Sasha AbramskyWe don’t yet know everything that motivated the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers. And, truth be told, we may never know exactly what psychological aberrance led to his deadly rampage this Saturday morning.
Bower’s twitter postings, however, give at least a partial window into his soul. The man is a rabid nationalist. He believes that Jews seek to control the world. He is convinced that Jews, via
HIAS, the refugee-rights and -resettlement organization formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, are bringing in “invaders”—such as the caravan of destitute and terrified Central American families walking their way north through Mexico.
Bowers is a Nazi sympathizer. And, unlike Cesar Sayoc, the man suspected of mailing more than a dozen pipe bombs to political and media figures around the country over the past week, he hates Trump, believing that Trump isn’t nearly nationalist enough and, in fact, is controlled by a cabal of globalist Jews.
But here’s the thing: While Bowers might fashion himself as an anti-Trump figure, the reemergence of deadly anti-Semitic violence perfectly fits the awful political moment Trump himself is presiding over. The viciously nationalist rhetoric Trump now uses at his rallies, his onslaught against “globalists”—the word itself, along with “cosmopolitan” has always been anti-Semitic code for “Jewish”—his demonizing of immigrants, of refugees, of asylum seekers, his accusation that George Soros is somehow behind the caravan of Hondurans and Guatemalans, this is quite simply fodder for anti-Semites. “Soros” to anti-Semites in 2018 is a similar slur to “Rothschild” in the previous century.
Most American Jews are all too aware of what Trump’s rhetoric and actions can lead to. While much of the Orthodox community supported him in 2016, the overwhelming majority of Jewish voters did not. An American Jewish Committee poll last year found that 77 percent of US Jews opposed Trump. In solidarity with other immigrants’ rights organizations, groups like HIAS have continually sounded the alarm on the toxic nature of Trumpism. And the rabbi of the synagogue that was attacked today himself
penned an article earlier this year warning of the dangers of both the gun culture and the anti-immigrant moment. “Our school students deserve better. Immigrant families deserve better. We deserve better,” he wrote.
