Trump, Jews and the Big Apple
“There are still more questions than answers about Donald Trump,” visiting New York inter-community relations expert Rabbi Robert Kaplan told The AJN last Thursday.
“THERE are still more questions than answers about Donald Trump,” visiting New York inter-community relations expert Rabbi Robert Kaplan told The AJN last Thursday.
The next day, as if to prove his point, Trump became the first US president, or president-elect, to phone a Taiwanese leader since 1979.
Rabbi Kaplan, founding director of the Centre for Community Leadership at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York [JCRC], spoke about US politics through a Jewish lens at Limmud Fest in Lake Macquarie and at a NSW Jewish Board of Deputies breakfast in Sydney last week.
He observed that uncertainty over the direction of a Trump presidency, combined with a major demographic shift in New York’s sizeable Jewish population, pose unique challenges and opportunities for JCRC, which oversees 62 Jewish organisations.
“There has never been a president of the US – certainly that anyone can remember – that has no political engagement experience whatsoever,” Rabbi Kaplan said.
“From an Israel lens, we really don’t know where Trump is going – a lot is really going to depend on who he finally puts into places of power.
“The question for the very diverse Jewish community of New York is: How do we stand united and work together to navigate the next four years of the Trump presidency, and work with others in society?
“Some people will see this task as impossible, but our job is to figure out how to make it possible.”
Noting that the Big Apple’s Jewish community is rapidly evolving, Rabbi Kaplan said, “Forty per cent of the Jewish population of New York is ultra-Orthodox, which is much larger than 10 years ago, and it is all through their higher birth rates.
“While the majority of the Jewish community voted for Hillary Clinton, the majority of the ultra-Orthodox community voted for Trump. We are awaiting the exact numbers, but that’s the trend.
“It represents a shift in the centre of power and focus for our community.
“There is also a larger number of Jews of colour, new Jewish communities in gentrified areas who are, as a whole, more liberal and less connected, and there are what we call the ‘just Jews’, whose criteria of decision-making through a Jewish lens is much lower.
“There are few points of confluence or communication between those various segments. That’s going to test us as to how we’re going to move forward as a community, albeit a diverse one.”
SHANE DESIATNIK
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