As the Dust Settles

It was a good question and with time the question becomes more urgent.

As I see it, the crux of the issue was whether a human being’s personality can be untangled from their actions. For those who don’t agree with Trump on a policy level, there was never much conflict about the man. But among our readership, there was a growing, authentic gratitude for policies and actions that benefitted Jewish communities, Jewish individuals, and religious rights. A president who saw Iran as the danger it is. A president who stood up for Israel — and while some of our readers have no great love for the Jewish state, all pray for the security and safety of their brothers and sisters living there.

Did we notice that this same president had been embraced by followers on the far right? I think that most of us did. Some of us worried about that. Some dismissed it. And some tried to place it within a greater context. You can’t judge a leader entirely by his followers.

Did we notice his serious moral flaws? Of course we did. But our community has never looked to politicians as our role models or moral exemplars. Thankfully, we have our own internal sources for that. A vote for a politician is not a hechsher. It’s more like a business relationship: We support politicians — even unsavory politicians — who share our concerns, defend our values, and advance policies that are important to us.