“Many in our community contend that President Trump’s strong support of Israel counterbalances his defects and justifies our support of him. I do not agree because l am fearful and I very much hope that I turn out to be wrong that his antics will end up being detrimental to both this country and to Israel”

In democracies, elections come and go rather frequently and the day after, the rain in Spain still falls mainly on the plain, which is to say that votaries of winning candidates are not walking on air and those who supported the losers are not in a state of despair. Life goes on and, generally, most citizens scarcely are affected by the outcome.

The 2016 presidential election was different and the outcome remains different Donald Trump’s campaign departed enormously from the norms that generally guide campaigns. There was an excess of vulgarity and despicable rhetoric and behavior, including what was directed at Senator McCain, at a disabled war hero serving in Congress, and many others. Mr. Trump also displayed a trait that has become even more pronounced since he took office and that is a capacity to lie.

I am certain that anyone who has read this far can easily figure out what I think of the person who occupies the White House. By the rules of the game, meaning the Electoral College, he emerged victorious, although, along with other fictions that inhabit his cerebrum, he challenges the truth that he lost the popular vote by about three million.

I am also certain that a great number of readers are already quite unhappy about what I have written. After all, it has been estimated that about seventy percent of Orthodox voters supported Mr. Trump. The truth is that, after serving our community for two-thirds of a century, perhaps not much more than a blink of an eye in the history of our people, but certainly an extended period in the life of an individual, I am disheartened by the enthusiasm shown by so many Orthodox Jews toward a man who I regard as thoroughly disgusting, dishonest and entirely unfit for the great office he now holds.

Many in our community contend that President Trump’s strong support of Israel counterbalances his defects and justifies our support of him. I do not agree because l am fearful and I very much hope that I turn out to be wrong that his antics will end up being detrimental to both this country and to Israel. All Jews should be deeply concerned about his warm embrace of the Far Right, including a notorious anti-Semite who is one of his chief advisers.

Rabbi Marvin Schick, The RJJ Newsletter (March 2017), 1. (Available online at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1xGwp0vdYtgQmEzYV82SDRpVmN1blZmQklKV2JFenFzWTYw/view)