AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

The following is an article written by a young woman, an activist, and originally appeared elsewhere. I believe it expresses much of what many of us are feeling, be one a Jew or Muslim or immigrant, or woman, or decent man or whatever. The appointment of Bannon, an anti Semite, a holder of the flag of the alt right, a member of the extreme nationalistic and nativist movement that supported Trump, this man is bad, simply bad and this is whom our president to be chooses.

     There is no mandate for this hate. Hillary still leads 48% to 47% in the popular vote and just look at these kids, these great kids, these college and now high school kids who are rejecting Trump's hatred of others, his sneaky attempts to get his children!!!! clearance for top secret information and run his business empire. There are rules against nepotism yet Trump once again thinks he is beyond and above the rules. I cannot stress strongly enough how dangerous this man is, this Trump and his Trumpers. And the children shall lead the way. What is in store for today? More high schoolers protesting and marching, taking their teachers along with them? More media articles exposing the hate and racism and xenophobia and brutality even of Trump? Where will it end? I do not believe that there has ever been such protests against a president elect so perhaps we had better make sure we listen. Read what follows and tell me- does she not say it all? Strong, but does it not have the ring of truth, of the anger that is out there and is not going away?

The following is an open and unedited letter to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President-elect Donald Trump, from actress, producer, and political activist Noa Tishby. It originally appeared on jewishinsider.com.

Dear Jared, or Kapara, as we say in Israel —

You don’t know me, and I doubt that we will ever meet. However, I have a few words for you. I am an Israeli and a Jew, like you, so let me first start by thanking you for bringing into our folds the stunning Ivanka. We need more smart and lovely women like her. Well done Jared and Yael!

Now let’s talk tachles. Step one in the Twelve-Step Program is acknowledging you have a problem and that your life has become unmanageable. In other words, acknowledge reality.
So here is reality: being a male chauvinist pig is a great thing. It’s awesome and it gets you elected President. Are you one too, Jared? Are you a pig? Because many people are saying (which thanks to your father-in-law is now a perfectly reasonable argument to use in any conversation or debate) that you are the puppeteer behind the puppet.
Hillary Clinton was voted for by fewer men — as a proportion of the electorate — than any other candidate in the history of the United States. As Israeli parliament member Merav Michaeli said, a huge majority of white men voted for Trump not despite the fact that he harassed and assaulted women, but because of that. They want to take back that privilege that we women took away from them in recent years. In the privacy of the voting booth, some men want to be able to act like your father-in-law too. To be that “powerful”, that aggressive, and self-entitled. A Neanderthal, clubbing his woman and dragging her inside his cave.
By the pussy.
As a Jew, I am particularly curious about you, Jared Kushner. In addition to using sexism and misogyny, did you notice the anti-Semitism you and your father-in-law allowed to rise back up? Do you know that because of the trolls your campaign encouraged to crawl out of their holes, me and thousand of other Jews added ((()))) to our Twitter handle to proudly declare our Judaism? Did you see this? I doubt that you did not. And when you saw it, and ignored it, did you at least realize how cynically and heartlessly you’re both using hate just to get in power?
You know your father-in-law is a liberal from NYC, Jared. Ivanka and you probably also know just how many abortions he forced some of his past women to have. (I am basing this assumption on no facts or prior knowledge what so ever by the way: again, something your father-in-law made perfectly normal and acceptable to do). You know as well as the majority of this country that he simply said whatever he needed to say in order to win, because like an addict, he just loves winning so much.
And as a result, you allowed the country to be torn apart. Yes, you Jared.
You have betrayed every single one of Judaism’s core beliefs. Love thy neighbor, charity, Tikun Olam making the world a better place.
Jews were at the forefront of every human rights movement around the world from Dr. King to Gandhi. We Jews, we know all about hate and discrimination, and we have been fighting against it for generations. You, Jared, helped get into power the most racist, sexist, bullying, childish, and misogynistic man we have ever seen. (Again, hyperbole is now fully accepted. Fantastic!) And if he doesn’t believe all these things he said, that’s even worse — considering how you both rode these words straight into the white house.
But you see, Jared, the Republic is stronger than any one man. So okay, I accept the results for now. However, let me be clear: I, and millions of other Republicans, Democrats, Independent, Christians, Jews, Muslims and any other variation, men and women and the 473 electorates of young adults ages 18-25 who voted for Hillary, we are watching you both. We will hold you accountable. We saw that you appointed Myron Ebell, a climate change skeptic, to lead your EPA transition team. We see the all-white all-men team you are assembling to take over. And we are not happy about that.
We know how much your father-in-law hates little details and prefers to delegate. He has no patience for small print — which is why I am turning to you, Jared. You seem to be the responsible, reasonable adult in that crew. So it is up to you. You are going to be the one making sure your father-in-law delegates to people who actually follow what the American people want, not just a bunch of white lobbyists. It is your responsibility, Jared, to make sure your father-in-law doesn’t take this country backward environmentally and socially or to a new-millennium Twitter version of McCarthyism. I don’t trust him, but I am counting on you to be in his ear and say and do the right thing.
Or you will both hear from us. In every way democracy allows, we will make your life unpleasant. Beware.
And to your father-in-law, I say: Mr. Trump, are you humbled yet? You are about to learn for the first time in your life the meaning of “Being of service”. You see, Mr. Trump: you work for me now. You work for me

And more words: Bernie Sanders - “I am very worried that a President Trump may take us back to where we were before, and we in the progressive community are not going to allow that to happen. We have travelled too far to descend back into racism and sexism.”
Lady Gaga in a powerful essay: "Here we were, in 2016, and the fact that the sort of language that was being used to talk about women was everywhere -- on TV, in politics -- was eye-opening," she writes. "I felt depressed and hurt by it because that's what that kind of language does. Then I watched our incredible first lady, Michelle Obama, talk in New Hampshire about how hurt she felt seeing it too. She talked about how women are often afraid to say anything because we're worried that we will appear weak -- that we'll be told we're being over-the-top, dramatic, emotional. But we're not. We're fighting for our lives."