Today, there is anti-Zionism, anti-Netanyahu, and anti-Semitism all being mixed in a flurry of rhetoric, hysteria, and panic that most major Jewish groups cannot, or don’t want to, untangle. Worse, they are unprepared to acknowledge the real sources of anti-semitism.

The causes of anti-Semitism predate the birth of Jesus, and have been persistent for over 2,000 years.  Almost every country in Western and Eastern Europe, and in the Arab Peninsula, has orchestrated pogroms for thousands of years.

The standard reasons for this have been that Jews are outsiders, control wealth and the means of production, including the media, banking, governments, and cause plagues, and have the political clout to lose wars.

Hitler called the Lenin-Trotsky Soviet Union “Judeo Communism,” and this trope lived until the McCarthy era and the treason trial of the Rosenbergs, who were accused of giving atomic secrets to the Russians.

But today, there are a few new causes of anti-Semitism that do not fit into the standard reasons national Jewish groups use when they raise the anti-Semitism issue to the national level.

Even the New York Times, which is reluctant to report on Jewish issues, had an article today that noted the Nazi influence on MAGA Republicans.  This is something this site has addressed for years.

The problem is that major Jewish groups, like the Republican Jewish Coalition, the Adelsons, and AIPAC, have funded MAGA candidates and Trump, because they either want to push a one-state Israel policy or push for tax breaks for their wealthy donors. Both groups are divisive, and they are the biggest threats to the cohesion of the US Jewish community because they take the false position that Trump is good for America and good for Israel. The majority of American Jews disagree. These same groups have also funded anti-Semitic groups via their party donations.

The RJC has also made public apologies for the attack on the US Capitol and the remarks of Marjorie Taylor-Greene about Jews.  The RJC also ignores that much of Trump’s support for Israel is done for the benefit of Evangelical Christians, not Jews.

In an article in the Tablet by Shaul Magid, that move was done to appease the Evangelicals, not Adelson, his Israel nationalist supporters, or the Israeli government.

“It is no accident that evangelical John Hagee gave the invocation at the U.S. Embassy’s move to Jerusalem. As Trump said afterward, ‘I did this for the evangelicals.’ On one (Zionist) Christian reading, the Jews may think they are exercising their right of self-determination. Still, they are really pawns, paving the way for the return of Christ (including the predicted end-time destruction of those Jews who refuse to accept Christ).

“But (Jewish) Zionists don’t care, because for them it is the Christians who are the pawns in the story of their own heroic redemption. Each is conspiratorial in its own way. And they can do business together,” according to the Tablet article.  

At another event, Evangelicals called Trump “the King of the Jews,” which should have alarmed most of Trump’s right-wing Jewish supporters.  But apparently, it had no impact on their blind support of Trump.

Trump is a bona fide mental case and criminal. For some reason, Trump backs Netanyahu and his party’s support of thug settlers, as the Trump regime exercises its corruption in plain sight. Jewish Republicans support Trump’s corruption and Netanyahu’s war policies, while American Jews, who are about 80% Democrats, oppose both. In response, Republican Jews said the Democrats have deceived their Jewish Democrat co-religionists since the end of World War I, when Jews started to become Democrats.

Anti-Zionism, Anti-Netanyahu, Anti-Semitism

To make the situation more complicated, today there is anti-Zionism, anti-Netanyahu, and anti-Semitism all being mixed in a flurry of rhetoric, hysteria, and panic that most major Jewish groups cannot, or don’t want to, untangle.  For example, in Israel and among many American Jews, there is a strong anti-Netanyahu sentiment.  Among Arabs and their sympathizers who call for a Palestinian state, there is anti-Zionism and anti-Netanyahu sentiment.  And among the hard-core, there is the old anti-Semitism.

This situation is very complicated, but the national Jewish groups–B’Nai Brith, ADL, AISH–that fight anti-Semitism have not adapted their strategy and messages for this new reality. Instead, they keep using the umbrella “Anti-Semitism” message since it has raised hundreds of millions for their respective groups. But this is a losing strategy in 2025.

So what do we have today in the American Jewish community?  Traditional Jewish groups conduct big educational campaigns and data gathering about anti-Semitic attacks, while simultaneously, Republican Jews help finance MAGA candidates and the MAGA party that foments the attacks. This is like an arsonist who starts fires and then helps the fire department extinguish the same fire.  It’s insane, but this is what is happening today.

It’s dangerous and wastes hundreds of millions of dollars.

However, all three–anti-Zionism, anti-Netanyahu, and anti-Semitism–are very different, so it is crucial to separate these themes.

Israel’s War Conduct

First, the recent spike in anti-Semitism stems from Israel’s invasion of Gaza and the West Bank in October 2022 and the resulting destruction of Gaza.  Videos of the smashed concrete building, leveled homes, and uprooted olive trees have the same impact on American audiences who saw the Vietnam War carnage on national TV.  In the 1960s and 1970s, those TV images prompted a huge anti-war sentiment that eventually drove President Johnson and the military from office.

Those same forces are valid today in fermenting anti-Israel sentiment.  This is anti-Israel sentiment, which is not the same as anti-Semitism. Still, the major Jewish groups—ADL, B’nai B’rith, AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition, AISH, many rabbis, the Jewish media–do not make this critical distinction.

This version of anti-Semitism is anti-Israel, and it manifests itself when pro-Arab demonstrations confront pro-Israel supporters who are mostly Jewish.  It is not that they object to the Jews in front of them, but to Israel’s war policies that are being directed from thousands of miles away.

Jews Behaving Badly

Second, another cause of anti-Semitism is the sad fact that many Jews are in the news for illegal, unethical actions that have attracted international attention.  This includes the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal and the role of other Jews in the Trump

administration who are lightning rods for being hated.  This includes Steven Miller and some of the Jewish podcasters who are avid Trump supporters, such as Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, and Laura Loomer.  Basically, Jewish supporters of the MAGA Trump movement work as propagandists for the MAGA movement, and aside from their blind support of Israel’s one-state solution and defense of the gangster settlers who terrorize Arab farmers in the West Bank, they don’t reflect any Jewish values.

Then, there is the growing awareness that the AI revolution, which is controversial and considered part of the new techno-fascism movement, is being run by AI firms that are owned/managed by Jewish technologists.

This includes Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), Google (Sergey Brin and Larry Page), Palantir (Alex Karp), Oracle (Safra Katz, Gal Tirosh, Larry Ellison), crypto (David Sacks), Shift4Payments (Jared Isaacman), and OpenAI (Sam Altman).

Israel also plays a significant role in the AI revolution, and its aims remain unclear.  Its main public and controversial applications (Pegasus) have been on systems used for hacking, eavesdropping, and surveillance in anti-terrorism activities. In some cases, this software has been used to spy on civilian groups that oppose anti-democratic governments.

The fact that Jews own these firms, which have huge political and economic influence, and are closely tied to the Trump regime through large donations, could be considered another source of anti-Semtism.

The Mossad Connection?

Third, the Mossad connection.  Jewish groups avoid this topic since it often leads to nothing good.  The British newspaper magnate, Robert Maxwell, the father of Ghiselle Maxwell (Epstein’s partner and girlfriend), was linked to the Mossad.  His mysterious death only added to the intrigue. Now, stories about the Mossad’s link to Epstein, while unproven to date, could be the most significant contributor to a new source of anti-Israel sentiment, as opposed to anti-Semitic feelings directed towards Jews as a group.  If this connection between Mossad and Epstein is verified, it will open a whole new chapter in anti-Israel sentiment.

Fanning the Flames of Hysteria

The hysterical response to the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor of New York has been unfounded.  Nothing in New York has changed, and it will be months before we see how any of Mamdani’s policies develop, let alone how those policies affect the Jewish community.  This election has captivated the attention of the major Jewish organizations, but they have not addressed the sources of anti-Semitism listed above.

Instead, they have focused on the usual anti-Muslim, ad hominem attacks on Mamdani as one who opposes Israel, promotes the Palestinian national cause, and is anti-Netanyahu.  These are the standard attack themes, but many Israelis oppose Netanyahu and disapprove of his conduct of the war in Gaza and the West Bank.  If an election were held tomorrow, Netanyahu would be voted out of office.

Major Jewish groups that fundraise based on anti-Semitism should create a new category of anti-Semitism that is first, linked to Israeli policies, and second, the criminal, disgraceful, abhorrent behavior of American Jews.

The disgraceful behavior of Jews in a community is not new.  The Shanda stigma enforces Jewish community standards and breeds cohesion among those who want to be part of a community that performs good deeds and brings people together.

The Shanda list includes Jews who are divisive, criminal, predatory, and are an embarrassment.  Yes, these people exist.  They are also a source of anti-Semitism that is less visible than the Proud Boys, social media sensationalists, and Christian nationalists. It’s time for Jewish groups to expand their search for the causes of anti-Semitism.

Maybe they should adopt the old saying from the cartoon character  Snoopy: “We have met the enemy, and it is us.”

What Else is Behind the Mamdani Hysteria?

A Possible Remedy

Since this is a long list of actions that are contributing to anti-Israel sentiment and antiSemitism, it would be disingenuous if some possible solutions were not proposed.

Unfortunately, the damage done by the Netanyahu regime, his right-wing supporters, and Netanyahu’s personal relationship with the most despicable and corrupt president in US history is a black stain on Israel’s global status.  Aside from Israel’s “start-up nation” reputation and its lead in weapons sales, high tech, and advanced lethal militarism, Israel will have to return to its Jewish religious roots to demonstrate how it will repair the world.

One way would be for Israel to donate a proven pharmaceutical to the world gratis to cure or treat a global disease.  Dr. Albert Sabin did this with the polio vaccine in 1961, and he offered it to the world free of any patent restrictions.  Israel should do the same if it has something like this on the shelf.

After Trump is removed from office, non-Netanyahu Israeli politicians should put a great distance between themselves and Trump and his family members.  This should involve public pronouncements about how Netanyahu and Trump deceived the world about their overly optimistic and naive plans for the Iran War.

What’s Behind the Anti-Mamdani and Anti-democratic Socialism Hysteria

• • Major Jewish organizations ignore that the spike in anti-Semitism is caused by Israel’s war policies in Gaza and the West Bank, not white supremacists and Nazis. This isn’t easy to accept.
  • Wealthy Jewish donors (Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the Republican Jewish Coalition, etc.)  who are vehemently pro-Trump have polarized the Jewish community more than the anti-Israel protestors.
  • The danger is not Mamdani, but Israel’s government, AIPAC, the Republican Jewish Coalition, and major Jewish donors to Trump, who all support Netanyahu’s war policies and are pushing for a one-state solution. These same groups are also supporting Trump, who is poison to the majority of American Jews.
  • Israel’s war policies and actions by violent settlers in the West Bank against Arabs have made Israel a pariah state. Violent settler attacks have gone unpunished by the Israeli army and police. American Jews cannot ignore the fact that the global community outside of the UN opposes Israel’s policies.
  • The vast majority of violent attacks committed against Jews and Jewish institutions have been committed by right-wing groups, all of which have relations with the MAGA Trump regime. Wealthy Republican Jews have given over $200 million to Trump in his two election bids and are under the same party tent as Christian nationalists and neo-Nazis.
  • If an election were held in Israel today, Netanyahu would be voted out of office.
  • Major Jewish organizations must rethink their policies and practices regarding how they want to address anti-Semitism. The ADL and B’nai Brith were founded before Israel was created (1913 and 1843, respectively), so they have never fully adjusted to the current sources of anti-Semitism and Israel’s evolution in a complex modern nation.
  • Major Jewish organizations are stuck in the past and are institutionalized.  They have created an anti-Semitism-industrial complex that sees all criticism of Jews as anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism. These criticisms have some validity, but in 2026, Holocaust fundraisers are going on 80 years old, and have become ineffective.  They are not reaching young people. Major Jewish national groups need to refresh themselves for the post-Trump MAGA world.  They also have to accept that the biggest source of antiSemitism today is Israel’s war policies.
  • The statistics on anti-Semitic attacks from the ADL-B’nai Brith should be examined closely since many of these incidents are verbal and do not involve physical violence.
  • Attacks against American Muslims have seen a similar spike since the Trump election as attacks against Jews.

    

  • Major Jewish groups have a vested interest in keeping the focus on anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attacks in the spotlight since they benefit from fundraising. They must abandon that old stance.
  • The mayor of New York has nothing to do with influencing U.S. foreign policy or anything that will affect Israel’s war conduct.
  • The danger of any boycott of Israel by Mamdani is overblown since it would require the approval of the city council and/or state legislature, which would never approve it. Mamdani also would never lose political capital by pushing for a divestiture of Israeli companies from city and state investment boards, since he will be focusing on his campaign promises (daycare, rent control, free buses, reducing crime)
  • The primary threat to U.S. Jewry is assimilation, not anti-Semitism, as many Jewish leaders agree.
  • The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and AIPAC have done more to divide Jews than any outside forces intentionally. The RJC preaches that the Republicans have done more for Jews than Democrats, a patently false claim.
  • The MAGA Republican Party does not reflect any traditional Jewish values: justice, repairing the world, treating others with dignity and respect, performing acts of kindness, maintaining peace, and recognizing that all people are created in the image of God.  This does not bother the RJC and the wealthy American Jews,
  • The Jewish media and institutions are reluctant to criticize wealthy Jews for their pro-Trump financial and political support because they are afraid of antagonizing large donors.  As a result, they curtail their criticism of Trump and the right-wing Netanyahu government, who are overwhelmingly Trump supporters. 
  • There has never been a pogrom in the U.S. From  December 1862 to June 2025, there have been 38 killings of Jews in the U.S. based on their religion, according to this list on Wikipedia. This includes the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a textile worker wrongly convicted of murdering a 13-year-old, up to the June 2025 firebombing of a synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, which killed one congregant.
  • According to Alan Dershowitz and Eli Weisel, anti-Semitism causes Jews to become more identified with Judaism and better members of the community.
  • American Jews are overwhelmingly Democrats, anti-Trump, and, like it or not, disapprove of Israel’s war conduct, even though it is necessary and more ethical than what other armies have done. Jews have been Democrats since the early 1920s, while the Republicans have been anti-Semitic since the mid-1960s, when the party reduced its hate as a result of William F. Buckley.
  • Jews outside of New York have a very different view of the Mamdani election.  Do a poll and the results will surprise you.
  • The majority of American Jews have never personally experienced an anti-Semitic incident.
  • The majority of American Jews have changed their views of Israel, as Mandy Partinkin’s video shows.
  • It will take Israel a decade to regain its pre-war prominence among nations, unless it discovers a cure for cancer or achieves some other breakthrough. 
  • Democratic socialism is a winning platform for elections, as most Americans are concerned about improving their standard of living, fighting corporate greed, and implementing a fair and progressive tax policy that requires the wealthy to pay more while closing tax loopholes that favor corporations and the rich.  Corporate socialism and unregulated capitalism are the enemies of the majority of Americans, who do not benefit from the preferential treatment given to the top 2%.
  • Importantly, a major source of anti-semitism is the criminal activities of high-profile Jews that damage the reputations of all Jews. This includes the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, Bernie Madoff, Steven Miller, Laura Loomer, Pam Geller, Roy Cohn, Sam Bankman-Fried, Michael Cohen, Barre Seid, The Sackler Family, Monica Lewinsky, Harvey Weinstein, and others on the Shanda List.
  • On the radar screen for a new spike in anti-Semitism would be proof about the speculation about a link between Jeffrey Epstein and the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.  If evidence emerges about this link, it will spark a new wave of investigations into the undue influence of Israel on global politics. This connection is not proven now. However, if a link emerges, it will reshape global public opinion.

However, in a quirk of political circumstances, it has a Republican mayor, Scott Singer.

This is a political irony, given that the majority of his constituents are Democrats. Still, Singer is a Harvard-educated lawyer, is Jewish, and the residents voted for him because there was no opponent from the Democratic Party.  Big mistake.

As a Republican in a MAGA Republican state, Singer can’t look too moderate lest he incurs the wrath of MAGA Governor Ron DeSantis.  But, he also cannot alienate the town’s citizens enough so that they leave their chairs and make a phone call or write a letter protesting any extreme actions his MAGA associates may encourage him to do.

So, it was surprising to see Mayor Singer engage in a publicity stunt when the Democratic socialist candidate for New York City, Zohan Mandami, won the primary, and the MAGA world exploded by telling the nation that its largest city was going the way of Fidel Castro and the Russian takeover of Hungary in 1956.

Mayor Singer’s public statements invited the people of New York City to move to Boca Raton as a haven from the socialist onslaught that mayoral candidate Mandami would bring if elected.  According to the MAGA world and Mayor Singer’s references, New York City would be subject to business takeovers, shortages, rabid dogs roaming the streets, traffic congestion, property confiscation, rampant crime, and free public transportation.

These horrors, according to Mayor Singer, were enough to solicit and welcome frantic refugees fleeing the Bolsheviks in New York City to Boca Raton.

But what was Mayor Singer inviting them to?

Boca Raton is No Refuge for NYC Residents

Contrary to the myth, Boca Raton and South Florida are no paradise.  It is expensive, congested, and has a fraction of the cultural institutions of New York City. Its housing market is fragmented by gated communities, expensive country clubs, out-of-control HOAs, high home insurance premiums and car insurance costs, and 55-and-over communities, all linked by strip shopping centers. There is also a danger of flooding in Boca.

Worse, the real estate market in South Florida is in freefall.  As this video shows, the real estate market here has rapidly declined due to overbuilding and onerous fees on homeowners and condo owners, which show no sign of slowing down.  Mother Nature also plays a role in this: the state is one hurricane away from financial disaster in the event of a major storm hitting land.

Furthermore, the construction of more high-rises will only exacerbate street-level and highway congestion.  In some downtown West Palm Beach condos, traffic jams occur inside the parking garages as residents attempt to exit the building and enter the surrounding surface streets during rush hour. About 70% of its population is white, with a median household income of $90,000, and a median home price of $585,000.  It also has a significant Jewish population that may account for Singer’s election victory

Powerful, politically connected real estate developers also have tremendous influence on the city, and along the whole east coast of Florida, they push for every square foot of buildable space.  Boca Raton and Palm Beach County are the home of zero-lot line million-dollar houses.  The zero-lot-line plot survey means that houses are pushed together, so there is minimal space, about 10 feet, separating houses that can sell for $1 million and up.  If an owner wants to clean their gutter, for instance, the base of the ladder to reach a 10-foot gutter will be standing on their neighbor’s property.

The zero-lot line allows builders to build more houses per development at the expense of an owner’s privacy.  It’s more profitable for builders, and homeowners are often not informed about the situation unless they ask. All the naïve home buyer may notice is that the houses look awfully close together, certainly not something they would see in other parts of the country, especially in million-dollar homes.

MAGA Florida is also known as an anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-global warming, book-censorship state. Hence, it’s unusual that the mayors of Boca and Palm Beach are inviting AI companies to relocate there, considering that computer scientists drive the entire industry.

Mayor Singer is also inviting people to a state that bans books, has the lowest teacher salaries in the nation; Florida ranks 50th in the country for average teacher pay — two years in a row — despite a slight pay increase that fails to keep up with inflation.

Thanks to Governor DeSantis, the state now has a non-mandatory vaccine policy that can affect the elderly and kids, and an aggressive anti-immigrant policy that will raise prices for labor-intensive work. The state also officially denies global warming, which is ironic since it is vulnerable to hurricanes on both coasts. As the hurricane season begins, it heightens the risk that the state is one hurricane away from facing financial disaster in the form of huge insurance claims from a dwindling number of insurance providers, who will immediately raise premiums.  DeSantis’ MAGA friends have also cut FEMA support in the event of a natural disaster.

Florida is also the fraud capital of the U.S. The state leads the nation in identity theft, Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, home construction, insurance fraud, elder abuse, and cryptocurrency fraud. It has historically shown no sign of increasing its protection and prosecution rates.

Mayor Singer must know that since Palm Beach County is the East Coast headquarters for white-collar criminals, starting with Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, as its most notable cons.  It also attracts other lesser-known white-collar errant executives, including Senator Rick Scott, whose company (Columbia/HCA) was named in the biggest Medicare and Medicaid fraud in history. These executive criminals come here to avoid paying taxes, enjoy an easy lifestyle, benefit from a lack of prosecutorial oversight, and potentially create future scams, all while associating with other like-minded non-violent criminals in a luxurious setting.

Take the case of former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.  Thanks to her loyalty and bending of the law for Trump, Bondi is now the U.S. Attorney General. She is now defending Trump at the national level, including his conflicts of interest, pay-to-play presidency, Epstein involvements, and prosecution of Trump’s critics and “enemies.”

Similarly, twenty years earlier, Alex Acosta, formerly the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, made a secret non-prosecution agreement with Epstein.  That deal ignited the controversy nearly 20 years later, when it became known that Acosta was friendly with Epstein. For his loyalty, Trump named Acosta Secretary of Labor. There are others, but the basic message is that the whole state is for sale.  This message is very attractive to white-collar criminals, foreign and domestic, from Palm Beach to Miami.

Florida was also the state that threw the election to George Bush in December 2000, in the famous Bush v. Gore lawsuit, when Jeb Bush, George’s brother, was the governor of Florida.  For additional historical context, Florida was the third state to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy in 1861.

DeSantis Is More MAGA Extreme Than Trump.

DeSantis’ state supervisors have banned books, dictated subjects that cannot be taught in schools, manipulated scientific evidence to prevent COVID, installed party loyalists at the state’s universities and colleges, and extended the welcome mat to billionaires whose primary purpose is to pay the least taxes possible.

And that’s just for starters. 

As numerous articles, including this powerful piece from The Prospect,  have reported, Governor DeSantis has flagrantly abused the public trust. His actions are a slap in the face of democracy.

• “He suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren, a twice-elected local official, because he didn’t like the police reforms he initiated. Warren was also among a group of prosecutors who announced, “We decline to use our offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions.”
• “He suspended four elected members of the Broward County school board—all registered Democrats—and turned the board over to a majority of Republicans.
• “He (DeSantis) held a press conference to announce the arrest of 20 people—who cast 0.0000018 percent of the 11 million ballots cast in Florida’s 2020 election—for allegedly voting illegally.”

The NYC Exodus That Won’t Happen

So, what was Mayor Singer thinking when he invited the expected flood of New York City refugees to Boca Raton?

Not much.

He must have been caught up in the anti-Mamdani hysteria while running through Mizner Park, the city’s high-priced restaurant row, screaming, “The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming.”  Not too cool for a Harvard graduate, but he must have been swept up in the MAGA social media hype.

Mayor Singer’s strong MAGA credentials should awaken some sleepy Boca residents to find a Democratic mayoral candidate.  Maybe some motivated Boca residents will forego the happy hours, tennis, pickleball, and poker routines and decide to use their education and experience to run for mayor. The Dems need to gain control to stop Mayor Singer from soliciting emigres to a congested, MAGA state controlled by real estate developers and sleepy civic officials.

The Democratic Party in Florida is asleep, so it cannot find a candidate through a top-down search. Still, there may be some people in the country club and gated community bubbles who want to escape the canasta, maj jong, happy hour, golf, and dinner party circuit and end their golden years as Boca’s pro-citizen leader. Who knows, it may be more exciting than playing bridge or pickleball.

Donating massive amounts of money to a political candidate is like gambling: You never know who will win, or if your bet will ever produce the intended results.

The latest is that Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol field leader, mocked the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, Daniel N. Rosen, an Orthodox Jew who observes Shabbat.  Bovino complained that he could not reach Rosen from Friday night to Saturday night.

In the podcast work, Ben Shapiro finally discovered that he was in the company of anti-Semitic right-wingers when he criticized Tucker Carlson, another right-wing talker, who had an interview with Nick Fuentes, the leader of the Proud Boys, and a leader of the Jan.6 Trump insurrection.

In the interview with Carlson, “Fuentes praised Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and claimed the ‘big challenge’ to unifying the country was “organized Jewry.” Carlson, a former Fox News host who retains a large following, said Republican Israel supporters suffer from a “brain virus,” according to a report in Politico.  He earlier said, “In a debate on Alex Jones’ InfoWars in May 2021, he said that Jews have no place in Western civilization because they are not Christian,” according to the American Jewish Committee.

What do these have in common?

First, the old saying, “When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas,” is something right-wing Jews like Carlson, AIPAC, and the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) should remember.

Both are dividing the Jewish community over ridiculous claims that American Jews should become Republicans.  This is only valid if American Jews supported the Netanyahu government and its Gaza war policies 100%. This is also false.

The other fantasy Shapiro and the RJC promote is that MAGA-Trump’s policies are good for American Jews domestically, and that they reflect Jewish humanitarian values.  These are also false.

The wealthiest American Republican Jews, including members of the RJC, and the American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and its wealthy individual members, gave more money to Trump than to Elon Musk.

They also got much less than Musk received. Musk received hundreds of millions in favorable tax treatment, new business, and confidential files that he downloaded from the Social Security Administration and other federal agencies, which he can use or sell secretly. A report from Senator Elizabeth Warren listed over 100  special favors that Musk received from Trump during his first 100 days in office.

Compared to Musk, these wealthy Jewish donors may be left empty-handed when they audit what their hundreds of millions in donations to Trump and his MAGA backers gave them in return.

The results are dismal if the RJC, AIPAC, and other big donors compare their achievements to the policy goals specified on their websites and in direct mail.

There were a few successes in Trump’s first term—moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, the Abraham Accords, the destruction of Gaza—but otherwise, their hundreds of millions in contributions for Trump’s second term helped elect one of the most corrupt, erratic, anti-democratic presidents in history, who has subjected the country to his unstable sociopathic behavior.

So, what Jewish values–justice, compassion, community, and the importance of learning and tradition–and Israel-centric goals did these Republican Jewish groups bring into Trump’s chaotic administration?

Very little that was new, and certainly not many successes, considering the amount of money they donated.  If anything, some in the RJC should get favorable tax and estate planning benefits from Trump, but these would also apply to the wealthiest people in the US, Jews and non-Jews.

These Republican groups also divided the American Jewish community and cynically tried to convince the majority of American Jews (80% of whom are Democrats) that voting for MAGA Republicans would be in their best interest.  This proposal fell short.

Who Needs the RJC?

The story about the RJC represents a grossly misguided effort by some elitist, wealthy Jews to alienate the vast majority of their brethren who are Democrats.  Since World War I, 80% of American Jews have voted for Democrats for many valid reasons tied to shared values, compassion for the poor and immigrants, offering a social safety net, programs for the elderly and the poor, such as Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, and an emphasis on equality for all citizens.

These are not Republican values.  Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Republicans have not advanced a single social welfare program that benefits all Americans or a disadvantaged group.

The RJC’s goals are mainstream conservative values, which have nothing to do with Jewish ethics and values. As the RJC website states, it favors national security, support for Israel, small government, low taxes, free enterprise, and energy dominance. As wealthy Republicans, the RJC seeks more advantageous tax breaks (especially the carried-interest loophole) and lower taxes, which are the unstated driving forces behind the group’s official purpose.  After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the RJC invoked their dedication to Israel and fighting antisemitism as important goals.  However, Democrats already shared these goals.

The big problem is that none of the RJC’s issues are primarily “Jewish.”  If it weren’t for their large egos, its wealthy Republican contributors easily could have remained members of existing Republican groups. Since Republicans are not unquestioned supporters of Israel (remember James Baker in the Reagan and Bush administrations), these Jewish Republicans could have shifted their support to AIPAC if their primary concern was garnering more support for Israel.

But this situation didn’t seem to satisfy Republican Jews.  Instead, they felt the need “to sensitize Republican leadership in government and the Party to the concerns and issues of the Jewish community.”

This goal illustrates the cultural divide between the old-line Brahmin Yankee Republicans versus the grandchildren of former shtetl dwellers from Eastern Europe. It also grossly overstates their representation of “concerns and issues of the Jewish community” since there are so few Republican Jews, and the RJC does not represent the majority of American Jews. Despite this, the RJC was formed in 1985 without a clearly defined rationale for its existence.

Flash forward to Trump’s first and second presidential campaigns. To get Trump’s attention, the RJC and wealthy contributors showered Trump with money.  The combination of RJC and individual wealthy Republican Jews to both of Trump’s presidential campaigns (2025 and 2017) totaled about $500 million, according to public campaign files.  This included millions from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, the RJC, AIPAC, and wealthy Jewish donors.

So, what did the Republican Jews get for their hundreds of millions in contributions?

Almost nothing.  Here are the specifics:

If They Wanted to Reduce Antisemitism, the RJC and Wealthy Donors Failed

Antisemitism has been around for at least 3,000 years, and the long-standing fundraising campaigns to “fight” antisemitism never took this into account.

As the New York Times points out,  “the United States is experiencing its worst surge of anti-Jewish hate in many decades. Antisemitic hate crimes more than doubled between 2021 and 2023, according to the F.B.I., and appear to have risen further in 2024. On a per capita basis, Jews face far greater risks of being victims of hate crimes than members of any other demographic groups.”

The engine behind this rise in hate crimes is due to Israel’s policies in Gaza, and the West Bank. These attacks may have been funded and coordinated by some Arab nations. Still, this increase would probably not have occurred if the Middle East wars had not inflamed these underlying animosities.

There will be a spike in anti-Semitism if the U.S. attacks Iran.  Many of the MAGA America First isolationists will see that as Israeli manipulation of Trump.  Nothing that any Jewish group will do can curtail this reaction.

Despite the Money, the RJC Is Not Shaping U.S. Mideast Policy

The RJC and Adelson thought their money would influence American foreign policy in the Middle East. This failed. Despite Miriam Adelson’s $100 million donation, which she believed would make her part of the State Department, she is watching events unfold as millions of average Americans in the Middle East do.

If the U.S. attacks Iran or sends troops, it will create havoc among MAGA supporters, many of whom are isolationists.  Consider Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said, “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA.”  Then there are also Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and others who chafe at the idea that Israel and “the Jewish lobby” are pressuring Trump to engage the Iranians militarily.

It’s doubtful and foolish to show a direct link between the foreign policy goals of the RJC and AIPAC, and their significant contributions, and a direct link to U.S. involvement in the Israeli war strategy. This situation also shows the significant differences between AIPAC and the RJC.

AIPAC contributes more money to individual Congressmen, while the RJC/Adelson is a huge contributor to Trump.  Since Trump is bypassing Congress in making any decision to attack Iran, the impact of individual Congress members is minimal. Instead, it appears Trump is deciding what to do himself, which is dangerous because he is unstable and surrounded by a few less-than-capable national security and defense advisors.

The RJC Money Did Not Change Trump’s Allegiances to Christian Nationalists

As The New York Times, said “The political right, including President Trump, deserves substantial blame. Yes, he has led a government crackdown against antisemitism on college campuses, and that crackdown has caused colleges to become more serious about addressing the problem. But Mr. Trump has also used the subject as a pretext for his broader campaign against the independence of higher education. The combination risks turning antisemitism into yet another partisan issue, encouraging opponents to dismiss it as one of his invented realities.

“Even worse, Mr. Trump had made it normal to hate, by using bigoted language about a range of groups, including immigrants, women, and trans Americans.”

Trump’s roots in right-wing, Christian nationalism are deeper than his ties to the American Jewish community, despite Trump’s theatrics and the wishful thinking of AIPAC, Jexit, and other fawning Jewish groups.

Consider the dinner Trump had with Nazi-sympathizing rapper Kanye West (known as Ye) and Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier who has praised Hitler. Plus, Trump supporters Kevin McCarthy, Paul Gosar, Marjory Taylor Greene, Elise Stefanik, and Matt Gaetz all endorsed white nationalists.

If the RJC and Other Big Donors Wanted Closer Ties Between Israel and the U.S., Their Money Had Little Impact

Trump and Netanyahu have had public political spats, and Israel has gone its own way in the wars in Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, and Iran.  Israel has been allowed to wage these expansive wars as an extension of the long-standing agreement that Israel can defend itself.  This policy is unrelated to the billions in donations to Trump. Instead, they can be attributed to the decades of work of AIPAC, before it became a MAGA shill.

The RJC and AIPAC Raise the Toxic Dual Loyalty Issue

In a country divided by political animosity, driven by the most corrupt presidential administration in U.S. history, AIPAC, the RJC, JEXIT, wealthy Jews, and other conservative pro-Israel groups, have confused the national discussion over whether the Trump administration must support Israel and its current war aims, and also fight domestic Antisemitism.

This is the devil’s choice. The majority of American Jews disdain Netanyahu and Trump.  Polls in Israel find that 73% of Israelis want Netanyahu to resign. In the U.S., about 80% of American Jews are Democrats and oppose Trump’s policies.

Trump Fooled the Jews, Again

So, did Trump fool the wealthy Republican Jews?

It looks like he did, again.

Trump fed the big egos of wealthy people who, in turn, fed the enormous ego of a convicted felon and lifelong sociopath.

Call it one of the biggest political double-crosses in modern history, or just another lousy incident of political intrigue. Still, it looks like the RJC, and its billionaire Jewish donors, made a terrible bet. They wasted millions to put a felon and sociopath in office.  And what Trump does to give Israel what it wants (attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities) could never have been predicted.

Whatever Israel does in Iran, with or without the help of the U.S., it’s doubtful that any of the hundreds of millions from Republican Jewish donors will be cited as a contributing factor. These global events are outside the influence of a few influential U.S. billionaires.

Historians will agree that Trump will go down as the most corrupt president in U.S. history, who used wealthy, educated, otherwise civic-minded citizens as his accomplices. This proves that you cannot out-sociopath a lifelong sociopath. Plus, it shows that you don’t have to be brilliant to be rich.

Trump’s use of the term “unified Reich” is an apparent reference to Nazi Germany.

The other evident and disturbing problem is that Trump received millions from Jewish donors since he first ran and was elected president in 2017.

The support by Jews of Trump after he openly socialized with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and Christian nationals is well known now and was well known when Jewish groups and individuals gave millions to Trump. 

Among these groups were the Republican Jewish Coalition, AIPAC, Sheldon Adelson, billionaire hedge fund, private equity, and real estate developers.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) gave about $100 million to Trump and other Republicans.   RJC and its wealthiest members ignored the apparent connections between Trump and neo-Nazis and his Republican Party from 2016 to 2020.  At the time the RJC and others were donating money to Trump, there was an increase in the number of violent anti-Semitic attacks nationwide, according to FBI and ADL statistics.

The RJC was largely shaped and driven by billionaire casino owner and egomaniac Sheldon Adelson, who died on January 12, 2021, days after Trump’s defeat. Adelson was the largest donor, at $25 million, to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and to Republicans in the 2012 election, at nearly $93 million.

Since Adelson died, the Republicans have continued to court Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late Sheldon Adelson, who once called himself “the world’s richest Jew,” Republicans have also solicited money from Blackstone Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman and Elliott Management’s Paul Singer, all of whom are Jewish, according to an article on MSN.  Trump’s goal is to get millions in donations from each.

Miriam Adelson is at the top of Trump’s charm campaign because her late husband gave more to Trump and other Republicans than anyone else.  Adelson’s vast donations to Trump are one of the most ego-driven acts in modern political history.

Adelson’s Support of the Right-Wing in the U.S. and Israel

Adelson’s contributions, accompanied by contributions from the right-wing Republican Jewish Coalition, often put the Jewish donors in the company of some groups who should have made them very uncomfortable, such as the Oath Keepers, QAnon, Proud Boys, KKK sympathizers, and neo-Nazis.  But this didn’t bother Adelson and the RJC. 

The Adelsons went out of their way to promote right-wing groups in the U.S.  Here are some examples:

“Billionaire Republican donors Sheldon and Miriam Adelson have pumped $500,000 into a defense fund set up to help Donald Trump’s aides cover their legal costs associated with Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.  The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust was set up last year to help campaign aides caught up in the Mueller investigation pay for costly legal bills.  The Adelsons each contributed $250,000 to the fund on October 1, Politico reports, and were the only people who gave money from October to the end of 2018.  The new disclosure, filed Thursday, shows the fund paid more than half a million dollars to law firms between October and December.” Source: The Daily Beast

“According to Open Secrets, a nonprofit website that tracks campaign contributions, he and Miriam, his second wife, gave $83 million to Republicans in the 2016 election cycle.” Source: Washington Post.

Jewish Institutions Should Send Security Firm Bills To Miriam Adelson

The news that Trump’s website referred to a new Reich if he is elected president is no surprise.

Given the rise in violent antisemitic attacks on Jewish institutions in the last few years, synagogues and other Jewish institutions that hired security to protect their property should send those security bills to Miriam Adelson.

She is partly accountable for the rise in anti-Semitic attacks in the U.S.  She should be held responsible for this rise in violent attacks.  If she has a problem with that, she should consider the actions of her late husband.

To send a security bill to Miriam Adelson, contact:

Dr Miriam & Sheldon G Adelson Charitable Trust

410 S Rampart Blvd.

Suite 440

Las Vegas, NV 89145-5749

questions@adelsonfoundation.org

Telephone: 702-791-9410

Biden Makes the Republican Jewish Coalition and Jexit Obsolete

Or, Beware of False Political Messiahs in 2023

When organizations lose one of their main reasons to exist, they face the reality that they are no longer needed.

That’s the case with the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) and Jexit, which describe their missions as trying to convince American Jews, who have overwhelmingly been Democrats since WWI, to become Republicans.

Their messages tell American Jews that the Republican Party is better suited and dedicated to demonstrating their values, while also being a staunch supporter of Israel.  Both claims are baseless, especially after the historic public support and military aid provided by President Joe Biden to Israel following the Hamas attack on Israel that started on Oct. 7, 2023.

Jews Have Been Predominantly Democrats for Almost 80 Years

First, the Republicans have never been the party supported by most American Jews. Surveys on World War I show that American Jews were overwhelmingly Democratic.  This goes back to the first significant emigrations of the 20^th century when new emigres were more fully integrated into urban centers with Democratic political structures, as opposed to Republic policies that wanted restricted immigration.

Republicans Would Not Be Better For Israel

The central and unfounded theme of the RJC and Jexit is that Republicans would be better for Israel than the Democrats.

Even before the Hamas attack in Israel, Republican policies towards Israel have had two highlights—the Abraham Accords, and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.  In both cases, these moves were done after the Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson exercised the muscle of his $200 million contribution to the Trump presidential campaign. Without this money, there is little evidence Trump cared about these issues. However, his astute son-in-law, Jared Kushner, smelled the money and most likely told Trump to entertain Adelson’s requests for an easy donation.

There is really no reason why the RJC and Jexit exist except to distract and divide the American Jewish community over a baseless claim that Republicans would be better for Israel.

Both groups may also be confusing the support of Christians and Evangelicals, who both have deep pockets, for their support of Israel.  But the powerful Republican base of Evangelicals likes Israel because of the New Testament prophesy that Israel must be in the hands of the Jews in order for the Second Coming to happen.  Another event needed for the Second Coming to happen is the presence of red heifers in Israel, and thanks to a Texas cattleman, those cattle are already there.

But another part of the story, and one which should be of the most concern to Jews, is that when the Rapture arrives, Christians will be elevated to heaven, and the Jews, the non-believers, will die.

Jews should take note of this: “The Rapture is an eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all dead Christian believers will be resurrected and, joined with Christians who are still alive, together will rise “in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” Note that it says “dead Christian believers.”

The prophecy also says: “The Saviour’s coming will be literal, personal, visible, and worldwide. When He returns, the righteous dead will be resurrected, and together with the righteous living will be glorified and taken to heaven, but the unrighteous will die.” This discussion can lead to a theological quagmire, but for many Evangelicals, there is a distinction between Jews and Israel and Israel without Jews.

More Lies About Trump from Jexit

For mainly self-promotion, Jexit offers the unfounded claim that “there has been no greater friend to American Jews and the State of Israel than fmr.  President Donald J. Trump,” a Jexit member said.  Then, Michelle Terris, the co-founder of the Jexit, creator of “The Trump Towel,” and co-chair of the Jews for Trump Coalition in the 2016 election, said that U.S. support for Israel was eroding.

She then said that Jexit is “deeply concerned that many Liberal Jews in America do not recognize the fmr.  President’s history of accomplishments in supporting” the Jews in the U.S. and Israel.

This is an odd statement, considering that Trump has also entertained white supremacists.  In the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville that resulted in one protester’s death, Trump  said there were “good people on both sides.” Republican candidates at the local, state, and national levels, who take their messages from Trump, also attack Jewish philanthropist George Soros as a code word for Jews, Republicans, and Democrats.

Jexit also makes the absurd claim that “the Democrat party has abandoned them and Israel.  JEXIT believes that much of the core of today’s Democrat party is anti-Israel, antisemitic and anti-American.”

Their website also says, “The Democrat Party has turned its back on Israel.” All of these main reasons for Jexit’s existence are unfounded.  The group also says it intends to promote “Judeo-Christian values” to the Jewish people.

Aside from that tit-for-tat political rhetoric, Republican policies proceeded along the traditional bi-partisan support in Congress that Israel has enjoyed for decades.

What is different under Trump was that Republicans, including many conservative Jews in the RJC and Jexit, focused their wrath on about a half dozen progressive Democrats, including two of Arab descent, who made comments favoring the Palestinians.  Republicans pounced on these comments and extrapolated them into an anti-Israel policy shared among Democrats that did not exist. These same Republicans also disliked Barak Obama for his stance on Israel and his open dislike for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a belief that has been shared by Biden and thousands of Israeli citizens.

True to form, Trump exploited this.  In 2019, he said Jews who voted for Democrats were “disloyal to Israel, according to a report in the New York Times.

Trump, the leader of the Republican Party, has a long history of making anti-Semitic statements.  Before being elected, Trump did the following, according to an article in Vanity Fair:

• In a speech before a Jewish group, Trump inferred that Jews buy off politicians;
• He has tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton’s face atop a pile of cash after the Star of David and the phrase, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”
• Trump released an ad featuring the faces of influential Jewish people with a voiceover about them being part of a “global power structure” that has “robbed our working class” and “stripped our country of its wealth.”
• After Trump was elected, he refused to condemn neo-Nazis. In August, he accused American Jews of being “disloyal” to Israel by voting for Democrats.
• At the Israeli-American Council in Hollywood, Florida, Trump used many of his anti-Semitic messages by citing the old cliché about “dual loyalty.” Trump said there are Jews who “don’t love Israel enough”  and repeated the stereotype about Jews and money, telling the group: “A lot of you are in the real estate business because I know you very well.  You’re brutal killers, not nice people at all,” he said.
• In the first presidential debate in 2020, Trump told the Proud Boys, a white supremacist hate group involved in the Charlottesville, Virginia riot in 2017, “to stand back and stand by! But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.” This was the first time a presidential candidate endorsed an extremist and violent right-wing group.  (See video.)
• 2018, on a European visit, Trump privately told his chief of staff, John Kelly, “Hitler did many good things.”
• In October 2022, Kanye West, using the name Ye, wrote on Twitter: “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE[…] You guys have toyed with me.” Ye added that “the Jewish media blocked me out” and “Jewish people have owned the Black voice.” On Nov. 22, Trump invited West to dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.  West brought Nick Fuentes, founder of “America First,” a white supremacist group.  On Oct. 30, 2019, Fuentes made a “joke” about the Holocaust, casting doubt on its occurrence while comparing Jews incinerated in death camps to “six million cookies” burned in an oven.  Then, on May 24, 2021, Fuentes stated: “I don’t see Jews as Europeans, and I don’t see them as part of Western civilization.”
• In October 2022, days after the Hezbollah attack on Israel, Trump said Hezbollah “is very smart.”
• Tim Scott, a Texas Republican running for president, said that after the attack on Israel, Biden had blood on his hands” and that the attack was an excellent opportunity for Republicans to gain support from Jews and others who support Israel.

Republicans Are Not Better for Jews or Average Americans

All of these blatant lies by Jexit and other Republican groups pushing that Republicans are better for the Jews should be condemned for lying to the Jewish community.

Republicans have been the party of anti-Semites going back to World War II when top Republicans pushed the America First message and worked against raising quotas for European Jews fleeing Hitler.

It’s no wonder that a 2021 survey by the American Jewish Committee, a nonpartisan group that conducts public opinion research about the Jewish community, found that 68% of Jewish voters reported casting their ballots for Biden in the 2020 election.

The RJC and Jexit are opportunist groups who either want to preserve tax breaks for their wealthiest members or are ex-Trump promoters, such as those in Jexit, looking for ways to make extra cash. The RJC and its large contributions may also have played a role in supporting the insurrection. 

Aside from policies that preserve their tax breaks, it’s impossible to imagine why they would endorse the current field of Republican candidates who are mostly election deniers or who said they would support Trump, a man who attempted the nation’s first coup, was impeached twice, is a convicted rapist, adulterer, tax cheat, liar, deadbeat, and who faces about 90 indictments in numerous state and federal lawsuits.

If Jexit and the RJC think Trump reflects Jewish values, they must review 2,000 years of Jewish history.  Men like Trump are not even close to being mentioned as a person who embodies the Mosaic tradition.

However, Jews have been presented with false religious Messiahs before, but never political ones.  In Jewish history, numerous false Messiahs have emerged and faded. However, Laura Arnold Lehman, professor of English and Humanities at Reed College, writes that religious messianic figures “tend to appear at moments of despair and upheaval.”  Right-wing Republican Jewish political groups, like Jexit and the RJC, may be active now because of the despair and upheaval in the Republican Party.  Maybe, this is the best way to explain why these purposeless groups exist today.

The current Congressional investigations show that the Trump administration and its right-wing supporters attempted to overthrow the U.S. government. But, this would not have been possible without substantial financial support, and the most significant financial supporter of Trump was the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC).

The RJC has its own motives for backing Trump, his ideas, and his favored candidates. But the bigger question is why they made millions in contributions to Trump even when it was known that Trump was working with white Christian nationalists.

The RJC continued to fund Trump even after it became evident that anti-Semitic events were increasing and that right-wing groups had direct links to Trump and the Republican Party.

This was evident to the late Sheldon Adelson (who died in January 2021), Bernie Marcus, Jeffrey Yass, Paul Singer, Steven Schwarzman, and others in the RJC. (The Adelsons are Trump’s most prominent individual contributors, with $75 million in donations.) They are all donors and funders, to whatever degree, to Trump’s white supremacist followers and their beliefs about anti-Semitism. 

The RJC made hundreds of millions in contributions to Trump and his white supremacist supporters. At the same time, they ignored a warning from the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which said in 2019 that “the biggest threat to the security of American Jews today is, incredibly, the president of the United States.” In 2019, Trump was the president of the U.S. and the darling of the RJC.

The Link Between Trump, Republicans, and White Supremacists

Connecting the dots between the enormous contributions to Trump and the Republican Party and their support of white supremacist groups may seem unfounded and irresponsible to many Jewish conservatives, including those in the ADL. But some facts support this assertion.

In August 2019, a Republican state senator from Nebraska accused the GOP of helping to enable white supremacy, according to The Hill.

“The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy in our country,” Nebraska state Sen. John McCollister (R) tweeted.

“As a lifelong Republican, it pains me to say this, but it’s the truth,” McCollister continued. “I, of course, am not suggesting that all Republicans are white supremacists, nor am I saying that the average Republican is even racist. What I am saying, though, is that the Republican Party is COMPLICIT to obvious racist and immoral activity inside our party.”

Jewish groups have also singled out the RJC for its political hypocrisy. Abe Foxman, the former head of the Anti-Defamation League, said that Trump “has given succor to bigots, supremacists, and those seeking to divide our society.” Foxman also said, “(w)hen our democracy is weakened, and when nativism is stoked, the rights of Jews and other minorities will be diminished too.” But these warnings were not acknowledged by the RJC then or now.

Instead, the RJC continues to support Republican candidates who are anti-abortion, anti-public school, anti-immigrant, anti-liberal, and Trump supporters.

Given their wealth and political access, the billionaires who sit on the RJC’s board may be the financial engine behind the nation’s most dangerous political grouPs.

How the RJC Works

The RJC has links to the Republican Jewish Coalition Victory Fund, a super PAC. According to Ballotpedia, “A super PAC is a political committee that can solicit and spend unlimited money. A super PAC cannot contribute directly to a politician or political party, but it can spend independently to campaign for or against political figures.”

The RJC’s most significant individual contributor was the late Sheldon Adelson. In 2020, Sheldon and Miriam Adelson set a new record for donations from individuals in a single election cycle, giving $172.7 million, according to Open Secrets. In 2020 the Adelson’s gave  $170 million in outside spending this year. As they have for 30 years, all their donations went to Republicans and conservative groups, Open Secrets said.

The Adelsons have been behind significant contributions to right-wing Republican groups for decades. Over the past decade, the Adelson’s “gave more than anyone else” in 2018 and 2012 to Republican candidates, most of them conservative. The Adelson’s “was just short of the No. 1 spot in 2016.”

In the past decade, the Adelsons gave $480 million to conservative Republicans. Adelson and the RJC continued to provide donations to Trump and his right-wing followers even after it became evident that Trump was working with white supremacists.

Why Is There an RJC, Anyway?

The ego is a massive part of every billionaire’s life, and the top members of the RJC are no exception. Indeed, these people have every right to advocate for conservative and even right-wing Republican candidates. But it’s not clear what that political conservatism has to do with being Jewish.

Maybe it’s the link between Jewish values, Israel, and antisemitism. But, as events have shown, antisemitism was on the rise even as the RJC was making record-breaking donations to the Republican Party, which has demonstrated links to white nationalists. The RJC may also think they are promoting Jewish values, which have a 2,000-year-old legal and cultural basis that varies widely from nation to nation. But, those values have been mainly liberal, as evidenced by the fact that about 80% of Jewish voters have voted for Democrats since Woodrow Wilson.

Then there is the issue of Israel. But, since 1948, Israel has significantly benefitted from bipartisan Congressional political support, and the RJC’s partisanship only detracts from that history. But to make their right-wing positions more palatable to Jews, the RJC has painted Trump as an exceptional supporter of Israel and fighting antisemitism, none of which is true.

A better explanation for the RJC’s political support of Republicans is financial. The RJC’s leaders are professionals in industries that benefit greatly from tax loopholes and preferential tax schemes. This includes the carried interest tax loophole that benefits predatory capitalism practiced by some private equity, hedge fund, and real estate developers, which are the professions of many RJC leaders. Safeguarding this preferential financial edge and estate planning breaks makes more sense than the RJC’s claim of promoting Jewish values or the security of Israel.

Don’t Forget to Investigate Steven Miller

Steven Miller was the White House aide in the Trump administration and was responsible for immigration policies. But Miller is also familiar with white supremacists despite being Jewish. Miller was friends with the white supremacist Richard Spencer in college. Spencer has praised Miller as “highly competent” for the job. 

“The fact that [Miller] was one of the architects of the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, and the policies of reducing refugee admissions, halving legal immigration, and separating children from their parents at the border” all point to a white supremacist political bent according to an article in The Intercept.

Time to Investigate the RJC and its Donations to Right-Wing Groups

As one of Trump’s largest financial donors, Congress should investigate the RJC’s role in bankrolling Trump and his supporters. The RJC should also assure donors that its money did not go into the coffers of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, or Trump’s corrupt lawyers.

Until the RJC can provide evidence that it did not finance Trump’s insurrection, donors should realize that the RJC’s goals to protect the tax loopholes and other financial safeguards they now receive have nothing to do with the goals of average Americans.