• by Barbara Lippert , Columnist, October 30, 2024

Mere days from the election, we’re angsting away as a nation, and it’s still too close to call.

Candidates have offered their closing arguments and are running their final ads.

As such, “Amen,” a PAC ad for Trump created by “the Republican Coalition Victory Fund” and paid for by the Republican Jewish Coalition, was a last-minute entry in swing states, but also I’ve seen it a lot in New York.

It caught my attention, because it’s not about the usual stuff.

Rather, it’s aimed at older Jewish women who’ve never voted Republican. It attempts to persuade them to switch to Trump to settle their fears about Israel’s future and rising antisemitism in the U.S.

It ends with the line, “Donald Trump will keep us safe.”

“Amen” takes place in an actual Jewish delicatessen in Merion, Pennsylvania, an area with a sizable Jewish population located in a leading battleground state.

Unfortunately, the real-life name of the place is Hymie’s Deli. (Jews who were offended that a Trump commercial was shot there are already boycotting, but that’s another story.)

Featuring three actresses of a certain age (fifties, sixties, and seventies?) it shows them sitting in a booth, talking over coffee, omelets, and black-and-white cookies.

Strategically, it’s a legit place to go, and one of the few ads targeting women.

What’s more regrettable is that a PAC ad aimed at Jewish women, raising concern for rising antisemitism in the U.S. and the future of Israel, would itself buy into stereotypes that can be seen as pandering and even a bit antisemitic.

The RJC’s CEO, Matt Weiss, offered a bit of the flavor while introducing “Amen” with this statement: “We encourage Jewish voters to listen to their Bubbies: it's OK to vote for Donald Trump.”

But the language, cadences and inflections of speech more reflect the bubbies (grandmas) of 1942 than those of 2024.

At times the trio sounds like old-time comic Jackie Mason. (He died at 93, three years ago.) Maybe you know him from his voiceovers on “The Simpsons” as Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky, father of Krusty the Clown.

Here’s some of their dialogue: 

WOMAN 1:

“Did you watch the news lately? Israel is under attack. Antisemitism like I never thought I would see.”

WOMAN 2:

 “Did you hear about Samantha’s boy, Max? He got spit on at Penn.”

WOMAN 3:

“What about Kamala?”

WOMAN 2:

“Uch. Busy defending the Squad.” (She waves an open hand.)

WOMAN 1:

“Oy vey. You know, Trump I never cared for, but at least he’ll keep us safe.”

It’s not purely the antique cadences that got to me.

The line about “the squad” is an enormous dog-whistle.  Rather than disparaging Kamala with the kinds of insulting, belittling, and unrepeatable-on-TV words that Trump has used, (which these women wouldn’t) the writers reference "the Squad," who were controversial five years ago, as a code for problematic women of color. who tend to be pro-Palestinian.

It’s complicated. In the scheme of things, there are Jewish women who fight for the rights of Gazans, and think Harris and the Biden administration are too pro-Israel.

But let’s face the elephants in the room. Trump has a terrible track record with women, this year more than in the past. He brags about doing away with Roe, which both punishes women and endangers their health, which many female voters find an outrage. Most Democratic women are very aware of his history as a sexual predator and convicted felon, who speaks crudely and fetishizes the WWE version of masculinity. 

In the end, a significant chunk of women feel that if they needed protection against anybody, it would be against Trump himself.

Still, Jews are hardly a monolith. Plus, in a speech in September, Trump did say that if he lost the election, there would be reason for blaming the Jews.

But for those who admire his “strength” and perceived loyalty to the Jewish state, the former president  has already engendered a tremendous following among the Ultra-Orthodox, the Orthodox and Hasidim. (Hasidim want Trump for a different reason: He says he will abolish the Department of Education, and they want more freedom in running their religious schools.)

But as for secular, educated Jewish females who are lifelong Democrats, it’s unlikely that this spot will earn many converts.