats called in to dozens of JCCs across the country in the past five weeks.
“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community at community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” Trump said Tuesday after the tour.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to establish a task force to track down the perpetrator of bomb threats against Jewish community centers, and said Trump must “outline his Administration’s plan to combat surging anti-Semitism.”
Of the major groups who commented, the OU seemed the most inclined to declare “case closed.”
“We appreciate that President Trump spoke directly to this matter. The words of a President of the United States carry great weight and it is important that Mr. Trump addressed the American Jewish community and all our fellow Americans at this time,” the OU said in a statement about Trump and the bomb threats.
“We appreciate that the FBI and Department of Justice are investigating these incidents and the ‘possible civil rights violations’ they entail. We also appreciate the work of the Dept. of Homeland Security that supports the safety of our Jewish community institutions.”
“Glad @POTUS stated #antisemitism is horrible,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL CEO, said on Twitter, using the acronym for president of the US. “Now need @whitehouse to share plans on how to ‘stop’ it. ADL ready to help.”
The Jewish community has been grappling with how the new president deals with anti-Semitism since Jan. 27, when the White House marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a statement that noted “victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust,” but did not mention the Jews.
What at first seemed like an oversight soon calcified into suspicion that it was part of a worldview, as White House officials doubled down on the omission, condescending to explain to their critics that one must be inclusive in marking an event that uniquely targeted Jews for elimination.
Officials calling critics of the statement “asinine” and “pathetic” didn’t help, nor did the revelation that a bid by the State Department to mention Jews in a statement was rebuffed by the White House.
Fueling suspicion that there was more to the omissions than clumsy oversight was the presence on Trump’s staff of top advisers like Stephen Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka, who emerged from a political culture of European-style nationalism that rejects “identity politics” and argues that minority complaints about discrimination are overstated.
The White House visit last week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented an opportunity to make amends, and at first it seemed Trump was game.
“The State of Israel is a symbol to the world of resilience in the face of oppression,” Trump said in prepared remarks at a joint Feb. 15 news conference with Netanyahu.
“I can think of no other state that’s gone through what they’ve gone — and of survival in the face of genocide. We will never forget what the Jewish people have endured.”
An Israeli reporter asked Trump about the spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the US, and whether the president believed it had anything to do with Trump’s rhetoric.
Trump replied by noting the breadth of his Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton and a statement expressing love for his Jewish daughter, Ivanka; her husband, Jared Kushner, and their grandchildren.
The next day at a news conference, a friendly reporter, Jake Turx from the Orthodox Ami magazine, reassured Trump that no one in his community thought the president was an anti-Semite.
Turx proceeded to ask what Trump was planning to do about the waves of bomb threats against Jewish community centers that have severely disrupted Jewish life in North America.
Trump would not allow Turx to complete his question and launched a broadside against the baffled reporter.
Although the reporter did not suggest Trump was anti-Semitic, the president answered by denying he is an anti-Semite and called the question “insulting.” He ordered the reporter to sit down, and did not answer the question.
What turned Trump and led to his statement Tuesday morning?
His spokesman, Sean Spicer, would not say, except that Trump thought a tour of the African-American museum was an appropriate occasion to expound against hate and discrimination. Trump’s remarks were prepared.
Other precipitating factors may have been the fourth wave of bomb threats on Monday against JCCs, coupled with massive vandalism at a St. Louis-area Jewish cemetery.
Muslim groups, targeted by Trump’s rhetoric, raised funds for a reward for the perpetrator of the threat and to repair the toppled headstones at the cemetery.
Spicer opened his briefing with reporters on Tuesday by repeating Trump’s words, and delivering an impassioned plea for Americans to visit the African American museum and its National Mall companion, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He then turned combative.
“‘Is he going to denounce this one, is he going to denounce this one?’” he asked, mocking reporters. “At some point the question is asked and answered!”
(Spicer also responded to the US-based Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, which issued a statement mocking Trump’s statement as a “pathetic asterisk of condescension.” He said of the group: “I wish that they had praised the president for his leadership in this area. And I think that hopefully as time continues to go by they recognize his commitment to civil rights, to voting rights, to equality for all Americans.”)
Trump’s Democratic critics weren’t letting go either. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., running for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, peppered his Twitter feed with follow-up questions for Trump.
“Why has it taken @realDonaldTrump so long to even say the word ‘anti-Semitism?’” Ellison wondered.
“Perhaps it has something to do with placating his base?”
Rep. Joe Crowley, D-NY, whose bid earlier this month to force a vote on his resolution emphasizing that the Holocaust targeted the Jews was blocked by Republicans, said Trump needed to be more consistent in his condemnations.
“Trump’s statement is long overdue and doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what needs to be done,” he said in a statement.
