Today, responding to President Trump’s comments that American Jews who vote for Democrats show “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Daniel Sokatch, CEO of the New Israel Fund, released the following statement:

“President Trump’s comments today that when Jews vote for Democrats it ‘shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty’ show, well, a total lack of knowledge about Jewish people. American Jews vote the way they do because they are patriots. They are loyal to the founding American values in which they believe: compassion, justice, integrity, honesty and equality. That’s why an overwhelming majority of them won’t vote for Donald Trump.

“Trump wants to weaponize Israel and anti-Semitism to attract Jewish support, all while aiding and abetting Israel’s ultranationalist right, coddling white nationalists, fawning over dictators, and engaging in the worst kind of divisive racial politics at home. But it won’t work. In fact, it is a sure-fire way to alienate the American Jewish community even further… SAD!”