Tyranny, Democracy and the Jewish Mandate

CLOSING: Tyranny, Democracy and the Jewish Mandate

When Yale historian, Timothy Snyder, published On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century soon after Donald Trump assumed the U.S. presidency in 2017, there were some who thought that this was yet another example of the political left overreacting to the election of a Republican president. Snyder’s less than subtle parallels between the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s, and the rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA rallies, made for chilling reading.

What took place during the four years of Trump’s presidency more than vindicated Snyder’s analysis. As we face the possibility of a second Trump presidency, it is important to re-read On Tyranny and consider how we might inoculate America from a full assault on the pillars of American democracy. In the space of just one week in early July 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated the ability of federal agencies to monitor and restrain the worst abuses of American corporations (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo); it gave U.S. presidents legal immunity from prosecution for any actions that were part of the duties of the Presidential Office (Trump vs. U.S.); and the Trump campaign announced that every civil servant serving in the next Trump administration would be subject to a loyalty test to the MAGA agenda and would be fired if they did not pass that test.

These developments simply add to the wholesale assault on democracy that threatens America’s future. Trump nominees to federal courts, including three appointments to the Supreme Court, have led to the weakening of laws that limited access to and use of guns; ended the constitutional guarantee to a woman’s right to an abortion; limited the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate air and water pollution; and rolled back almost every facet of legislation, dating back to the 1960s, that protects the rights of people of color to vote in elections.

To say that American Jews have a stake in these developments — not to mention all that might take place should Trump be re-elected — is a vast understatement. This goes far beyond the alarming rise of antisemitism, racism and Islamophobia in the years since Trump won the presidency in 2016. When a head of state gives a “wink and a nod” to White Nationalists, labels refugees as rapists and killers, and suggests that armed insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capital with the intention to overturn the 2020 presidential election results were “patriots,” prejudice and hatred are mainstreamed across all levels of society.

The Russian-Jewish writer, Mikhail Iossel, has a vignette in his book, Love Like Water, Love Like Fire, that is worth pointing out. Iossel was raised in Communist Russia, immigrating to the United States in 1986. In his book, he reflects on a conversation he had with his parents when he was 8 years old. It was then that his parents helped him to understand the implications of being a Jew living in a totalitarian state that saw Jews as “enemies.”

“One could say we are the necessary evil. Yes, that’s it. Necessary evil,” said his parents. “The opposite of evil, but perceived by many, if not most, as evil.” “… Necessary evil — that means goodness, only a victimized, like, martyred one.” “… We are the ultimate, if involuntary, martyrs for the cause of good.” “… Such is the totally amazing nature of our extremely secret mission.”

Iossel’s dark humor seems apt at this moment for American Jews. America’s tradition of pluralistic democracy not only guaranteed rights for Jews as individuals, but also validated the desire of Americans to explore and express their religious, racial and national identities as groups. The flourishing of Jewish religious and cultural life in America far exceeds that which Jews have ever enjoyed in our history.

I was raised in that milieu and, from the time I made my first visit to Russia to support the efforts of Soviet Jews to either practice their faith or emigrate to the West, I never took it for granted. Many American Jews may have felt that the respect for and tolerance of Jews, was a “given” in the United States. Yet, deep in our genetic coding is the memory of living under persecution. For me, that memory is not even genetic. My father left his birthplace of Berlin in 1938, two weeks before Kristallnacht. He was 16 years old, and came to live with his aunt and uncle in Brooklyn. He would never see his mother, baby sister or other members of his family again. They perished in the Shoah.

History has trained Jews to be the “canary in the coal mine,” the first group to identify the emergence of tyrants and autocrats who would undermine the values of freedom, liberty and democracy to advance their own, personal agendas. In 2024, that needs to become the highest priority of Jews and the Jewish community. Everything else that we cherish and value depends on it.