We cannot allow ourselves to forget our own history

A day or two ago I received an email from someone who was outraged at the comparison between Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden (MSG) and the pro-Nazi German American Bund rally held at MSG on February 20, 1939 and Nazi rallies in general. This individual stated that since there were Jews and Israeli flags at the rally the comparison that has been made by more than a few people and media outlets were not only inaccurate but offensive and disrespectful. That 80 years after the Holocaust people in the Torah-observant community could be so easily swayed makes this argument, in and of itself, is not only ridiculous but frightening. This approach is frightening for two reasons. First, because it means that our people do not know their own history, and, second, it demonstrates a complete lack of basic middos, of simple basic humanity.

That there were Jews present at Trump’s horrific rally is inconsequential to the issue at hand. When the Nazi party was first emerging, there were Jews who supported them despite the abhorrent antisemitic rhetoric espoused by its leader and echoed by his followers. These Jews supported the Nazis because they, too, felt as if they were good German citizens and the Nazis were seen as social and political conservatives, promoting family values, opposed to liberalism, and opposed communism, which was thought to be a bigger danger than the author of Mein Kampf. These groups had initially believed that the antisemitism espoused by Hitler and the Nazis was merely “talk” to “stir up the masses”. They mistakenly thought, as history showed in less than ten years, that they were not considered to be part of the “others” whom Hitler and followers said were “poisoning” Germany. That members of our community consider themselves to be part of the “real Americans” referred to by the America First movement is delusional.

Moving past the presence of Jews and Israeli flags at Trump’s rally, there are more than a few reasons for the comparison to the pro-Nazi rally held at MSG in 1939 and Trump’s rally. Much of the rhetoric at Trump’s event corresponded to that heard at the 1939 rally. For example, Trump aide Stephen Miller used nativist language as “America is for Americans and Americans only.” Other speakers made crude remarks and “jokes” about Latinos, Black Americans, and immigrants. Trump himself used Nazi-inspired language like “occupied country” and said, “The day I take the oath of office the migrant invasion of our country ends and the restoration of our country begins!” Trump also again referred to Democrats as “the enemy within,” repeating language that parallels the language used at the 1939 rally and that used by authoritarian and fascist figures.

There were other echoes of 1939 at Trump’s rally last Sunday, October 27, 2024. Speakers at both rallies raised alarms about immigration, Marxism, and “enemies within” the country and denigrated their opponents. For example, speakers at Trump’s rally frequently aimed crude, racist, and misogynistic insults at Vice President Harris, comparing her to a prostitute with “pimp handlers” and disparaging her as “low IQ”. One speaker referred to her as “the Antichrist” while holding up a cross. Some speakers demanded a return to an earlier era of the U.S., hinting but not explicitly stating that it had largely been controlled by white Americans.

The remark that drew the most immediate public backlash on Sunday was “comedian” Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke that Puerto Rico was “a floating island of garbage.” Hinchcliffe also said “These Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that they do”. He then launched into a joke about Jews and Palestinians:

“It’s unbelievable what’s happening right now,” Hinchcliffe said. “Ukraine vs. Russia, Israel vs. Palestine, it’s like bad soccer games, who even cares, what are we doing, why is our money involved in these wars? When it comes to Israel and Palestine, we’re all thinking the same thing, settle your stuff already, best out of three, rock, paper, scissors. You know the Palestinians are going to throw rocks every time. You also know the Jews have a hard time throwing that paper, you know what I’m saying!”

Additionally, Trump’s rally featured speakers who are known for racist and antisemitic sentiments, such as Tucker Carlson, a proponent of the Great Replacement Theory and both Carlson and Donald Trump, Jr. echoed its themes.  Though Carlson did not mention Jews or Israel he mocked Harris’ ethnicity, calling her a “Samoan Malaysian low I.Q. former California prosecutor.” That Carlson has been a part of Trump’s campaign, that he was anywhere near MSG that night is because Trump wants Carlson’s message and support amplified as it works with Trump’s base of supporters. Trump does not care about the implications.

Trump himself referred to Democrats as “the enemy within,” repeating language that echoes the rhetoric used by authoritarian figures and government. He referred to the press as the “enemy of the people”, another rallying cry of dictators and despots. Trump continued his frequent rants about immigration and claimed that a “savage Venezuelan prison gang [had] taken over Times Square”. He also falsely claimed that the Biden administration did not have money to respond to a recent hurricane in North Carolina because “they spent all of their money bringing in illegal immigrants, flying them in by beautiful jet planes”. He described the date of his potential election as a “liberation day” from what he described as an occupation by invading migrants. “The day I take the oath of office the migrant invasion of our country ends, and the restoration of our country begins!”

In combination with Trump’s frequent references to immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the nation  (a direct use of Hitler’s language referring to Jews)  and describing the free press as the “enemy of the people” (quoting Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Nazi propaganda), stating that detention camps for the homeless and immigrants should be established and people sent there based on “serial numbers” are valid reasons for comparing Trump’s rally at MSG to the pro-Nazi rally held in 1939.​

For those who are not aware, when speaking to the America First Policy Institute Trump said that the federal government should send the National Guard to “restore order and secure the peace” by rounding up America’s homeless population and incarcerating them in camps built on cheap land far from major U.S. cities. This, he argued, would hide an American embarrassment from visiting foreign leaders and motivate the homeless to stop being homeless. Trump said it would help drive “the ambition of these people” to not be homeless. NOTE: The audience wildly applauded this rejection of states’ rights, long a conservative tenet, and of the U.S. Constitution.

That the Torah-observant community could ignore any of the above, 80 years after our people were demonized, denigrated, and dehumanized, placed in concentration camps, tattooed with numbers for organizational purposes, slaughtered, and burned to ash, is beyond understanding. To ignore what happened at MSG in 2024 because it was not our people who were the target of most of the vitriol is a betrayal of our mandate to be an “ohr l’goyim”, a light unto the nations. It is a violation of the Torah. It is a violation of basic human decency. To support such a candidate is not only to forget the lessons of history but to disrespect the memory of all those who were murdered. To ignore all of the above is to forget who we are supposed to be. Our ancestors, were they still here, would be ashamed.