Most Voters Condemn Trumps Comments About Jewish Loyalty

"I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat — it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty," Trump told reporters last week, in response to a question about an Aug. 19 news conference in which Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) criticized the Israeli government’s decision to bar them from entering the country in their capacity as members of Congress.

The Aug. 23-25 poll found 59 percent of registered voters disapprove of Trump’s comments, including 86 percent of Democrats and 58 percent of independents. Republicans approved of his remarks by a 2-to-1 margin, 51 percent versus 25 percent. 

“What he said was reckless and dangerous,” said Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the nonpartisan Religious Action Center, part of the Union for Reform Judaism, who added that the president’s comments fuel America’s longstanding plague of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitic incidents -- including physical assaults, vandalism and harassment -- rose by nearly 60 percent in 2017, according to the Anti-Defamation League. It was the largest single-year increase and the second highest number reported since the international Jewish non-governmental organization began tracking such incidents in 1979.

That came on the back of a 2016 campaign that saw Trump elevate anti-Semitic messages and memes, which often originated in white nationalist circles, amid pressure to disavow the support of prominent white supremacists such as former KKK leader David Duke. 

The deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history occurred in October 2018, when a white supremacist murdered 11 Jewish worshippers and injured two at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., also served as a flashpoint, resulting in the death of one counterprotester. Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” involved in the latter conflict, drawing widespread condemnation from religious and political leaders.

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