President Trump, under pressure to speak out against rising anti-Semitic vandalism in the country, said Tuesday that such acts were “horrible and painful”.
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Similar threats were made across three separate dates in January, and the JCC Association of North America reports a total of 69 incidents across 54 community centers in the USA and Canada have occurred since the start of the year. “There’s been a report out that 48 bomb threats have been made against Jewish centers all across the country in the last couple of weeks”.
Following the threats, vandals toppled 100 tombstones at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Mo., on Monday.
But President Trump has not condemned the threats specifically. Trump said it was not a simple or fair question before describing himself as “the least anti-Semitic person you’ve ever seen in your entire life”. And when another reporter pressed him on the issue at another press conference, Trump told him to “sit down” and called the question “very insulting”.
Good to know Trump is speaking out against anti-Semitism when he gets the chance!
@ivankatrump… “America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance”.
Clinton has occasionally needled Trump via social media since his inauguration, supporting the women’s march, stating that the president’s travel ban was “not who we are“, taunting the appeals court loss and making a “fake news” joke after the ousting of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“While we are relieved that all such threats have proven to be hoaxes and that not a single person was harmed, we are concerned about the anti-Semitism behind these threats, and the repetition of threats meant to interfere with day-to-day life”, read the statement from JCC.
The FBI found that hate crimes against Muslims in the U.S. rose 67 per cent in 2016.
Yesterday, the White House released a statement, the first of its kind, that called the JCC crimes “unacceptable”, while the president’s daughter Ivanka Trump, a converted Orthodox Jew, broke her silence and tweeted a call to “protect our houses of worship and religious centers”. “I think we should put that to rest”.
On Thursday, Trump was asked by a Jewish reporter what he would do to fight the increase in anti-Semitism in America.
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Trump was accompanied on his tour Tuesday by Museum Director Lonnie Bunch, Secretary of the Smithsonian David Skorton, Housing and Urban Development nominee Ben Carson, Ivanka Trump, White House Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Sen.
