Should Trump’s Mental Condition Disqualify Him as President?

13 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Politics and Life, Health and Well-Being

I am not a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychoanalyst, social worker, or any kind of trained therapist. I am a congregational rabbi who has worked in three large congregations in three major American cities over the course of the last nearly 40 years, and I have encountered people with all kinds of emotional and psychological problems.

Since Donald Trump began his presidential campaign, I have asked a number of therapists what they believe is the nature of Donald Trump’s psychology. All of them said that without being able to personally interview, question, and examine him they could not offer anything precise or definitive.

“OK,” I have said to them. “I respect that, but nevertheless, can you venture a considered judgment of his psychology that can offer insight into the man given your many years of experience working with people?”

Each one, as we’ve heard in so many places, said that Trump exhibits signs of classic narcissism.

The Mayo Clinic reviews the common symptoms and causes of a wide range of personality disorders – see http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/symptoms-causes/dxc-20247656 and http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/personality-disorders/home/ovc-20247654.

Here are some highlights:

Antisocial personality disorder

Disregard for others’ needs or feelings
Persistent lying, stealing, using aliases, conning others
Recurring problems with the law
Repeated violation of the rights of others
Aggressive, often violent behavior
Disregard for the safety of self or others
Impulsive behavior
Consistently irresponsible
Lack of remorse for behavior

Histrionic personality disorder

Constantly seeking attention
Excessively emotional, dramatic or sexually provocative to gain attention
Speaks dramatically with strong opinions, but few facts or details to back them up
Easily influenced by others
Shallow, rapidly changing emotions
Excessive concern with physical appearance
Thinks relationships with others are closer than they really are

Paranoid personality disorder

Pervasive distrust and suspicion of others and their motives
Unjustified belief that others are trying to harm or deceive you
Unjustified suspicion of the loyalty or trustworthiness of others
Hesitancy to confide in others due to unreasonable fear that others will use the information against you
Perception of innocent remarks or non-threatening situations as personal insults or attacks
Angry or hostile reaction to perceived slights or insults
Tendency to hold grudges

Narcissistic personality disorder

Belief that you’re special and more important than others
Fantasies about power, success, and attractiveness
Failure to recognize others’ needs and feelings
Exaggeration of achievements or talents
Expectation of constant praise and admiration
Arrogance
Unreasonable expectations of favors and advantages, often taking advantage of others
Envy of others or belief that others envy you

Rabbi Mark Samath posted on the Reform Rabbi list-serve a series of statements about President Trump made by therapists, journalists, current and past government officials, and political leaders. Some of the office holders are Democrats and some are Republicans. Rabbi Samath gave me permission to list what he provided to my colleagues:

Ted Lieu, Los Angeles Democratic Congressman, will introduce legislation requiring a psychiatrist to serve at the White House: “I’ve concluded he is a danger to the republic.”
Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democratic Congressman: “The President is mentally unstable.”
Bernie Sanders, Vermont Democratic Senator, said Trump’s obsession with non-existent voter fraud is “delusional…totally insane.”
Elliot Cohen, a senior State department official under President George W. Bush and a member of his National Security Council: “I’ve been in this town for 26 years. I have never seen anything like this… I genuinely do not think this is a mentally healthy President.”
Paul Krugman, Economist and New York Times columnist: “This is looking less and less like a political strategy and more and more like a psychological syndrome… If you had an employee acting this way you’d immediately remove him from any position of authority and strongly suggest that he seek counseling.”
John Gartner, a NYC psychologist and expert on personality disorders: “Donald Trump is dangerously mentally ill and temperamentally incapable of being president.”
Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican Congressman and Chair of the House Oversight Committee, supports psychiatric evaluation of Trump: “If you’re going to have your hands on the nuclear codes, you should probably know what kind of mental state you’re in.”
Nancy Pelosi, Democratic House Minority Leader, questioned Trump’s mental competence calling him a fraud, a bully, and a very sick man.
Al Franken, Democratic Minnesota Senator: Trump’s behavior is “not the norm for a human being.”
Ben Michaelis, clinical psychologist: Trump suffers from “textbook narcissistic personality disorder.”
Joseph Burgo, psychologist and author of “The Narcissist You Know”: Trump is an example of an “extreme narcissist.”
Citizen Therapists Against Trumpism noted: “As psychotherapists practicing in the United States, we are alarmed [by Trump].” See http://citizentherapists.com/manifesto/
Timothy Egan, New York Times columnist: “Millions of reasonable people are appalled that a madman is in charge of the country.”
Judith Herman, M.D. Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, in a letter joined by Drs. Nanette Gartell and Dee Mosbacher, as reported in “Grave Concerns About Donald Trump’s Mental Stability: Harvard Doctors”: Trump’s “widely reported symptoms of mental instability [include] grandiosity, impulsivity, hypersensitivity to slights or criticism, and an apparent inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.”
Julie Futrell, NYC clinical psychologist: “Narcissism impairs [Trump’s] ability to see reality;” he falls “toward the pathological end of the narcissistic spectrum.”
Jean Fitzpatrick, a NYC relationship therapist: “Trump lacks proper reality testing.”
Gersh Kuntzman in the New York Daily News: “It’s a dangerous, pathological detachment from reality.”
Steven Rattner, former Obama administration adviser and economic analyst: “Somebody’s gotta do a psychological profile of the guy and find out why he acts the way he acts.”
Howard Stern, Trump’s good friend: it’s going to get worse and that the presidency “is gonna be detrimental to his mental health.”
David Brooks, NY Times columnist: “The guy will probably resign or be impeached within a year. The future is closer than you think.”

The question for the country is whether a President with this kind of mental condition can be trusted to act in the best interests of the United States, setting aside for the moment Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, to divest from all business concerns and put everything in a blind trust, and his violation of the emolument clause of the Constitution.

There are, of course, many other reasons that Trump should be investigated and brought up on impeachment charges in the Congress.

Veteran reporter J.J. Goldberg reviews the challenges in this opinion piece in Today’s Forward. I recommend it.

Should Democrats Turn Donald Trump Into Richard Nixon?

Note: I represent only myself and not my congregation or any other organization.

Tell the Senate to Oppose David Friedman as US Ambassador to Israel

12 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Islamic Relations

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SENATE HEARINGS are beginning as soon as THIS WEEK on President Trump’s nomination of his personal lawyer DAVID FRIEDMAN to be the next American Ambassador to Israel.

Friedman has no foreign policy experience. His abrasive and contemptuous temperament is inappropriate as a member of the American diplomatic corps. He is divisive and insulting not only to large portions of the American Jewish community but to the Palestinian people as well.

In an earlier post, I noted that I am a signatory to an open letter sponsored by J Street (an American pro-Israel and pro-peace political organization based in Washington, D.C. that is committed to a two-states for two peoples diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) and Amenu (The American Friends of Israel’s Zionist Union, opposition party in the Israeli Knesset) that included dozens of American rabbis and cantors who strongly oppose Friedman’s nomination as the next United States Ambassador to Israel.

After reading this letter, I hope you will feel moved to contact your two Senators, especially if they are in the Senate majority, and express your opposition to Trump’s divisive and potentially destructive appointment.

Here is the original J Street and Amenu rabbinic and cantorial letter:

We are writing today as rabbis and cantors asking President Trump to withdraw the nomination of David Friedman to be the United States Ambassador to the state of Israel. Failing that, we implore the US Senate not to confirm him.

In this letter, we will address concerns around his denigration of American Jews who believe differently from him and his policy positions that we believe run contrary to the interests of the United States and Israel.

The Rabbis of the Talmud are adamant that we are to speak to and about other people — particularly those with whom we disagree — with love and respect. We are taught that shaming a person is tantamount to shedding their blood (Baba Metzia 58b).

Yet Mr. Friedman seems to have no qualms about insulting people with whom he disagrees.

Mr. Friedman has repeatedly compared members of the Jewish community whose views on Israel differ from his own to “kapos,” who were Jews who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust. He called members of J Street, a pro-Israel organization that wants to see peace between Israelis and Palestinians, “worse than kapos.” He has even questioned whether its more than 180,000 supporters are really Jews — as if he has the right to decide such a weighty matter.

[Note: Friedman has since said he will walk back these comments, but he has not done so to date nor has he apologized to any individual or group that he insulted. Those close to him claim that he cares deeply about assuring the unity of the Jewish people, but his comments and attitudes suggest that he has no clue about the meaning of and application of the principle of k’lal Yisrael, the “unity of the Jewish people”.]

This is the very antithesis of the diplomatic behavior Americans expect from their ambassadors.

An ambassador is charged with representing our entire nation. It is historically perverse and wildly insulting to characterize Jewish advocates for peace, including many of the signers of this letter, as no better than Nazi collaborators plotting to destroy the Jewish people.

If Mr. Friedman cannot responsibly understand history, he cannot responsibly shape the future.

The situation in and around Israel is volatile. Mr. Friedman’s inflammatory comments about Jews, Palestinians and Muslims and the peace process itself are precisely the type of comments that can ignite further conflict and drive deeper wedges between parties.

While we believe the above should be enough to disqualify Mr. Friedman, we have grave policy concerns as well. Mr. Friedman vocally supports the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which American presidents since Johnson have seen as an obstacle to peace.

Moreover, Mr. Friedman opposes the two-state solution, which has been a policy cornerstone for Republican and Democratic administrations for the past quarter century. We are very concerned that rather than try to represent the US as an advocate for peace, Mr. Friedman will seek to mold American policy in line with his extreme ideology.

We yearn for an Israel that is secure, democratic and the national homeland of the Jewish people. Mr. Friedman’s pro-settler positions and opposition to the two-state solution are in conflict with our views and the majority of American Jews who see settlement expansion as an obstacle to peace and who strongly support a two-state solution. Mr. Friedman’s favored policies would weaken Israel’s security, democracy, and status as the national homeland of the Jewish people.

Mr. Friedman’s apparent inability to speak respectfully about and to people with whom he disagrees and his advocacy of extreme policies which threaten the future of Israel and run contrary to American interests are both sufficient reasons to disqualify Mr. Friedman’s nomination. He is the wrong choice to serve as our nation’s Ambassador to Israel.

I ask you today to contact your Senators and urge them to vote against David Friedman’s appointment as the next US Ambassador to Israel. I also encourage you to contact moderate and reasonable Senate Republicans to register your views.

Note: I speak here only for myself and not on behalf of my synagogue or any Jewish organization.

A January 21st Marcher’s Note to Senator Dianne Feinstein concerning the Nomination of Jeff Sessions as US Attorney General

06 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Women's Rights

≈ 1 Comment

In response to my request that people who marched on January 21st send a few sentences to Senator Dianne Feinstein so she can take the mass of emails she receives with her to the Senate Judiciary Committee today (Monday, February 6) when the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General comes to a vote, I received a copy of a statement from my friend and congregant Miriam Krinsky who had sent it first to Senator Feinstein. Miriam gave me permission to post her powerful and stirring words on Facebook. She wrote:

“I marched because my children are the first generation in my family born in the US. I marched because I believe in an America that values interwoven cultures coming together to form a rich and strong national fabric. I marched because as a former federal prosecutor I believe in justice and the rule of law – and not an AG who fails to exemplify those values. I marched because I am the mother of two adult daughters who have lost hope.”

Why Trump is so dangerous and what we Americans and Jews ought to do about it

05 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

≈ 4 Comments

Why is President Donald Trump so dangerous to our democracy and the world? Because he lies, insists upon the truth of his lies, doubles down on them, and then mercilessly demeans and attacks his critics.

There is a method to what Trump does. Here are some of the specifics that are necessary for the achievement of his ends:

He personally attacks his opponents by labeling them with demeaning name-calling, thereby belittling them and discrediting them;
He mocks anyone who shows a disability or publicly displays emotion that he regards as a sign of weakness in order to prop himself up and establish himself as the big winner and therefore the embodiment of power and truth;
He dismisses provable facts when they do not conform to his end-game agenda;
He attacks the press, threatens journalists and networks, and denies them access to the White House;
He fires staff that disagree with him and prohibits dissent by government officials;
He threatens cities and universities by withdrawing financial aid when they challenge him;
He challenges the last election as fraudulent so he can claim to have won the popular vote as well as the electoral college;
He shuts down the White House switchboard to protect itself against negative public opinion.

Taken together these things (which are not exhaustive) are reminiscent of the methods described in Mein Kampf to subjugate a population to the power and will of the leader. As was the case in the 1930s in Nazi Germany, everything for Trump depends upon establishing the Big Lie as truth.

Robert Reich posted on his Facebook page ten specific steps Trump has used from the beginning of his campaign to promote the Big Lie as a means of establishing himself as the Savior of the nation:

Step 1: Trump lies.

Step 2: Experts contradict him, saying his claim is baseless and false. The media report that the claim is false.

Step 3: Trump blasts the experts and condemns the media for being “dishonest.”

Step 4: Trump repeats the lie in tweets and speeches. He asserts that “many people” say he’s right.

Step 5: The mainstream media start to describe the lie as a “disputed fact.”

Step 6: Trump repeats the lie in tweets, interviews, and speeches. His surrogates repeat it on Fox News and in the right-wing blogosphere.

Step 7: The mainstream media begin to describe Trump’s lie as a “controversy.”

Step 8: Polls show a growing number of Americans (including most Republicans) believe Trump’s lie to be true.

Step 9: The media start describing Trump’s lie as “a claim that reflects a partisan divide in America,” and is “found to be true by many.”

Step 10: The public is confused and disoriented about what the facts are. Trump wins.

What ought we to do in response?

Call/email your congressional representatives protesting Trump’s appointments and actions when they are based on the Big Lie or when they run counter to his campaign promises;
Organize for the mid-term elections to take back the House and the Senate;
Run for political office yourself and/or encourage able people you know to do so especially against current office-holders and candidates who support Trump’s demagoguery and/or who have failed to speak out against his lies and policies;
Actively support progressive causes (e.g. climate change, public education, affordable college education, civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, criminal justice reform, universal health care, scientific research, economic justice, immigration reform, diplomacy in international affairs, etc. etc);
Organize demonstrations against Trump wherever and whenever he appears, at the White House and at his retreats to get under his skin;
Educate your children and grandchildren about American democracy, our democratic institutions, the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the built-in checks and balances of the three branches of our government;
Remember that critical thinking is our nation’s greatest protection against Trump’s and his surrogates’ demagoguery and distortions of the truth;
Challenge all outrageous and demeaning statements Trump makes;
Support the media that call his lies what they are – lies – and who the Trump administration criticizes for reporting and/or speaking the truth;
Defend everyone Trump attacks regardless of whether you agree with the speaker’s views.

Finally – because so much is being thrown up by the Trump administration every day, it is only human to want to stop listening to the news and, out of a sense of disgust and powerlessness, to turn away and disengage. That, however, is the opposite of what we ought to be doing. Deferring to Trump is exactly what dictators want from their subjects. Denial of what is happening in the body politic and moral character of our nation is not an option; neither is despair.

We Jews and we Americans are people of hope, and hope comes from engagement and the belief that we can effect change and heal the world of its pain and imperfections.

Chazak v’ematz – Be strong and courageous!

Note: I speak only for myself and do not claim to represent the views of my congregation or any other Jewish organization.

“‘Remember the 11 million’? Why an inflated victims tally irks Holocaust historians” – Times of Israel by Ron Kampeas, February 1

03 Friday Feb 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Politics and Life, Jewish History

≈ 3 Comments

Until today (February 3, 2017), I believed that the number commonly cited of murdered victims by the Nazis was 11 million (6 million Jews and 5 million others – Catholics, Romas, homosexuals, communists, trade unionists, etc.). It turns out that Simon Wiesenthal, the famed “Nazi hunter,” made up the 5 –million number of non-Jewish victims in order to catch the attention of the non-Jewish world in the 1970s that were ignoring the crime of genocide by the Nazis against Judaism and the Jewish people.

The real figure, according to Holocaust historians Yehuda Bauer and Deborah Lipstadt, is more on the order of 500,000 non-Jews murdered, certainly not a small number by any measurement, but not 5 million. The total number of people who died as a consequence of the Nazi aggression is about 35 million.

Read this article in “The Times of Israel” by Ron Kampeas (February 1) for details and the unintended impact of Wiesenthal’s made-up fiction on politics today.

“An oft-cited statistic of 4 million non-Jewish Holocaust deaths has no basis in fact, experts say and may be contributing to [Holocaust] denial efforts…All of the world had to be annihilated,” [Holocaust historian Yehuda] Bauer said. “That was the intent. There was never an idea in Nazi minds to murder all the Russians…

The number 5 million also adheres to no known understanding of the number of non-Jews killed by the Nazis: While as many as 35 million people were killed overall because of Nazi aggression, the number of non-Jews who died in the concentration camps is no more than half a million, Bauer said.”

http://www.timesofisrael.com/remember-the-11-million-why-an-inflated-victims-tally-irks-holocaust-historians/

A year has passed and nothing has happened

01 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Women's Rights

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It has been a year since the Israeli government agreed to establish an egalitarian prayer space in Jerusalem’s Southern Kotel Plaza that would be independent of the strict ultra-Orthodox rabbinate and the Ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Western Wall. The government agreement called for the construction of an attractive prayer space equivalent in size to the traditional prayer space and visible from the entrance of the plaza. The prayer space would be overseen by the Reform and Conservative movements, the Jewish Federations of North America, and Women of the Wall.

It is a year later and nothing has happened.

When I was in Jerusalem in October for meetings of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, the 120 of us representing world Jewry met in the Knesset with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He asked us to be patient and explained that he needed more time to work with his coalition partners to implement the agreement.

Jewish Agency Director Natan Sharansky, who the Prime Minister had asked three years earlier to meet with all the interested parties to find a consensus agreement, told us minutes before the Prime Minister came into the Chagall Lobby that the Prime Minister was indeed committed to doing everything he could to implement this agreement, except one thing – Netanyahu would not sacrifice his government or his position as Prime Minister – and that of course, is the rub!

Once the agreement was signed in January 2016 that included the Ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Wall, the ultra-Orthodox political parties in the government rose up in defiance and threatened to bring down the government should the agreement move forward and be implemented. Rather than take that risk and form a new government without the Ultra-Orthodox, Mr. Netanyahu seems to have taken the position that the preservation of his government and his position as Prime Minister are more important than the facilitation of an agreement that would preserve the unity of the Jewish people and welcome to the holiest site in Judaism every Jew who wishes to pray according to his or her Jewish custom.

In the Jewish Forward (“The Wall That’s Growing Between Us,” January 27, 2017), Editor-in-Chief Jane Eisner reviews the history of this effort. She says: “So now, a year after nothing, a time for pleading an exhortation may be over.”

Eisner quotes Elazar Stern, a member of the Knesset from the centrist Yesh Atid party and a former major general in the Israeli Defense Forces, that whenever he meets leaders from the Diaspora “I tell them they must insist that these issues be dealt with immediately. And until that happens, I say to them, ‘You need to stop inviting them [i.e.Israeli government leaders including, I presume, Prime Minister Netanyahu] as guests of honor to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Jewish Federation conferences. Even if you really need them — and I know you need them — hold back for just two years. It won’t take longer than that for them to see that they need you even more than you need them.”

Stern throws down a gauntlet to world Jewry, and I wonder whether we’ll pick it up. Stay tuned!

Check out my Facebook Page

31 Tuesday Jan 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Uncategorized

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A New Prayer for America – Composed by Rabbi Victor Reinstein

30 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in Ethics, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Quote of the Day, Social Justice

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Compassionate One, fill our hearts with love and compassion for each other, that in truth we might be one nation indivisible. Bless our country, its government, its leaders, and its people. Bless the vision that is America and help us all to make it real. Help us to be for each other a mirror in which to see the best we are, and when we stray give to each one the courage to remind, speaking truth to power when need be.

Of qualities that built this land, help us to distinguish between their light and shadow sides, and to know the upright way, that good not be twisted into evil. Take the violence from us, so much part of what has been; and lead us on a new path to the Prophet’s vision fulfilled, of swords turned into plowshares that we shall, at last, learn war no more. Let not our confidence become arrogance, nor might the measure of right; mature enough in our independence, may we celebrate with all nations the interdependence from which a greater good will come.

Thirsting for peace, help us to sing an anthem now, not of bombs bursting, but of amber waves of grain and purple mountain majesties; the beauty of this land we love, your blessing manifest, not of destiny, but of goodness spreading out from sea to shining sea; and not upon us alone Your blessing bestow, but upon every nation and people in the world of Your creation.

Help us to see that we the people are America the beautiful, in all the grandeur of our colors, and in the symphony of faiths and tongues by which we sing to You and call each other’s names; in the pilgrims’ pride of roots diverse, each one of us from other lands have come, not only of a Mayflower on the sea but of steerage passage and in chains and through sweltering desert sands, wretched and poor yearning to breathe free; let us be the strength of heart and mind to sustain the hand of she who lifts her lamp beside the golden door.

In our caring for the earth, the sky, and water, may we honor those who first dwelled upon this land, and in a small measure so atone for all the wrong done to them.

With liberty and justice for all, that freedom not ring hollow, help us to insure that health and knowledge, bread and roses, be the birthright of every child born, each one free to be and become, dreams deferred no more.

Bring near the day, soon to rise, when in rainbow chorus we shall sing, we have overcome.

Rabbi Victor Reinstein is the Founding Rabbi of Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue, Jamaica Plain, MA