Chancellor Eisen & Colleagues: As Trump Takes Stage at AIPAC, Jewish Americans Should Watch Closely

By Arnold M. Eisen,  Julie Schonfeld, Steven C. Wernick 

Today we will join 20,000 fellow Jews in Washington, D.C. for the annual AIPAC policy conference. And this year, as in prior election years, the leading presidential candidates — Donald Trump among them — will take the stage to address pro-Israel advocates from across the country.

So what makes this year different from all other years?

This year, we’ve seen politics turn ugly. Hateful rhetoric cascades through the airwaves, inciting violence and bigotry. The unprecedented tone of the election cycle should give us pause. The Jewish people knows all too well the horrors of individuals using hate as a political platform and deploying language, implicit and explicit, that tears society apart.

As students of Judaism, we often turn to religious texts and our people’s long historical experience for guidance. They provide four lessons that Jews and non-Jews alike ignore at our peril.

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