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Trump’s calls for protests condemn George Soros, echo Jan. 6 — and draw Jewish concern
WASHINGTON (JTA) — “They’re coming for me,” Donald Trump said in a fundraising email to his supporters, and he immediately made clear who “they” were: “district attorneys hand-picked and personally funded by George Soros.”
The email, sent late Monday, came a day ahead of when, Trump claims, he is likely to be arrested. He says he will be charged for allegedly paying off a paramour to keep quiet about their sexual encounter, and has sent a flurry of appeals calling for protests.
And those appeals have also named a villain: Soros, the Jewish billionaire and progressive megadonor who is at the center of myriad antisemitic conspiracy theories.
In a post in nearly all-caps on his website, Truth Social, on Saturday, Trump railed against the “CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS.”
In that post, Trump also returned to another motif of his with an ominous history. He ended by telling supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
To some, that statement recalled Trump’s tweets more than two years ago, when he urged protesters to come to a “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Jewish groups who track antisemitism and Jewish security say they are keeping an eye on Trump’s latest calls for protests, but note that so far those posts have not attracted the groundswell of support that followed his past appeals. Trump’s 2021 post touted a rally that culminated in violence — the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Oren Segal, vice president of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said organized extremists, who have heeded Trump’s calls in the past, are displaying wariness online this time, fearful of being drawn into a trap. A number of them are preoccupied with the aftermath of Jan. 6, as some of their members are being prosecuted for their roles in the riot.
Other groups, Segal said, are preoccupied with this year’s culture wars. “Proud Boys are busy protesting drag queen story hours,” he said, referring to one of the groups implicated in a number of violent protests.
Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community network, the consultancy to the national Jewish community, likewise said his group was not seeing any imminent plans for violence. “We are not seeing anything specific to the Jewish community with respect to recent calls or amplification of calls for protests,” Masters said in a text message.
Nonetheless, Trump’s constant invocation of Soros raises concerns, Segal said, especially given reports of substantive spikes in antisemitic attacks.
“The danger of referencing Soros in a call for protests like this, is that you never know what bad actors are interpreting that as,” Segal said. “It’s not unreasonable for the Jewish community, who feels particularly vulnerable, to hear that in a way that is uncomfortable as well.”
Soros, a Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor and financier, has been at the center of countless conspiracy theories for decades, and was the target of a 2018 bomb scare carried out by a pro-Trump antisemitic attacker. He featured prominently in the conspiracy theories embraced by the gunman who massacred 11 worshipers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.
Bragg is among a number of liberal prosecutors backed in recent election cycles by Color of Change, a political action committee that Soros has funded. He was the largest donor to the group in the most recent election cycle, giving it $1 million out of the $4 million it raised.
It’s not at all clear that Bragg is ready to bring charges, or what charges he would bring against Trump. Speculation about a pending arrest has come only from Trump, and after he predicted the arrest over the weekend, one of his spokesmen quickly walked it back, saying that the Trump camp had no new information.
Trump is lashing out as multiple investigations into him appear to be intensifying, including by state officials in Georgia into election interference and by federal authorities into the role he played in spurring the Jan. 6 violence by rioters who believed his falsehoods about the 2020 election and into his alleged mishandling of highly classified documents.
He also is under pressure from a Republican Party that includes members endeavoring to distance themselves from his myriad scandals, even as he seeks the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
One possible crime Bragg might be investigating is whether Trump falsified records to cover up his payment to Daniels, which was made through his former lawyer Michael Cohen.
Trump’s mentions of Alvin Bragg — the Manhattan district attorney investigating his preelection payoff to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress — seem to constantly come with invocations of Soros. In a post late Monday on Truth Social, he suggested he did not believe the NYPD would take orders from Bragg, should he ask them “TO PUT THEIR GREATEST CHAMPION & FRIEND IN PRISON FOR A CRIME THAT DOESN’T EXIST … ALL THE WHILE THE SOROS ALLOWS MURDERERS AND OTHER VIOLENT CRIMINALS TO FREELY ROAM THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK?”
Trump is hardly the only Republican invoking Soros. Trump’s likely rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, also mentioned Soros and Bragg in remarks on Monday, while getting a dig in at Trump.
“I don’t know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair, I just, I can’t speak to that,” DeSantis said. “But I do know this, the Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor.”
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Phyllis Pollock died at home Sunday September 3, 2023 in Winnipeg, after a courageous lifetime battle with cancer.
Phyllis was a mother of four: Gary (Laura), daughter Randi, Steven (deceased in 2010) (Karen), and Robert. Phyllis also had two grandchildren: Lauren and Quinn.
Born in Fort Frances, Ontario on February 7, 1939, Phyllis was an only child to Ruby and Alex Lerman. After graduating high school, Phyllis moved to Winnipeg where she married and later divorced Danny Pollock, the father of her children. She moved to Beverly Hills in 1971, where she raised her children.
Phyllis had a busy social life and lucrative real estate career that spanned over 50 years, including new home sales with CoastCo. Phyllis was the original sales agent for three buildings in Santa Monica, oceanfront: Sea Colony I, Sea Colony II, and Sea Colony. She was known as the Sea Colony Queen. She worked side by side with her daughter Randi for about 25 years – handling over 600 transactions, including sales and leases within the three phases of Sea Colony alone.
Phyllis had more energy than most people half her age. She loved entertaining, working in the real estate field, meeting new and interesting people everyday no matter where she went, and thrived on making new lifelong friends. Phyllis eventually moved to the Sea Colony in Santa Monica where she lived for many years before moving to Palm Desert, then Winnipeg.
After battling breast cancer four times in approximately 20 years, she developed metastatic Stage 4 lung cancer. Her long-time domestic partner of 27 years, Joseph Wilder, K.C., was the love of her life. They were never far apart. They traveled the world and went on many adventures during their relationship. During her treatment, Phyllis would say how much she missed work and seeing her clients. Joey demonstrated amazing strength, love, care, and compassion for Phyllis as her condition progressed. He was her rock and was by her side 24/7, making sure she had the best possible care. Joey’s son David was always there to support Phyllis and to make her smile. Joey’s other children, Sheri, Kenny, Joshua and wife Davina, were also a part of her life. His kids would Facetime Phyllis and include her during any of their important functions. Phyllis loved Joey’s children as if they were her own.
Thank you to all of her friends and family who were there to support her during these difficult times. Phyllis is now, finally, pain free and in a better place. She was loved dearly and will be greatly missed. Interment took place in Los Angeles.
By BERNIE BELLAN Over 100 individuals gathered at the Gwen Secter Centre on Tuesday evening, July 18 – under the big top that serves as the venue for the summer series of outdoor concerts that is now in its third year at the centre.
The occasion was the celebration of the Gwen Secter Centre’s 35th anniversary. It was also an opportunity to honour the memory of Sophie Shinewald, who passed away at the age of 106 in 2019, but who, as recently as 2018, was still a regular attendee at the Gwen Secter Centre.
As Gwen Secter Executive Director Becky Chisick noted in her remarks to the audience, Sophie had been volunteering at the Gwen Secter Centre for years – answering the phone among other duties. Becky remarked that Sophie’s son, Ed Shinewald, had the phone number for the Gwen Secter Centre stored in his phone as “Mum’s work.”
Remarks were also delivered by Raquel Dancho, Member of Parliament for Kildonan-St. Paul, who was the only representative of any level of government in attendance. (How times have changed: I remember well the steadfast support the former Member of the Legislature for St. John’s, Gord Mackintosh, showed the Gwen Secter Centre when it was perilously close to being closed down. And, of course, for years, the area in which the Gwen Secter Centre is situated was represented by the late Saul Cherniack.)
Sophie Shinewald’s granddaughter, Alix (who flew in from Chicago), represented the Shinewald family at the event. (Her brother, Benjamin, who lives in Ottawa, wasn’t able to attend, but he sent a pre-recorded audio message that was played for the audience.)
Musical entertainment for the evening was provided by a group of talented singers, led by Julia Kroft. Following the concert, attendees headed inside to partake of a sumptuous assortment of pastries, all prepared by the Gwen Secter culinary staff. (And, despite my asking whether I could take a doggy bag home, I was turned down.)
This is a developing story.
(JTA) — Palestinian gunmen killed four people and wounded four in a terror attack at a gas station near the West Bank settlement of Eli, the Israeli army reported.
An Israeli civilian returning fire at the scene of the attack on Tuesday killed one of the attackers, who emerged from a vehicle, and two others fled.
Kan, Israel’s public broadcaster, said one of those wounded was in serious condition. The gunmen, while in the vehicle, shot at a guard post at the entry to the settlement, and then continued to the gas station which is also the site of a snack bar. A nearby yeshiva went into lockdown.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced plans to convene a briefing with top security officials within hours of the attack. Kan reported that there were celebrations of the killing in major West Bank cities and in the Gaza Strip, initiated by terrorist groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Hamas said the shooting attack Tuesday was triggered by the Jenin raid.
The shooting comes as tensions intensify in the West Bank. A day earlier, Israeli troops raiding the city of Jenin to arrest accused terrorists killed five people.
The Biden administration spoke out over the weekend against Israel’s plans to build 4,000 new housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also finalized plans to transfer West Bank building decisions to Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist who is the finance minister. Smotrich has said he wants to limit Palestinian building and expand settlement building.
Kan reported that the dead terrorist was a resident of a village, Urif, close to Huwara, the Palestinian town where terrorists killed two Israeli brothers driving through in February. Settlers retaliated by raiding the village and burning cars and buildings.
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