“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible, and are painful, and a very sad reminder of the work
that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” he told reporters at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Around the time Jewish community centers were being threatened, when parents were receiving terrifying come-get-your-kid phone calls, when water aerobic
class participants were sent outside to huddle in the cold, our president was twisting himself into rhetorical pretzels to avoid a simple condemnation.
He was shouting down reporters, reframing the issue, celebrating himself as “the least anti-Semitic person you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” offering variations on the theme of “some of my best friends are Jewish,”
and reminding us all of his Electoral College victory.
They said that American Jews did not deserve his reassurance,
that the threats against places where we lift weights and send our kids to finger-paint weren’t important enough to require his swift condemnation, like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s poor ratings, or that time the cast of “Hamilton” addressed Mike Pence during a curtain call
If synagogue is where Jews feel the most Jewish — praying in a foreign language, celebrating holidays
that aren’t always on the office calendar — the J. C.C.