NEW YORK, Nov 24 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Hanukkah came a month early for Donald Trump this year.
Though he polls as generally unpopular with Jews and has even been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in office, New York’s Orthodox enclaves are kvelling over the president — and even raised $4 million for him, at a Midtown banquet last week.
“[He’s] the first Hasidic president,” gushed Yossi Garelik, an Orthodox rabbi in Crown Heights, who voted against Trump in 2016.
Literally right before he went into office when Obama abstained at the U.N. in Dec, 2016, jeopardising Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Trump said, “Jan 20, everything will change.”
He is not alone. In 2018, 91% of Orthodox Jews rated President Trump’s job performance as “satisfactory” or “very satisfactory” — with 82% saying they would support him again in 2020, Ami Magazine, a Jewish weekly, reported.
This is in opposition to less-religious Jews, 71% of whom voted for Hillary Clinton, according to the Pew Research Centre.
And the Orthodox are not just opening their hearts to the Republican president, they’re opening their wallets.
Trump attended a $25,000-per-couple luncheon last week, at a Midtown hotel, where 400 moneyed Orthodox machers raised at least $4 million for the America First SuperPAC.
One guest, Brooklyn real estate mogul, Rubin Schron, is a longtime Dem donor — and benefactor to Joe Biden’s failed presidential campaign in 1987.
“Many of the people who attended were Chuck Schumer donors,” Kelly Sadler, an America First spokeswoman told The Post, noting the political converts at the event. “We screened all of the people in attendance, and we were surprised to see how many have given before to Democrats, but never a Republican.
“People were standing up on their chairs chanting … eight more years,” she added.
“Over the years I haven’t seen any galvanised, concentrated effort for a political candidate like this,” Rabbi YY Jacobson, who introduced the president at the lunch told The Post. “They are very moved by the leadership he’s shown in security and defence against terror and the support of Israel.”
Orthodox leaders say they’ve embraced Trump because of his pro-Israel policies, including voiding the Iran nuclear deal. Some pointed to Trump’s commuting of Hasidic meatpacking boss Sholom Rubashkin‘s 27-year-sentence for bank fraud and money laundering in 2017.– NNN-AGENCIES
