President Trump has been a source of comfort for the Jewish community in the wake of Saturday’s shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh that left 11 people dead, according to Neil Boylan Strauss, national spokesman for the Republican Jewish Coalition.
“I think the president is great on our issues,” Strauss told Hill.TV co-hosts Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”
“You saw the president come out very strongly against this,” Strauss said on Monday. “Let’s not forget the shooter did not like the president because he thought he was too close to the Jewish community, he had too many Jewish advisers around him.”
Saturday’s shooting in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh was likely the deadliest attack against Jewish people in U.S. history, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“We’re also comforted by the fact that he has plenty of Jewish voices around him, and we’re comfortable with how he has acted on Jewish issues, whether it’s support for Israel, whether it’s something like condemning the attacks,” he said. “The president has been a great friend to the Jewish community.”
Trump condemned the attack and called for unity.
“This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us, it is an assault on humanity,” Trump said on Saturday. “It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-Semitism from our world.”
Some of the president’s critics have said his rhetoric has contributed to hateful actions in the U.S.
The former president of the Tree of Life Synagogue said Monday that Trump is not welcome in Pittsburgh.
“I do not welcome this president to my city,” Lynette Lederman said. “He is the purveyor of hate speech. The hypocritical words that come from him tell me nothing.”
— Julia Manchester
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