Your editorial highlighting Vice President JD Vance’s failure to call out and strongly criticize recent antisemitic tropes is right on target. Equally disturbing to Jews should be Vance’s comments on the role of Christianity in America. Although Vance has stated that the idea of a Christian nation scares him, other comments from him are not reassuring when considering recent attacks on the separation of church and state in America. Vance has noted that much of what we consider human rights are born from Christian values, not Judeo-Christian values, and that a properly rooted Christian order is key to America’s future. He has been critical of the view that religion and public policy should be completely separate.
Vance claims that Christian faith informs how he lives his life and how he approaches public policy, but this seems inconsistent with his administration’s plan to cut back funding for medical care and nutrition support for our most vulnerable populations, along with the reign of terror being carried out by ICE against undocumented but peaceful immigrants.
There is more for American Jews to worry about beyond Vance’s failure to criticize antisemitic tropes. They should rightfully be wary of a Vance presidency.
Beryl Rosenstein, Pikesville
