The Jewish moments to expect (and not expect) at the Republican convention
Expect several moments that will be at times validating, and other times jarring, for Jews
Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States speaks at the CPAC conference in Washington, D.C., on March 4. Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
(JTA) — MILWAUKEE — The Republican convention taking place here next week will be the closest ever to Donald Trump’s vision for America. Expect some typically validating — and jarring — moments for the Jewish community.
The vestiges of the pre-Trump Republican Party were still apparent at the 2016 convention at which he was first nominated, with nods to the robust foreign policy championed by the establishment.
No longer. The 2024 platform, published earlier this week, makes no mention of defending democracy in other countries.
Another mark of the party’s Trumpification: The 2016 convention was chaired by then-Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. Trump and Ryan, driven into retirement during Trump’s presidency, now revile one another, and Ryan says he will not vote for Trump.
The 2020 convention was all Trump, but it. was also almost entirely online.
Here are the Jewish moments to look out for, and the Jewish moments that may be missing.
Which rabbi?
In 2016, Trump’s Jewish daughter, Ivanka, asked her rabbi, Haskell Lookstein, to open the convention with a blessing-slash-convocation on Monday morning. Lookstein’s New York-based Modern Orthodox community was outraged, and he withdrew. The convention, which took place in Cleveland, scrambled to find a replacement. Rabbi Ari Wolf of the Cleveland area Telshe Yeshiva stood in at the last minute.
The RNC has played its schedule very close to the vest this year, so we don’t know yet who is speaking. (On the other hand, we don’t even know who the vice presidential pick is, which is very unusual this close to a convention.)
The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Marvin Hier delivered the prayer at Trump’s 2017 inauguration and said he was “proud” to do so — but less than two years ago recoiled in disgust at hearing that Trump had dined with Kanye West, the rapper turned antisemite, and Nick Fuentes, the Holocaust denier. (We’ve asked the Center if they will have a presence this year.)
Count on a rabbi delivering the opening or closing blessings on one of the four days (Monday through Thursday), and expect him (yeah, odds are it will be a man, per Trump’s famous “central casting” preferences) to be from a community that would not object to a presence at Trumpfest. We’re thinking along the lines of Rabbi David Katz, whose Israel Heritage Foundation gave Trump a menorah earlier this year.
Which kids?
Ivanka Trump, Trump’s Jewish daughter, delivered one of the most impassioned speeches at the 2016 convention, but she did not mention her faith. Instead, what stood out was her defense of her father from charges of racism and sexism. Her dad, she said, was “color blind and gender neutral.”
Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner are still close to Donald Trump, family wise, but have indicated they won’t play the central political role they did in 2016 and 2020. Kushner is focused on his investment business and the lucrative deals he has scored in the Middle East, where he cultivated relationships while brokering the Abraham Accords normalization as an administration adviser. Among family members, Donald Trump Jr. has assumed the preeminent campaign role.
That doesn’t necessarily count out a return engagement for Ivanka (but don’t expect mentions of “gender neutral,” which has become charged by the culture wars). But the daughter to watch is Tiffany Trump. Her father-in-law, Massad Boulos, is leading a long-shot bid to win over Arab Americans disaffected by President Joe Biden’s backing for Israel in its war against Hamas.
Which foreign policy?
Wednesday is foreign policy day and is titled “Make America Strong Once Again.”
Interventionist Republicans won a victory in 2016, mostly defeating attempts by the then-burgeoning Trump-aligned isolationists to alter the party platform to reflect a narrower view of America’s role in the world.
That may have been their last victory. The 2024 platform is strictly aligned with the Trump doctrine of retreating from the world as a means of projecting strength. “Republicans will promote a Foreign Policy centered on the most essential American Interests, starting with protecting the American Homeland, our People, our Borders, our Great American Flag, and our Rights under God,” it says.
Nostalgic for the “Tear down this wall” style of Republicanism? Monday afternoon, off campus, there will be a screening of “Reagan,” a much-anticipated feature film starring Dennis Quaid as the 40th president. Interventionists will not entirely disappear; the American Jewish Committee, long a champion of a robust American foreign policy, will be hosting a number of events (most closed to media) focusing on diplomacy.
Israel gets a single mention in the platform (“we will stand with Israel”), but don’t expect that to be the case from the stage. Trump has made his record defending Israel a feature of his stump speeches and of his single (so far) debate with Biden: Hamas, he claims, would not have dared to carry out its Oct. 7 massacres, launching the current war, on his watch. He has also said that he could draw Iran, Israel’s most implacable enemy, into a peace deal.
Which Jewish organizations?
Jewish organizations once featured large at conventions. Not this year. The ADL, AIPAC and the federations are keeping away from this year’s conventions. Of the nonpartisan Jewish groups, only the AJC — led, by the way, by a one time firebrand liberal Democratic congressman, Ted Deutch — is reclaiming, post-pandemic, its traditional convention role, hosting foreign policy talks and diplomatic receptions.
The Republican Jewish Coalition is hosting a single open media event, its traditional “Salute to Pro-Israel Elected Officials,” on Thursday night — when most folks will be packing up. The RJC has had an on-again, off-again relationship with Trump, recoiling at times at his dalliances with the far right and lauding at other times his fulsome embrace of right-wing pro-Israel orthodoxies.
It’s on again this year, kind of: The group has pledged $5 million to electing Trump president, and its major benefactor, casino magnate Miriam Adelson, is reportedly setting aside $90 million for the same cause.
Last time around, the RJC was ready to spend $10 million to reelect Trump. The RJC’s executive director, Matt Brooks, was a deputy permanent co-chairman of the 2016 convention. That’s not happening this year.
Which version of antisemitism?
Antisemitism got a single mention in the GOP platform: “Republicans condemn antisemitism, and support revoking Visas of Foreign Nationals who support terrorism and jihadism. We will hold accountable those who perpetrate violence against Jewish people.”
That single mention drew restrained praise from the Coalition for Jewish Values, the conservative network of Orthodox rabbis that has in the past praised Trump’s policies. “We specifically asked the platform committees to address both hostility on campus and the problem of foreign nationals who come to America in order to incite hatred,” it said in a statement. “We think it significant that both of these issues, of great concern to Jewish Americans and many others, were given attention despite the brevity of the RNC platform.”
The platform also pledged to focus on “anti-Christian bias,” not explaining what that means.
That doesn’t mean antisemitism will get short shrift at the convention: Republicans in Congress hope to appropriate combating antisemitism from Democrats, who for decades led on the issue (Biden last year unveiled the first ever federal strategy to combat antisemitism). Congressional Republicans have vastly expanded their examination of antisemitism in universities and other institutions.
That examination has not included antisemitism coming from the right, despite complaints from Jewish groups that it has manifested itself at conservative events over the years, and even in Trump’s rhetoric. In the best-known example, the former president equivocated on who was responsible for the deadly 2017 neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Tuesday’s theme, “Make America Safe Once Again,” focusing on immigration, may turn into a forum on the “replacement theory,” a baseless conspiracy alleging a liberal plot to replace whites with people of color. (New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, reportedly under consideration to be Trump’s running mate, has peddled a version.) Versions of the theory have antisemitic overtones alleging that the plot is led by Jews.
Trump has also discomfited Jewish voters with what have been described as, at worst, antisemitic dog whistles, and at best, tone-deaf declarations, as when he mocked Israeli leaders after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas raid, or called Jews disloyal for not voting for him. And then there’s the Republican bogeyman, liberal billionaire and Holocaust survivor George Soros, who features frequently in right-wing antisemitic rhetoric and is a favorite target for Trump.
Speaking in February to Rabbi Katz, who gave Trump the menorah, Trump indicated he knew his Jewish constituency — a minority within a minority, since most American Jews vote for Democrats. “President Trump spoke of how Orthodox Jews in both America and in Israel are overwhelmingly pro-Trump,” the Israel Heritage Foundation release said. “The president specifically acknowledged support and appreciation from Chassidic Jews in the U.S.”
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