Photo by Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress
President Donald Trump's outrageous and dangerous support of the Unite the Right rally that brought white supremacists and neo-Nazis together in Charlottesville, Virginia will help enrich his standing with the alt-right, while he secures his position as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. He has burdened our country with his betrayal of morality.
When chants of "Jews will not replace us" came out of the mouths of marching extremists who were carrying flaming torches and wearing swastikas and any other form of Nazi look-alike paraphernalia, shivers went down the spines of Jewish people across the country. Another group of armed neo-Nazis stood across the street from a synagogue chanting “Sieg Heil” as members of the Jewish community prayed inside during their Sabbath service. The President of the congregation, Alan Zimmerman, published a blog post recounting the fears and threats posed to those inside. The congregation had hired an armed security guard after Charlottesville police reportedly refused to provide the synagogue with a guard during the protests.
The August 12th rally tragically turned deadly when a man ran his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others. President Trump condemned the violence but refused to call out the white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups. His response was unconscionable:
“You had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
President Trump lived and built his business in the largest Jewish city in the world, New York City. The Trump-Kushner family are Jews. Ivanka went through a well publicized Orthodox conversion to Judaism before the couple married. The president’s grandchildren are Jewish.
But Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were silent as anti-Semitism and racism reared its ugly head in Charlottesville. They went away for the weekend. They hid, choosing to spend the time in a Vermont get-away. What would make them think that going away was the right thing to do when they knew what had been scheduled in Virginia? They had an opportunity to speak out strongly against what took place, but instead took the cowardly approach.
I believe that Ivanka has probably learned to compartmentalize her life for the sake of parental love during a troubled childhood and her parent’s very public divorce. Over the years, no matter what, no matter how disgusting her father's behavior or remarks have been, Ivanka has stood at his side. And she did it once again after Charlottesville.
The ignorance of a father need not be reaped upon the daughter - unless the daughter so choses.
By Sunday morning August 13th, Ivanka tweeted, “There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazis.”
On Monday, Ivanka Trump went back to work as an aide to her father. Jared Kushner went back to work as an aide to his father-in-law.
A few hundred miles away another father - and mother mourned the death of their daughter, Heather Heyer, the young woman killed by an alleged neo-Nazi protester during the Charlottesville rally. Heather died standing up for what she believed.