By David Swindle

(September 25, 2024 / JNS) Most Jewish organizations are opting to remain silent publicly after former President Donald Trump stated that Jews would be to blame if he lost the upcoming election and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), the Republican vice-presidential nominee, appeared alongside podcaster Tucker Carlson, who has hosted antisemites on his program.

Speaking last week at the Israeli-American Council annual summit in Washington, D.C., Trump said that if he loses the presidential election in November, “the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that.”

Vance sat for an interview with Carlson at a campaign event in Hershey, Pa., on Saturday. It was the podcaster’s 11th interview on the vice-presidential candidate’s tour, per the Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.

Carlson, formerly a host on Fox News, has drawn criticism recently, including from Jewish House Democrats and Yad Vashem, for giving a platform to a Holocaust denier.

JNS sought comment from major U.S. Jewish organizations about both Trump’s comment and Vance’s interview with Carlson. Most did not respond. Some declined to comment.

Daniel Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that Carlson “has given unmistakable approbation to Holocaust denial and those who traffic in it.”

“The right thing would have been to have turned down the interview,” he said of Vance.

“While we appreciate former President Trump’s comments on the threats posed by Iran and terrorism to Israel, preemptively blaming Jews in the event of a potential election loss undermines any message he might have on combating hate,” B’nai B’rith wrote on social media.

Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that “Trump was speaking to a Jewish audience basically pleading for deserving Jewish support.”

“Trump is simply stating a fact that in this very close election, Jews surprisingly continuing to not vote for him—despite his extraordinary support for Israel and having strengthened Title VI to more effectively fight campus antisemitism—could make the difference between winning and losing,” he said. “He’s obviously not antisemitic. His daughter, grandchildren, and son-in-law are Orthodox Jews.”

Klein added that “no decent person should appear with Tucker Carlson and give him credibility unless they’re going to debate him.”

“Carlson clearly is hostile to Jews and the Jewish state,” he added. “He never even mentioned Israel when he had his Fox television show.”

‘A pattern here’

Mark Mellman, the president and CEO of Democratic Majority for Israel, told JNS that “Tucker Carlson was morally wrong to provide a platform on his show to Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper, on whom Carlson lavished praise.”

“Vance is equally wrong in refusing to condemn Carlson for promoting Holocaust denial,” he added. “There is a pattern here. Trump and Vance promote and protect antisemites.”

“Trump cast his own antisemitic aspersions in a speech purportedly about antisemitism, and now they’re circling their wagons around Tucker Carlson as he encourages Holocaust denial,” the pro-Israel pollster told JNS.

He added that both Trump and Vance “gave speaking roles at the Republican National Convention to a series of well-known antisemites and Holocaust deniers, including North Carolina GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, whom they apparently want to keep in the race.” (The Republican Governors Association reportedly has no future plans to buy ads for Robinson.)

“Tucker Carlson interviewed a known Holocaust denier and declared him ‘the most important popular historian working in the United States today,’” Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) told JNS.

“No one, much less a VP candidate, should sit down with those who promote these antisemitic tropes,” the Jewish and pro-Israel congressman told JNS. “It’s disgusting.”

“Instead, JD Vance should be calling for Tucker Carlson to denounce those seeking to rewrite history,” Gottheimer said.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League, wrote on social media that he appreciates that Trump calls out and appreciates the “historical surge” of Jew-hatred.

“But the effect is undermined by then employing numerous antisemitic tropes and anti-Jewish stereotypes, including rampant accusations of dual loyalty,” Greenblatt wrote, adding that casting blame preemptively for potentially losing the election “does zero to help American Jews.”

The American Jewish Committee also denounced Trump’s comment in a public statement. It did not express appreciation in its statement for Trump’s prior statements about antisemitism, as some other Jewish groups did.

‘Great reluctance’

Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University and director of its Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, told JNS he senses “there is great reluctance in Jewish circles to appear too partisan.”

“It was just a day ago that the organizations spoke out strongly against Mr. Trump’s comments concerning the Jewish community and how it would be to blame if he loses the election,” he said. “Tucker Carlson was already roundly criticized for his Holocaust comments.”

“My guess is that Jewish organizations will hold off commenting on Mr. Vance until his debate with Mr. Walz, in which one suspects that his ideology and friends will come up for discussion,” Sarna said.

Steven Windmueller, professor emeritus of Jewish communal studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, told JNS that the Jewish community ought to be worried about both Trump’s comments and Vance’s interview.

“In an environment where racial and religious hatred and misrepresentations have seemingly accelerated, there ought to be a growing degree of concern on the part of the Jewish community,” he said.

Windmueller noted that “many Jews are feeling politically homeless.”

“We are experiencing a growing awareness of the presence of hate-based political behaviors, where antisemitism is allowed to flourish,” he said.

This article was originally published in JNS and can be viewed here.