Let me start by saying that I realize as an American Jew I felt like I had privilege in this election. Although Trump has said his share of nasty things about Jews during the election, including this quote where he simultaneously insulted Black Americans and played to Jewish stereotypes. There have also been a fair share of anti-Semitic hatred that arose after Trump was elected like this or this or this, as well as Trump’s choosing of known anti-Semite Steve Bannon as a senior advisor. But, I still can recognize my privilege as a minority that was not the center of Trump’s hate-filled campaign. I further can recognize my privilege as being a minority where I can easily hide my identity; I know that the only thing that would identify me to strangers as a Jewish woman is my jewelry, which is easy to hide. Despite my privilege, though, I am not blind to what a Trump presidency means, because I feel like as a Jew, I’ve seen this before.
Hitler ran his campaign in an eerily similar that Trump ran his. Hitler played to an audience of distraught Germans, promising them that he was going to make Germany great again (sound familiar?). Like Trump, people thought that Hitler was not actually going to enact on all the terrible things he promised he would do and subsequently didn’t fear him (source). History repeats itself, and it is telling us right now that Trump is serious about all that he said he intends to do. While I was watching the election my friends turned to each other and said, “What do we now?” Jokingly, my friends said, “Guess its time to move to Canada!” But that was the opposite of what our response should be. So many Jewish lives were saved during the Holocaust because of what Jews call Righteous Gentiles. Righteous Gentiles were non-Jewish people that worked in any way possible to help Jewish people, whether that was hiding them or working in the resistance. Righteous Gentiles had the option, which was unavailable to most Jews, to flea Europe and come to America, but they stayed and they fought and they saved lives. As a Jew, I feel like it is time for me to return the exceptional humanity and kindness that righteous gentiles displayed to my family almost a century ago. The time has come for us not to flea, but to stay and fight and be stronger than ever.
The day after Trump was elected was the 78th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night when Jewish stores, homes, and synagogues were broken into and the windows smashed. That night marked the beginning of the Holocaust. On the 78th anniversary, I read more articles about places being graffitied with swastikas than I had ever in my life. On the 78th anniversary, I feared for the lives of so many minorities, I feared that what happened to Jews 78 years ago would happen to them this year. There is a phrase that Jews repeat after talking about the holocaust. We say, “never again.” Never again, will we let anything like what happened to us happen again. Unfortunately, the time has come where we are seeing an “again,” so now it is up to us to fight for what is right because we know what an “again” looks like.