Cleveland’s GOP Jews close to the action, but far from united on Trump
While some Jewish Northeast Ohioans think the businessman-candidate is ‘very pro-Israel,’ others say ‘this country can do better’
CLEVELAND — Ahead of the much-anticipated Republican National Convention this week, Cleveland’s Republican Jews have mixed feelings on the man soon to become the party’s official nominee for president.
While some are fully backing Donald Trump’s unconventional bid for the White House, others say his becoming the GOP standard-bearer is what Cleveland naysayers call the Midwestern city: “The mistake on the lake.”
“I just don’t like his manners,” said Howard Frum, an Orthodox Jewish auto mechanic from the city’s University Heights suburb. “The way he belittles people, he brings down the office of president, lowers the office. And I don’t like that.”
Frum, a registered Republican, says he remains undecided, but he’s extremely repelled by the real estate magnate’s bombastic approach, though not necessarily his policy positions. He approves of Trump’s highly controversial campaign pledge to temporarily ban all Muslim entry into the United States.
‘We cannot accept people from that part of the world until we fully vetted those people’
“We cannot accept people from that part of the world until we fully vetted those people. And that goes from every country. From Europe to the Middle East. We have these terrorists, and one thing they have in common is they’re Muslim. That is the only thing they have in common,” he said. “But not all Muslims are terrorists, and you have to be respectful of that. But I don’t think anybody should be allowed in our country unless they’re thoroughly vetted. And if it takes two to three years, that’s what has to happen.”
For Frum, distaste for Trump is counterbalanced by disdain for presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. “Trump I’m not that crazy about,” he said, “but I’m certainly not a fan of Hillary’s. Unless something happens at either convention, you’re going to have one of these two people as president. And I think that’s sad. I think this country can do better.”
Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located, is reliably blue. In 2012, for instance, Barack Obama won 69.3 percent of the county compared to challenger Mitt Romney’s 29.6 percent. Cleveland’s Jewish population, like much of the American Jewish population, tends to follow suit.
Nevertheless, the Rust Belt city does have a base of Republican Jewish support. With some on the fence like Frum, others are flat-out repulsed by The Donald and the prospect of his making life-or-death decisions in the Oval Office.
“It’s a sad state of affairs,” said a retired businessman who asked to remain anonymous and who identifies himself as a strongly pro-Israel traditional conservative. “Sad for our country to see what’s going on around here.”
One of his critiques of Trump included the businessman’s call for the US to remain neutral on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“He’s got to be more focused on what he would or would not do about Israel. He jumps around on what his thought process is on it,” he said. “But hopefully he won’t wind up like our current president where he’s throwing Israel under the bus on multiple occasions. I have a problem with [Trump’s neutrality]. Either you side with Israel or you don’t. That’s cut and dry.”
In February, Trump said as president he would “give it one hell of a shot” to achieve an elusive peace deal between the two sides, which he called “probably the toughest agreement of any kind to make.” But, when pressed by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, he said, “Let me be sort of a neutral guy.”
His statement was immediately attacked by his Republican rivals as well as his now general election rival former secretary of state Clinton.
During her speech at this year’s annual AIPAC Policy Conference, Clinton, without mentioning him by name, chided Trump for taking that position, saying, “Yes, we need steady hands, not a president who says he’s neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday, and who knows what on Wednesday, because everything’s negotiable.”
Some of Cleveland’s Jewish Republicans, however, feel differently. Some do not see Trump’s pro-Israel bona fides as suspect, like Richard Loeb, a partner at an executive search firm, Laven & Loeb, who is supporting his party’s nominee.
“He wasn’t my first choice. My first choice was Marco Rubio. My second choice was John Kasich,” he said. “But when Donald Trump won, I am a supporter of Donald Trump, and I will support Donald Trump in the election.”
Loeb is less turned on by Trump than he is turned off by Clinton, which he indicated was partly due to what he perceives as her lack of sufficient support for Israel.
“I don’t think Hillary Clinton is good for Israel. I think she will continue the policy of Barack Obama, and I don’t think Barack Obama is a friend of Israel,” he said.
‘He wasn’t my first choice. My first choice was Marco Rubio. My second choice was John Kasich’
Loeb also defended his candidate from the frequent accusations emanating from his own Jewish community of harboring anti-Semitic supporters and not being vocal enough to condemn their vitriolic harassment of Jewish journalists and others.
“Donald Trump has come out that he’s certainly not anti-Semitic. He certainly does not support any racist platform,” he said. “There’s nothing in Donald Trump’s history to suggest that he’s a racist of any kind, whether anti-black, anti-anything. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, even anti-Muslim. And so, if there are anti-Semitic groups that are driven to support Trump, I don’t think that’s because Trump has actively engaged them.”
Trump has been widely denounced for policy proposals such as the Muslim ban and his call to build a wall along the US-Mexico border and deport more than 11 million undocumented citizens. He also caused a firestorm when he said Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who oversaw a lawsuit against the now defunct Trump University, could not be impartial in the case because of his Mexican heritage.
Many in the Jewish community and beyond voiced concern when he did not immediately reject the support of white supremacists like David Duke, the former grand marshall of the Ku Klux Klan — including Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt, who demanded Trump “make unequivocally clear he rejects” Duke’s positions. The first-time political candidate later responded by saying that “anti-Semitism has no place in our society, which needs to be united, not divided.”
Most recently, Trump drew swift condemnation by tweeting an image of Hillary Clinton surrounded by $100 bills with the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” on a six-pointed star, a common Jewish and Israeli symbol. Below the image was a screenshot of a Fox News poll claiming that 58 percent of American voters considered Clinton to be “corrupt.” The picture is reported to have came from a white supremacist website, and was later revised to contain a circle instead of a Star of David.
He’s also been criticized for not explicitly speaking out against his supporters who have harassed Jewish journalists on social media with anti-Semitic invective.
When asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on May 4 what his message was to those fans, he said, “I don’t know anything about that, you’ll have to talk to them about it. I don’t have a message to the fans.”
Anita Gray, the ADL’s director of the Ohio, Kentucky/Allegheny region, believes such behavior from Trump gives voice to anti-Semitic strains in American society.
“The rhetoric that comes out of his mouth is very concerning to me,” she said, “particularly as it relates to the way it is directed at Jews and other minorities. It concerns me. His aggressor rhetoric appeals to anti-Semites and other fringe groups. The average American does not look like a white person today. I think that’s perhaps what appeals to those people on the fringes.”
That doesn’t bother Cleveland Jewish radio host Edward “Torchy” Smith, though. The host of Baby Boomers Talk Radio fully backs Trump and doesn’t find the nature of his rhetoric disconcerting. On some of the support he’s elicited, Smith said, “I’m not concerned about that. Such a small percentage of the neo-Nazis or whatever. They’re insignificant. As a Jew, though, I feel he’s much more sympathetic to Israel. Much more, especially as Israel is intimidated by Iran.”
Trump has said he would not “rip up” the Iranian nuclear deal forged by world powers last year but “police” it instead.
But for more traditional Republicans like Howard Frum, the auto mechanic, such proclamations do not necessarily give him comfort, and he indicated that events soon to happen may tilt whom he votes for come November.
“I have not made my choice yet who to support,” he said. “I’m waiting for the convention. I want to see what’s going to happen at that convention.”
