All Quiet on the Western Front: A Letter from Portland

Plus. with troops in our cities and racial profiling now the law of the land, is this an internal affliction or a hostile takeover? Are we becoming apartheid South Africa - or Vichy France?

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Sep 29, 2025

Iconic photo of weeping Frenchman as France falls to Nazis

A recent Supreme Court ruling allowing for racial profiling in Los Angeles by ICE has many now comparing America to apartheid South Africa.

There are many factors that do not support that analogy, most especially that South Africa had (and still has) a significant non-white majority. But it’s an open discussion. If only Jimmy Carter were around to weigh in.

Meanwhile the distinctly un-American invasion of American cities - the latest being Portland, Oregon - by Trump’s troops has the feel of a foreign takeover. More than the homegrown racism of South Africa, this has the feel of Vichy, France during World War Two. Our government has been brought to its knees by an external power and ideology - Putinist Russia. While Trumpism displays elements of an American-vintage nativism and white nationalism, our society has been infected by what Trump himself would call an alien source “poisoning the blood of our people.” The source of that poison is not immigration, but Russian authoritarianism and Nazi fascism.

Some of the hate may be all-American, but the infection itself remains an alien force. It does not reflect the true feelings of the vast majority of the population, who are either too shellshocked or too exhausted to resist the deportations and other injustices that are occurring.

And that’s where the Vichy analogy comes in. Incidentally, the Vichy comparison also applies to Israel and the illiberal takeover of normative Zionism by the messianic, Kahanist Netanyahu regime. While there are elements of revisionist Zionism and a distorted, ethnocentric Judaism in the hot mess that spawned Israel’s far right, the current government’s policies are often diametrically opposed to normative rabbinic Judaism and the enlightened Zionism espoused by Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

Both for regular Americans and Israelis, the task is to resist, resist, resist - and to find a General De Gaulle to lead us, as we work toward liberation at the ballot box in 2026.

Where is that De Gaulle?

The world hates America now, but this is not who we are. Trumpism-’R/NOT-Us. In this country, criminal, hateful individuals, acting in un-American ways, have stolen our birthright, degrading essential freedoms while watching inflation rise along with violent hate crimes, while employment staggers.

The invasion of Portland is not America. Neither is the racial profiling of immigrants. The only alien element here is the Vichy-style regime that has sold out the American dream to the fascist whims of the Russian dictator.

The French-Vichy analogy is compelling for another, less sanguine reason. In Nazi-controlled France, the evil was foreign, but the complicity was not.

• How France’s Vichy Regime Became Hitler’s Willing Collaborators (Jacobin)

Yes, When the story of this pivotal moment in American history is told, it will, I fear, sound more like The Sorrow and the Pity, that classic documentary about Nazi-occupied France, than Cry Freedom and other films depicting the internal struggle to end South Africa’s racist, discriminatory system. At least to this point, too many people have hidden their head in the sand, hoping to wait this thing out, trying to wish it away.

We need Steve Bikos and Nelson Mandelas to cry freedom in America right now. Take a moment to hear this eloquent testimony by Biko, played by Denzel Washington, in Cry Freedom.

The courage of Biko, Mandela and so many others, will forever be recalled in the annals of heroism. But the ruling majority - meaning most whites - stood against these heroes. In 1977, the National Party, the party of apartheid, won 67% of all white votes. The evil of apartheid’s discrimination was entirely home grown, though it should be noted, inspired in part by American Jim Crow laws and the Nazis’ Nuremberg statutes.

In America, while the majority rejects Trumpism, many are too afraid to fight it, or too apathetic even to vote.

Fascism was not indigenous to Nazi-controlled France. But far too many capitulated. The Sorrow and the Pity, whose creator Marcel Ophuls died this past May, was so controversial when it came out in the early 1970’s, because it exposed the apathy, fear and paralysis of ordinary French people, which, combined with home-grown antisemitism, muted the resistance against this foreign oppressor.

Watch this brief clip from Marcel Ophuls’ masterpiece:

One quote in this clip really gets to me, from someone ostensibly supportive of the resistance:

“Some people are resistant by nature. In other words, they are naturally quarrelsome, if you will. And others, by contrast, try to adapt to their circumstances and make the best of it. If you’re resistant to anything and everything, you’re overdoing it.”

I’m hearing similar comments from many right now. More Americans are sounding like this Frenchman than Steve Biko right now. People in positions of influence - in the media, in Congress, on pulpits - they need to Cry Freedom. Instead they are wallowing in their sorrow and their self-pity. On this High Holidays week, freedom should be ringing from every pulpit in America right now.

If we do not stand up to this alien force that is poisoning the lifeblood of our nation - our democratic institutions, values and norms - no Normandy invasion will save us.

But the good news is that resistance is growing.

In Portland this weekend, there was lots of kicking and striking going on, as this photo sent by a long-time “In This Moment” subscriber, whose son lives in Portland, demonstrates:

And Portland’s mayor sent this out to his citizens:

I asked my subscriber if her son would be able to send me a first-hand “letter from the front.” Here it is:

I write this on what feels like the last beautiful sunny weekend of Portland’s autumn. The leaves are turning brilliant colors in Washington Park and the Japanese Garden, drawing tourists from across the country. Yesterday afternoon, the Portland Timbers faced Dallas in an exciting match downtown, and the city buzzed with its usual weekend energy—families at farmers’ markets, friends gathering at coffee shops, the ordinary rhythms of urban life.

Yet beneath this normalcy runs a strange undercurrent of tension. Yesterday morning, President Trump announced he was sending federal troops to Portland, describing our city as “war ravaged” and claiming we’re out of control. The announcement hit Portlanders like a shock—not because we’re living in chaos, but precisely because we aren’t.

The disconnect between Trump’s characterization and our lived reality couldn’t be starker. Yes, Portland has faced challenges—particularly during the early COVID years with homelessness and unsheltered populations—but these have improved significantly. There have been some small, isolated demonstrations at the ICE facility, but we haven’t experienced violent demonstrations downtown in years. The city feels vibrant, recovering, alive.

How are Portlanders responding? With remarkable restraint and wisdom. Most of us recognize this deployment for what it appears to be—bait to provoke confrontation that would justify further federal intervention and create the very chaos the administration claims already exists. We remember what happened last time Trump sent his unmarked federal agents to snatch people off our streets. We don’t want to become a storyline on Fox News that reinforces Trump’s agenda and allows him to escalate his response.

The strategy emerging from our community is both pragmatic and quintessentially Portland: If people choose to demonstrate, do it peacefully. Let Portland’s quirky, creative side shine through costumes and art. And ensure that any protest imagery prominently features messages about Trump and Epstein—ensuring that any attempted negative coverage would have to show those associations. It’s a form of media jujitsu that turns attempted negative coverage into something else entirely.

But last night, the federal presence became impossible to ignore. What seemed like five Black Hawk military helicopters circled downtown Portland for hours in the darkness, their rotors thundering overhead. They were incredibly loud, keeping this up for hours throughout the evening and into the night. People across the city couldn’t sleep. Children were scared. Pets were terrified. The psychological impact was clear—this feels designed to intimidate us, to make us feel occupied.

The most important thing I can convey is this: Portland is not burning. We’re not “war ravaged.” We’re a city trying to go about our lives—watching soccer, enjoying the last warm days of fall, visiting our gardens and museums. The federal troops aren’t here to solve a problem; they may be here to create one.

So we’ll continue as we always have. We’ll go to our coffee shops and bookstores. We’ll bike to work. We’ll gather in our parks. We hope the few agitators who tend to emerge will stay home, so we can show the world that there’s nothing here requiring federal intervention—just a city that refuses to play its assigned role in someone else’s political theater.

The helicopters may circle again tonight. But tomorrow morning, Portland will still be Portland—quirky, resilient, and determinedly peaceful in the face of provocation. We’re going to go about our lives as usual and hope this show of force becomes the non-story it should be.

Julian Pscheid

Living in Portland, OR since 2004

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They’re scaring the dogs! They’re scaring the cats! They’re invading a peace-loving community!

Thank you, Julian, for sharing your thoughts with us. I hope you’ll continue to be our “eyes and ears” from your Portland foxhole.

In The Sorrow and the Pity, Pierre Mendes France, who became Prime Minister after the war, says, “The political climate changed and became unbearable in Bordeaux. Suddenly, treason was everywhere, there was a will to surrender, and a desire to get along with the victors at any price.”

With the helicopters encircling Portland, we can never allow that to happen here. But in some quarters, it already is.

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