Kaddish

Today, the funerals of Cecil and David Rosenthal were held.  Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal, 54, both of Squirrel Hill, in Pittsburgh, were among the 11 people killed Saturday during a shooting at Tree of Life Congregation in Squirrel Hill.  During the course of this week, the remaining funerals for the 11 victims will be held.

I applaud my home city for doing what it could to make its unwanted guest today, feel as unwanted as possible, refusing to meet with the man who lit the fuse on a senseless violence.

This senseless tragedy is considered by some to be an isolated incident. It’s not. It was the culmination of a disastrous hatred that was incited by the one man in America who is supposed to rise above that. The President of the United States has their blood on his hands. He, of course, denies it. However as one of the writers at Haaretz pointed out, his glib and selfish denials – backed by his demented supporters- cannot escape responsibility.

While none of these acts came at the direct instigation of the president or the leadership of the GOP, it is undeniable that they were manifestations of a changed climate in America of which the current U.S. president is the most prominent author.  Indeed, in the same week they took place, the president and those closest to him in his party, held rallies at which the fury of crowds was deliberately stoked with chants targeting two of the targets of the bombing, Clinton and CNN. The president’s own rhetoric targeted others, like Representative Maxine Waters and George Soros. 

The mention of Soros is, of course, part of an anti-Semitic trope that is heard across Europe, these days, with Soros standing in for past Jewish bogeymen like the Rothschilds in the eyes of conspiracy theorists. So too, are attacks on “globalists,” one of which came from Trump just moments after the pipe bombing case was wrapped up.  

Now the usual suspects at the Liars Club and the Fox News State Propaganda network are working overtime to try to explain away the fact that Trump’s particular brand of politics, as poisionous as it is to the national character, somehow are not his fault. It’s not working.

There is no denying that Trump has sought to inflame divisions in America as no president before him. He is the president who said that there were “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis who chanted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville (and reportedly declared that being pressured into “cleaning up” his remarks were “the biggest fucking mistake I’ve made.”)……

Trump surrounded himself with aides equally dedicated to the marketing of hate for political gain, like former top strategists Steve Bannon, and mastermind of the president’s draconian border policies, Stephen Miller. He refused to repudiate the support of white supremacists. He made the politics of over-the-top personal attacks on television and via Twitter his political signature.

Trump did not put the bombs in the mail or pull the trigger in Pittsburgh or Louisville, but he has contributed to a mood in which anti-Semitism has soared in America under his leadership, with anti-Semitic incidents rising 57 percent in 2017 alone, according to the Anti-Defamation League. That is the largest year-on-year increase in over four decades.  

He has made institutionalizing discrimination against people of color, whether at the border, or by making it harder for them to vote, a centerpiece of his administration’s policies. 

Even if, as appears the case, the Pittsburgh shooter suspected Trump, too, was under the thrall of the Jews, it is the behavior of Trump and those around them that has given permission for the haters to step out from the shadows, and into a more visible role in American public discourse. 

So I agree with David Rothkopf. Trump may not have pulled the trigger himself, but he has played a definitive role in making the United States a place where lunatics are free to roam. This will not be the last such incident as Trump, in a desperate bid to tilt the mid-term elections to his fevered base, has been lashing out even more to stoke fear and hatred. Many of us told you two years ago this is what would happen.

Bradley Burston, one of my favorite Israeli writers, has sadly, but correctly labeled it a Pogrom.  You should read his entire post here. Its an awesome ode to good people gone senselessly. 

El Malei Rachamim, God who is made of mercy. El Malei Chemlah, God who is made of compassion. El Malei Or, God who is made of Light. God whose house has been defiled by a cruel and monstrous and godless darkness – bless us, the survivors.

Good will come of this. The memories of the fallen are, even now, a blessing.