So, Trump is planning to define Judaism as a nationality... where have we seen this before?

[Soph0571]

Do not believe the hype that this is about President Trump bolstering the Education Department's efforts to stamp out "Boycott Israel" movements on college campuses. I mean this might help their suppression of free speech goals, but I do not believe that this is the main motivation. History tells us that defining Judaism as a nationality was so very Nazi Germany 1930’s. This made it easier for the murderous arsehole Nazis to warrant rounding victims up and sending to concentration camps as they "weren't real Germans."

So very very Nazi. Call me cynical, but… Nazi be Nazi and there is an ugly ulterior motive here.

[DFW]

1. Makes a kind of symmestrical sense

He defines Florida as a religion.

[DonaldsRump]

2. Also Soviet Union n/t

[madaboutharry]

3. Some one needs to tell this Jackass

that Jews don't like others telling them who they are.

This sounds like another crackpot idea that got into Trump's head at 3:00 a.m.

I think that those around him who still have some form of a sane grip on reality will pull this back.

[lame54]

17. This is Stephen Miller

[no_hypocrisy]

4. By that logical fallacy, you can take any ethnicity in the U.S. and erroneously call it a

nationality.

[dewsgirl]

5. Whatever this is...it feels ominous.

[The Blue Flower]

6. This marginalizes Jews

It does nothing to protect us. It institutionalizes the idea that Jews are not real Americans. Scary as hell.

[Cousin Dupree]

7. He believes that American Jews' first allegiance is not to the US. So that makes them disloyal,

not trustworthy, not “real Americans”. And then he says he doesn’t have an anti-Semitic bone in his body.

[tblue37]

15. He has repeatedly said that Jews are supposed to be loyal to Israel, and when speaking to

a Jewish group, he referred to Bibi as "your prime minister."

[Wounded Bear]

8. We in American need to understand the European take on these things...

While we can study them, it takes the experience of having lived them to really get it.

I'm no supporter of what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians, but I can separate that from the anti-Jewish bullshit being spewed by Tangerine Twitler.

Saying Judaism is a nationality is just the flip side of declaring the US a "Christian" nation.

[MineralMan]

9. He's following Putin's lead on this.

I'm certain of it. He has questioned Jewish American's loyalties in the past, as well, apparently believe that they have more loyalty to Israel than the USA. He's attempting to marginalize Jewish Americans with this Executive Order, which coincidentally comes right after Lavrov's visit.

Once again, Trump is taking his marching orders from Putin.

[tritsofme]

10. FWIW, the ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal Center support the measure.

I doubt they were duped into a supporting a neo-Nazi scheme that you found and they didn’t.

[liskddksil]

13. They are wrong and should know better

Signed an American who is Jewish.

[peggysue2]

11. Garry Kasparov tweeted that this is not so different than . . .

what the former Soviet Union did to diminish and isolate their own Jewish community, basically tagging them with the 'Other' label. That being said, Kasparov couched that statement with 'whether this is being done with good intentions or not,' as if to indicate that reining in the Boycott Israel movement is legitimate. In my mind in a free society where presumably we celebrate free speech any government suppression of that speech is decidedly illegitimate.

As is this president, of course.

[Bad Thoughts]

14. It's a dhimmi: protected, segregated, sidelined

There are many examples of these types of estates or casts that theoretically, provide a modicum of protection, but have the effect of dis-empowering the whole group.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

12. Whaaat?

This is random.

If he makes Judaism a "nationality", how does that help "stamp out" the Boycott Israel movement (which I don't even get why it should be illegal or be "stamped out&quot ?

[onenote]

16. The short term and long term implications of this decision

It helps to understand what the decision to designate Judaism as a "nationality" means from an immediate practical standpoint. In many instances, anti-discrimination laws address discrimination based on race, gender, religion or national origin. That last category protects against discrimination based on the country where one (or one's ancestors) came from/ethnicity. So its illegal to discriminate against someone because their of Irish origin, or Japanese origin, or Italian origin etc. Note that it is not the same as protection against discrimination based on one's citizenship -- which is generally allowed.

So if Judaism is a religion, why is there any need to also define it as a nationality? Aren't Jews already protected under anti-discrimination laws?

The answer is -- not always. Specifically, one provision of the Civil Rights laws that ties funding for colleges to their having and enforcing an anti-discrimination policy references national origin, but not religion. So discrimination against Jews doesn't trigger that provision. By designating Judaism as a "nationality" Trump believes that the government can coerce colleges to crack down on anti-Semitism on college campuses --- and more to the point, to crack down on college BDS movements.

There are some serious issues raised by this approach, not the least of which are potential first amendment free speech issues. More to the point, straightforward anti-semitism is, more often than not, covered by other rules and policies applied by and to colleges, making this change unnecessary.

The obvious downside is that by defining Judaism as not just a religion but as a "nationality" Trump is basically saying all Jews (including converts) trace their "origin" back to a common nation. But if that's the case, one could argue that all Muslims are a nationality (traceable back to the first Muslim communities) and, indeed, all Christians are a "nationality" that can trace their origins back to the Roman empire. No one would think to do that. But they think about doing it to Judaism because treating Jews as the "other" -- as having a different "nationality" and thus different "loyalty" is a trope with a long history. While no one suggests that the current generation of Irish Americans or German Americans or Italian Americans have dual loyalties, it doesn't matter how many generations pass -- Jews are singled out. And this executive decision formalizes that singling out in a very disturbing and unnecessary way.