I voted for Bernie twice. I volunteered for Jamaal Bowman’s campaign in 2020. I’ve been a registered Democrat since I turned 18 years old. And this November, I’m going to be voting for President Trump. As one of six students currently suing Harvard for the radical antisemitism that has enveloped college campuses since October 7th, I can no longer stand silent.
While I was heartened to see families of the hostages at both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention, what has happened on the sidelines of the DNC, if not on the main stage, leads me to believe that the rot runs too deep. When Orthodox Jews are targeted simply for their being Jewish, and when Jewish people are having to meet in secret locations throughout Chicago, which Holocaust survivor and former Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman said he could not have imagined such a time in American history, then we know something has shifted.
We, as Jewish Americans, felt as though we were an integral part of the change that President Obama so loftily described. We were outraged when George Floyd was killed. We marched with Black Lives Matter. We thought we were a part of the social justice movement that would protect our own rights as much as we wanted to protect the rights of others. It turns out that we were wrong. After October 7th, we were expecting the communities we had stood with to stand with us. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
We saw chaos on our college campuses. The violence has spread. With seeming regularity, fellow Jews are being attacked in broad daylight. This goes beyond people tearing down posters of the hostages, and the blood libel tropes of the leftists that have taken over fringes of the Democrat Party. Instead of making actual changes, or addressing what’s been happening on our campuses and city streets, local and state officials have done nothing, coming up with convenient excuses as to why they can’t act. They, like President Biden and now Vice President Harris, seem focused on one thing: Not losing Michigan. As I wrote earlier, Joe Biden and his administration enabled the Iranian-backed proxies that led to this situation, and keep harping on a false narrative about Charlottesville in order to justify their actions. I fear that Kamala Harris, should she end up in the Oval Office, will only make matters worse, and no amount of the Second Gentleman talking about brisket will assuage my fears, especially when people are still in the streets, openly celebrating the murder of Jewish men, women, and children.
The more I learned about President Trump and his accomplishments for the Jewish community, the more I liked what I saw. It was thanks to his Executive Order codifying antisemitism as a Title VI violation that I was able to sue Harvard, and for our lawsuit to advance. He has consistently and clearly enunciated policies which would protect Jewish communities, whether at home or abroad. I recently got to see this up close, at a speech he gave dedicated to his plans to fight antisemitism in a second term.
I know there are many out there quietly considering the shift. While I may not agree on every issue, these times are too dangerous. I’m going to be voting for President Trump. And I encourage anyone who feels politically homeless to do the same.