Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, is coming up in a few weeks. Among other things, the fast day inspired the term “scapegoat,” a poor translation of a biblical verse about an ancient ritual in which the sins of the community are placed on a goat’s head before it is cast out into the wilderness. In its modern conception, a scapegoat is a person who is blamed for the misdeeds of others.
Despite our role in originating the word, Jews have been scapegoated more than most, with dire consequences.
This past week, Donald Trump and his campaign engaged in two prominent acts of scapegoating. In the first, it continued to claim Haitians living in Springfield, OH were killing and eating their neighbors’ pets, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The accusation drew upon long-standing tropes about the alleged savagery (and culinary backwardness) of dark-skinned foreigners. Trump and JD Vance also blamed them for a parade of alleged horribles plaguing the town, like crowded schools, higher housing costs, and violent crime. Scapegoating immigrants is on every page of the Trump playbook.
The threats poured in, targeting schools and restaurants, forcing the Republican governor to mobilize the Ohio State Police to protect Haitian residents. Racist epithets hurled at members of the Haitian community — in Springfield and beyond — have become commonplace.
A few days later, Trump spoke at a campaign event in Washington, DC that was intended to spotlight antisemitism; Trump used his time there to engage in antisemitism.
Trump has long believed the American Jewish community is insufficiently grateful to him for his policies supporting Israel’s priorities. He is either deeply ignorant about the values and agenda of American Jews, or he is cynically trying to guilt trip Jews into supporting him. Then last week, he took it up a notch.
The current polling has me, with Jewish citizens, Jewish people, people who are supposed to love Israel, after having done all of that, having been the best president, the greatest president by far, by far. I’m at 40 percent… If I don’t win this election, and I’ve been very good, you know they say Trump’s been right about everything, I have been right about a lot of things. In my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss, if I’m at 40% [with Jewish voters].
To state it more succinctly, Trump is saying that if he loses, blame the Jews.
Here’s a short list of things Jews have been blamed for:
- Killing Jesus
- The Black Death
- Using Christian babies’ blood to make matzah
- Capitalism
- Communism
- The slave trade
- Pornography
- Usury
- 9/11
- The weather
In the US, the right has long blamed Jews for the “browning of America” as part of its “Great Replacement” conspiracy. It posits that (((elite globalists))) encourage open borders to replace white Christian Americans with dark-skinned freeloaders who will destroy Western culture and have sex with white women. If that sounds crazy to you… well, it’s why a man shot up the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, killing eleven people.
To recap, Trump and Vance are blaming Haitians and other immigrants for America’s woes today, real and (mostly) imagined. Jews are being warned that if Trump loses, he will blame them for his campaign’s failure.
This is what we call common ground. Scape goats unite!
It would be nice if we lived in a country where this kind of dangerous, rank bigotry would disqualify a candidate in the eyes of most voters. But unfortunately, we do not.
That said, it should remind immigrants, African Americans, and Jews that in MAGA they have a shared enemy, one that sees them as outsiders without agency. The sins of Trump, Vance, and their followers are placed on our heads, and we are cast out, into the wilderness, like the original scape goat. It’s worth remembering that once you’re in the deportation business, anyone can be a goat.
