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Progressive Jewish activists protesting against Donald Trump say they have seen a surge of support in the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
As thousands of people protested against Donald Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh on Tuesday, activist Rafael Shimunov told Sky News that many more were contacting Jewish organisations to join in political campaigns against the far right.
“I’ve never seen this amount of response,” he said, explaining that people were joining efforts to canvas with door knocking, phoning voters and attending protests in the run-up to the midterm elections.
Mr Shimunov, who works with left-wing organisations including The Jewish Vote and If Not Now, which campaigns against support for the Israeli occupation, said even staunch Trump supporters had questioned their views in the wake of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue.
“I’ve had relatives who disowned me during the Trump election calling me now, saying ‘What can we do?'” he said.
Mr Shimunov has long feared that Donald Trump’s presidency might bring a wave of antisemitic hate and violence, as well as putting other minorities in danger.
Following the Pittsburgh shooting, If Not Now was one of several groups to explicitly say that the blame for a rise in US antisemitism, and the shooting that sprung from it, lay at Mr Trump’s door.
“The blood spilled yesterday is on Trump’s hands,” the group wrote in a statement.
“11 American Jews were killed because their synagogue embodied the Jewish values of supporting refugees and immigrants.”
They are also among a number of groups taking action to make those views heard.
Earlier this week in Pittsburgh, the local branch of progressive group Bend The Arc wrote an open letter to Donald Trump saying he would not be welcome in the city unless he denounced white nationalism.
In New York, a coalition organising under the hashtag #WeAreHere held a sit-in at the Metropolitan Republican Club – an institution that, earlier this month, held a speaking event by Gavin McInnes, the founder of far-right group Proud Boys.
They too demanded that the club condemn white nationalism, drawing a connection between hosting a far-right group and legitimising the kind of antisemitism of Pittsburgh gunman Robert Bowers who, after killing 11 people, told police that “all Jews need to die”.
Police responded to the protest at the metropolitan club, and 14 of the activists were arrested.
In a statement, the Metropolitan Republican Club said the suggestion the Republican Party was implicated in the shooting was “ludicrous”.
It said the protest by progressive Jewish groups was “intentionally divisive”, adding that the club itself had a long Jewish heritage with many Jewish members, and that it had recently hosted a pro-Israel rally.
While groups like #WeAreHere have denounced the US president, other parts of the Jewish community have also rejected the suggestion that the party in power should be implicated in any way.
Following the atrocity, the Republican Jewish Convention released a statement mourning the dead, but also urging against blame.
“In the days ahead, we all must come together to combat this epidemic of hate. From the left, the right, and all other corners of our political spectrum, we must come together to find a better path forward,” it said.
Those campaigning against the far right, however, have pledged to continue to take the fight to Donald Trump and do not have any intention to slow down.
On Thursday, If Not Now will host a “national call” to “plug into the rising movement to defeat authoritarianism in this country and beyond”.
Activists working on the ground say that while the last week has seen some of the worst fears of the American Jewish community realised, it has also been a time of hope and unity.
“The warnings we have been sharing have been coming true even faster than we imagined,” Mr Shimunov said.
“The fight is the same wherever you go. And for me, the fight is against white nationalism.”
Source: [Spirit Fm]
