From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
‘Not proud to vote for him, but he gets the job done’: Orthodox Jews aim to help Trump flip Michigan
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
OAK PARK, Michigan — A win in the swing state of Michigan will be critical for either candidate in today’s presidential election, and members of the traditional, Orthodox community in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park are doing their part to put former president Donald Trump back in the White House.
All ten of the Orthodox community members who spoke with The Times of Israel outside their polling station this morning say they cast their ballots for Trump.
Trump will need their support if he wants to flip Michigan, which US President Joe Biden won in 2020 by three percentage points. The Jewish community makes up roughly one percent of the population in the state, with the Orthodox community amounting to less than a fifth of Michigan’s Jews.
“I don’t think that someone who is truly Orthodox can vote for the Democratic Party,” says Nadav Frieder.
The 40-year-old was voting in just his second US presidential election after moving to Michigan from Ramat Yishai in northern Israel.
He argues that the Republican Party is more suited for religious people like himself, even while acknowledging that he is “not proud” to vote for Trump, given his character.
“When Trump is talking, I joke to my wife that the kids should go upstairs,” he says while holding his toddler son in his arms.
“He has a dirty mouth, but listen, he gets the job done. When he was president, nothing bad happened,” Frieder says, echoing the Republican presidential nominee, who regularly claims that Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel wouldn’t have happened if he were in office.
“It was quiet [when he was president]. It’s possible that [Hamas] was planning [its attack], but they were scared [to carry it out],” he adds.
“The problem is the non-religious Jews,” Frieder continues, referring to the larger segment of the Jewish community that votes for the Democratic Party in overwhelming numbers.
“I think that if Trump didn’t speak the way he did, it’s possible that they would vote for him because they do care about Israel. They’re just afraid of him and don’t know what he’ll do if he wins,” he claims.
Pressed on the Biden-Harris administration’s record on Israel, Frieder is dismissive.
“He said ‘don’t,'” Frieder said, referencing US President Joe Biden’s warning to Iran against striking Israel after Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Iran backs proxies that have attacked Israel and have even struck the Jewish state directly two times in the past year. The US helped Israel shoot down dozens of missiles and drones in both attacks, but Frieder indicated that Biden didn’t keep his word.
“What ‘don’t’ was he talking about?” he says dismissively.
He surmises that today’s election is “between lovers of Israel and haters of Israel.”
