The Sad State of American Jewry

Not to be outdone, PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was among the first to call Erdogan to offer congratulations.

Will Turkey go down the same rabbit hole as Iran? . . .

As regular readers of israelstreet know, the Turkish economy is floundering as the value of its currency plummets.

But not floundering as much as that of Iran where the Iranian rial plummeted to an all-time low rate of $1 = 87,000 rials yesterday on the black market. Just three days ago, the rate was $1 = 75,500 rials.

TODAY’S BLOG

The Sad State of American Jewry

“You know who really likes [the move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem] the most is the Evangelicals. I’ll tell you what, I get more calls of ‘thank you’ from Evangelicals, and I see it in the audiences and everything else, than I do from Jewish people. And the Jewish people appreciate it, but the Evangelicals appreciate it more than the Jews, which is incredible.”

President Trump, speaking to host Mike Huckabee on the Christian Broadcast Network yesterday

President Trump’s remark yesterday echoes what your humble servant has seen in his own area of northern California for the last ten years. As American Jewry has become ever more dominated by leftist rabbis and leaders of the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements, support for Israel has steadily decreased.

To the point that the largest pro-Israel advocacy group in the United States (and the world) is Christians United for Israel (CUFI) with more than 4 million members.

It was CUFI, not American Jews, that most encouraged President Trump to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

And CUFI, like Israel, is increasingly reviled by American Jews. Ostensibly, the reason for attacking CUFI these days is the eschatology articulated by its founder, John Hagee. However, in reality, the problem that American Reform and Conservative Jews have with CUFI is its support of Israel. 

Every year, the committee that I head when I am in the U.S. puts on about 15 programs. One of these each year features CUFI. For example, two months ago we hosted Irving Roth, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor who is famed for his inspiring message of the need to fight anti-Semitism. It was an especially important program because of the presence in our community of an Muslim imam who has openly called for Allah to kill Jews.

So whom do you think came to this most-heavily attended program of the year? Primarily Christians–who are members of CUFI.

And whom do you think most heavily criticized the program? The Reform Jews who attend our local Reform synagogue–a synagogue whose rabbi has led the effort to forgive the imam for his murderous anti-Semitism. 

The contrast was striking.

I was thinking about this when I read Mike Huckabee’s response to President Trump’s remark above:  

“It’s not a surprise though, Mr. President, because [Christian] Evangelicals are people of the book. And they believe you kept a promise by fulfilling  a 3,000-year-old commitment to recognize Jerusalem as the capital.”

Hasn’t American Jewry reached a sad state when Christians have now become the “people of the book”?

All your humble servant can say in conclusion is thank goodness we have evangelical Christians supporting Israel because American Jewish support for Israel, like American Jewry itself, is quickly fading away.