Donald Trump addressed Torah U’Mesorah’s Presidents Conference on Friday morning at his Doral Club in Miami, Florida, in which he praised the work of Torah U’Mesorah and boasted of his accomplishments, but declined to apologize for his recent dinner with two notorious anti-Semites.
The former president began his speech thanking Torah U’Mesorah’s leadership, including Harav Shmuel Kamenetzky shlit”a.
“He looks like a young man,” Trump said of Rav Shmuel. “There’s something nice about being a rabbi, I think… They told me your age, and I’m not sure I can believe it.”
He then went on to discuss the upcoming yom tov of Chanukah.
“As you know, Jewish families across the nation will celebrate Hannukah. The miracle of Hannukah reminds us of the incredible strength, courage, and resilience of the Jewish people. And that’s exactly what you have – tremendous strength and resilience,” Trump said.
“Jewish Americans lift up American communities and this great organization that we’re involved with today, and have been involved with for years. Three quarters of a century ago you began helping Jewish families who were seeking a better education for their children. Today, you’re in nearly 800 schools in more than 30 states with over 300,000 students. That’s fantastic,” Trump said.
Trump went on to point out the work he did as president for Jews and Israel, and quoted an article from Dov Fischer in The Spectator, who Trump said wrote “a lot more than I even knew I did.”
“Nobody’s done what I’ve done in terms of being pro-Israel,” Trump said to strong applause, before going through some details of his move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, his recognition of the Golan Heights as being part of Israel, and the Abraham Accords deal.
He also noted that he commuted the 27-year prison sentence of Rabbi Sholom Rubashkin, which was received by a standing ovation from the crowd.
“It’s amazing. Every time I mention that, it gets the [biggest applause]. I could have done just that and gone home,” Trump quipped about commuting the Rubashkin sentence.
Notably missing from his speech was any mention of his recent meeting with two virulent antisemites – Kanye West and Nick Fuentes – at his Mar-a-Lago club. Jewish leaders have been pining for Trump to at the very least condemn Fuentes and Kanye’s comments, but the former president continues to refuse to acknowledge what he did.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
21 Responses
Tell me you lean to the political left without telling me you lean the political left.
What an embarrassing headline. Donald Trump has shown over and over and over again that he supports the Jewish community. His meeting with Kanye West doesn’t change anything. Why we making believe like it’s such a big deal?
Why would you write a headline that points out one thing that you consider negative, instead of hundreds of things that you consider positive.
Yeshiva World News, should have a higher standard.
Thank YWN for keeping your eye on the ball and not letting Trump get away with his tolerance of antisemities and antisemitism. Trump has a history of making negative stereotypical comments about Jews and tolerating antisemities. A speech to a crowd where many are quick to applaud him and assuage his ego does not change that.
I had thought they had invited him because they had no choice, given they’d probably booked the hotel a year ago.
But now that I’ve seen the event, it sure looks more like a lechatchila rather than a b’dieved.
They stood for him as if he were a Rosh Yeshiva.
And hooted approval at his remarks as if they (the Torah u’Messoah audience) were something other than ehrliche human beings.
President Trump has done tremendous good for Jews. His meeting with those two characters is irrelevant. He presumably had either a political or other unrelated reason for meeting with them. There was no reason, then, for him to have to mention that meeting and especially not for him to apologize for that.
LiHavdil elef havdalos, the Chazon Ish met with the great enemy of Hashem and desecrator of Hashem’s name, David Green, the first Zionist Prime Minister. Clearly, he had a reason for doing so, even though the Brisker Rav refused to do so. The two gedolim had different tactics for BE”H achieving the same goal.
Again, President Trump has a record of being good to Klal Yisrael. Unless he does something that is objectively anti-Jewish (as opposed to meeting with two clowns), there is no reason to think that he has changed.
no frum normal yid really cares about his dinner with those 2 meshugoyim, he already said he didnt know Fuentes and Kanye west is a bipolar sad case who was friends with trump from befor he decided to go all out against jews – that’s enough of an explanation for us. no need to get all political and get a politically correct apology from trump, he’ll never do that and good for him
Im sorry to say but yeshiva world is the new jewish FAKE NEWS. the fact that he chose to speak and host in his hotel the orthodox jewish people shows very clearly that he’s not an antisemite, but yet again yeshiva world keeps putting their crooked opinions down peoples throats. its obvious that trump hates the lefty liberal jewish people, that ruined not only him but the entire country, this was said even by rabbi avigdor miller many times when he was alive. I don’t have to start proving this, but for your sake I will, for example people like Yoel Roth from twitter, Zucker from can, Zuckerberg from Facebook, George Soros , etc, the list goes on and on. face the facts jewish liberals and also non jewish liberals both destroyed this country big time. I totally agree with trump, and it doesn’t make him an anti semite because he doesn’t hate jews as you can see that he’s talking to a jewish crowd that supports him. 90 percent of Orthodox Jews voted for him, and he did everything for the jewish people. the liberal jews are the biggest reshaim, look at chuck shummer backing up the gay marriage rights. this is what you would rather have???? I think vin news is much more normal. this site is disgusting.
Trump has undoubtedly done great things for the Jewish community both here and in Israel. He has also shown extremely poor judgment in his congressional endorsements and in the company he keeps.
Today’s speech before Torah U’Mesorah was of course conceived of and orchestrated by frum people in Trump’s inner circle – and therein lies the mystery. Many Orthodox Jews are still with him (not I).
Is it possible that Jared Kushner, grandson of Holocaust survivors, has now jumped back into the fray in order to resuscitate his father-in-law’s political career even after the Ye-Fuentes fiasco? Supposedly, he became exasperated with Trump’s antics. If Jared had been instrumental in in bringing about today’s very strange proceedings, then he should come forward and tell the Jewish community why he believes we should trust Trump again. As my father used to say: תּחת אויפֿן טיש.
Past that, is it possible or even desirable that Trump should come back after the Ye-Fuentes fiasco? Trump obviously needs the far right and for this reason will not, and politically cannot, apologize for said fiasco.
Is it wise to cast our votes for someone who for pecuniary and familial reasons) may have personal fondness for Orthodox Jews but who stands with the far right who would cram us into cattle cars at the first opportunity?
There are surely plenty of human beings who are upset that Trump moved the embassy to Yerushalayim and they believe that Trump owes them an apology for doing so
Are they right?
Trumps success is because he operates out of the box and is not afraid to stand up for his beliefs even when it goes against popular opinion and he doesn’t necessarily care about the peoples feelings and sensitivities but will stand strong on what he believes is correct and right
Trump is not a Jew, and USA is not Jewish country.
If Trump believed he had the justification to meet with Ye for whatever reason it may have been, why exactly is he obligated to provide anyone with an apology.
“Trump declined to apologize,” to the surprise of absolutely nobody.
It’s disgraceful that he was invited to speak.
How disgusting for a bunch of yidden to be standing and applauding this vile racist and promoter of anti-Semitic voices.
This article is reminding me of Haman harasha, may his name be erased.
If everything that trump did for us, for the state,it is nothing as long as he does not apologize again, and I think he is supposed to apologize every time he talks to the Jewish crowd. Now he’s gonna be called an anti-Semite of all time. Where is Hashem in this picture? If we do what’s right in Hashem’s eyes, we will not have these kind of articles.
I hope this organization never asks me for a donation ever again…
Charedi Jews in the US have fallen in love heaad over heals with a man who’s – justifiably – quickly becoming the most hated man in US politics, even in his closest circles.
His own family wouldn’t show up at his campaign anouncement, he wines and dines people who are too Antisemitic even for ELon Musk, but some Jews insist on waiting till it’s too late.
Stop complaining about the problems the legislature is causing to Yehsivah education, when you so stupidly burn your bridges with basically everyone by inviting this sicko to speak.
Great speech! I loved it. Thanks for posting.
Gadolhadorah
How disgusting you are!
Y mix crowd??? IS Torah UMesorah frum???
Trump 2024!!!! Let’s Go!!!
Not afraid because TU isn’t Satmar. Not every event has to be like them. There are male and female teachers in our chinuch system. Morahs are people too.
Unsuprisingly, the fanatical MAGA-Jews in this comment forum continue to respond to every challenge by simply accusing the challenger of being one kind or another of a ‘Leftist’, true to the tradition of their illustrious leader…
Hold on tight, and Trump will drag you down the political abyss. Trump is now with no more than a minority within the GOP, butt TU has made their choice.
Enjoy the digital trading cards, idiots…
This mushchas, immoral, narcissist should not have been invited, much less allowed to speak. My respect for TU has gone down.
Tu desp to stay current… stop dabbling in the past and get to work