Trump’s Jewish Report Card: Delight & Distress

In the month since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, he has disrupted — to the delight of supporters and the distress of opponents — how the U.S. government functions, at home and abroad.

Within the torrent of executive orders that Trump has signed since Jan. 20 and the policies executed at his direction are issues of intense interest to various segments of Atlanta’s Jewish community.

Trump’s backers laud his expressions of support for Israel and his approach to confronting antisemitism in the United States. Trump’s detractors fear that he will tear apart the social safety net and denounce as indiscriminate the layoffs and budget cuts at federal agencies engineered by billionaire Elon Musk through a newly-created Department of Government Efficiency.

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Some of the most controversial changes remain in limbo, awaiting rulings by federal courts — including the Supreme Court of the United States — on legal challenges and requests for injunctions against the administration.

Then there is a looming trifecta of economic crises: The risk of a federal government shutdown if Congress fails to approve a spending plan by March 14 (and Republicans may need help from Democrats to pass a stop-gap measure), the limit on federal borrowing may be reached this summer, and the deep spending cuts are expected in the budget that the White House will propose for the fiscal year that begins in October.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Governors Working Session in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 21, 2025 // Photo Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Times of Israel

All of this has left both individuals and organizations nervous.
“They’re on pins and needles because decisions haven’t been made yet. They’re kind of holding their breath,” said Leslie Anderson, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta.

“Just because it’s not affecting people today doesn’t mean they’re not worried about tomorrow,” said Abbie Fuksman, a board member of Georgians for a Healthy Future and of MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

Layoffs at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are impacting individuals in the Jewish community. An estimated 1,300 “probationary employees,” one-tenth of CDC’s workforce — which primarily is based in Atlanta — were fired over a recent weekend. That classification can include people with advanced degrees beginning careers as well as existing employees receiving merit-based promotions.

They include a 32-year-old global health policy analyst, who worked with CDC as a fellow (professionals attached to the agency) and then as a contractor before hired as a federal employee in July 2023. Still in her two-year “probationary period,” she was fired by email, despite receiving outstanding performance reviews, and another CDC job offer was rescinded.

The woman asked that the AJT not use her name (to avoid being harassed). She has a husband and talked while walking her dog. “I would like to have a child in the near future but that is being put on hold,” ask she updates her resume and looks for work.

“I don’t agree but I understand the motives behind their actions” in cutting foreign aid spending, recognizing that there are those who “don’t think our money should be going to help other people,” she said. “That is a difference of opinion . . . but the way they are going through with it is so unbelievably careless . . . To just turn it off is so detrimental to America. We get so much goodwill with the use of foreign aid and we learn so much from clinical trials” in other nations.

As president of the Atlanta Rabbinical Association, Rabbi Daniel Dorsch, senior rabbi at Congregation Etz Chaim, hears from colleagues throughout Atlanta. “I imagine that for rabbis right now, real concerns about people who work for the federal government and changes to their working environments and elimination of their positions is probably the number one ‘actual issue’ with which we are dealing,” he said.

In a sermon delivered on Shabbat morning Feb. 22, Dorsch told a tearful call he received from a friend, who told him about her son, a young man in his 20s, who graduated college during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Finally, after months of background checks, he got a job with a federal agency. He had just traveled to the city. Had his orientation. He was supposed to start this Monday. Then, on the way home, while taking the train, he was sent a cold email saying that his job offer had been rescinded. No explanation,” Dorsch said.

“As a rabbi, I’m not interested in talking about politics. That’s not my job. But what our parasha [Torah portion MIshpatim] reminds me this week is that it is my job to remind everyone here that as Jews and human beings that we must treat people in context and with sensitivity. People are not the same thing as AI or a computer. They deserve to be treated with kindness and respect,» he said.

On an institutional level, Jewish Family & Career Services is monitoring the White House and Congress for any reductions in Medicaid funding, a critical component of its Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Services (IDDS). These include outings and activities for people with disabilities and another program that enables adults with disabilities to live as independently as possible in their own homes or in a 24-hour shared home.

The debate in Congress over Medicaid, an $880 million program that serves 80 million adults and children — including roughly one in 10 adults and two in every five children in Georgia — likewise has state governments waiting before making changes in how they fund health care for the neediest in their populations. Georgia ranks among the states with the highest percentage of uninsured.

Congregations involved in refugee resettlement are concerned that the freeze on refugee admissions ordered by Trump will imperil the efforts of nonprofits that assist refugee families with access to housing, food, medical care, school for children and adult education classes, and navigating Social Security. The website 285South.com cited the Coalition of Refugee Services Agencies as reporting that 1,000 people were resettled in Atlanta in the past three months. The nonprofits are scrambling to replace hundreds of thousands of frozen federal dollars to assist refugees already here.

Elon Musk has allowed antisemitic messages to spread on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter. Kanye West recently made headlines for a series of anti-Jewish posts on the platform // Photo Credit: Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP/Times of Israel

On another front, umbrella organizations for Jewish congregations and clergy in the Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist movements were among more than two dozen religious groups that sued the federal government to prevent changes in the “sensitive locations” rule that would give immigration agents a freer hand to enter houses of worship to arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally.

The suit notes that “Welcoming the stranger, or immigrant, is a central tenet of the Jewish religion, mentioned 36 times in the Torah—more than any other teaching.” One of those references —”And you shall not mistreat a stranger, nor shall you oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” — is found in Exodus 22:20, in the Torah portion read during the week that began Feb. 22.

Trump’s executive orders related to issues of gender identity — one recognizes only two “immutable sexes, male and female” — have prompted fears in the LGBT community, including at Congregation Bet Haverim. A statement issued Jan. 22 by the congregation said: “As a community, we reaffirm our unwavering support for the transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming community, and make clear our moral commitment to justice and human dignity . . . We particularly affirm our support for transgender youth, whose lives are at risk, and pledge to stand in solidarity with all disenfranchised communities, including immigrants facing injustice.”

Trump’s supporters are effusive in their praise for his handling of Israel and confronting antisemitism. They cite improved relations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the provision of weapons that were delayed or withheld by then-President Joe Biden, and credit Trump’s warnings for keeping on track the process of Israeli hostages being released from Gaza as called for in the Jan. 19 ceasefire agreement.

“One thing I know, Jewish people feel safer with President Trump in office. I am not hearing so much about incidents with antisemitism. Also, our federal government is taking an active stand with Israel and is supporting their war efforts instead of not allowing Israel to do what they need to do to win this war,” said Betsy Kramer, a long-time Republican party activist in Fulton County and an at-large delegate to the 2024 Republican National Convention.

“I feel the divisiveness has decreased,” said Renee Evans, a representative of the World Jewish Congress who has served on the boards of Jewish and Israeli support organizations. “The President’s logical approach is working and getting things better. I also think we as Georgians and Americans are seeing where our tax dollars are going, and for what. We are saying, ‘No, not acceptable.’ This is especially true with the U.S. money going toward terrorism. I think we are swinging more to the middle, thanks to President Trump.”

Evans, a Republican supporter of Trump and a philanthropist, said that Trump has made combatting antisemitism a priority, by putting the effort under a reconstituted White House Faith Office, with plans to name a point person on the subject, akin to the envoy on combatting antisemitism abroad (a position most recently held by Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, who has returned to Emory University). The faith office is “really important,” Evans said. “It shows where his presidency is going and what personally is a major agenda for him.”

She praised Trump’s willingness to deport, if necessary, foreign students advocating on behalf of designated terror groups, and to use Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to deal with colleges and universities that permit an atmosphere that threatens Jewish students.

A distinctly different view of Trump’s performance was offered by Michael Rosenzweig, a Jewish community activist and board member of Democratic Majority For Israel.

“Trump’s first month in office has been an unmitigated disaster for our country and, frankly, the entire world. He and his unelected billionaire pal Elon Musk are brazenly ignoring our laws and our constitution as they move to dismantle our government and our very democracy,” Rosenzweig said. “His bizarre proposal to ‘own’ Gaza does nothing to advance a solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and reflects the same obtuse arrogance on display in his insane ideas regarding Panama, Greenland, Canada and Ukraine. Our allies are confused and befuddled by Trump, who plainly appears to have no idea what he’s doing. Even more alarming is his continued embrace of dictators and thugs around the world, which bodes ill for all Americans who cherish the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, but particularly for Jews, who’ve seen this movie before. One would be hard-pressed to say anything good about Trump’s performance thus far.”

Rosenzweig was equally unsparing in his review of Trump domestically.

“He promised to end inflation and bring down costs but is doing the opposite with his incoherent tariff ‘policies.’ His abrupt reversal of Biden’s policy incentivizing investment in electric vehicles has our automobile manufacturers spinning in confusion, wondering how to deal with the billions they invested in that industry,” Rosenzweig said. Trump “campaigned as champion of the working class but has focused on pleasing his billionaire friends by reducing their taxes and regulations of their businesses while doing nothing for the working class. And his appointments of utterly incompetent, unqualified and downright dangerous people like RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Pete Hegseth, based solely on their blind loyalty to him, threaten the fundamental well-being of our country.”