For D. Trump's Father a tremendous mitzva - for us probably a sin

[edu]

http://www.hidabrut.com/article/178516

RARE PHOTO: Trump's Father Donated Land for a Cheder
A rare picture has surfaced in the last few days of Frederick Christ Trump, father of the President-elect, having donated land for a "cheder" in Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York.

Kikar Shabbat has recently released a rare photograph showing Fred Trump, father of United States President-elect Donald Trump, whodonated land that he owned for the establishment of a Talmud Torah (cheder) in Flatbush, New York.

Trump donated the land for the Talmud Torah of Beach Haven Jewish Center and according to estimates the photo was taken almost fifty years ago. KiKar Shabbat also reported that Donald Trump was among the biggest donors of the Ruzhin-Boyan hassidic movement in Jerusalem.

For Trump the Non-Jew it was probably a tremendous mitzva. But for most situations for Jews it is usually (with one important exception) a sin to take the money.
To be explained in future posts.

[Zelhar]

Nobody has accused old Mr Trump of not renting housing to Jews.

[edu]

Before going into the issue of when is it forbidden and when is it permitted to accept charity from someone who hasn't got formal recognition that he observes the 7 Noachide Laws (if he does have official recognition according to Rambam the law is different, but maybe not according to Maharasha) I thought I would bring up the case of a Gentile who has already died to discuss this issue.
That is because if he were still alive there would be an additional problem involved by praising his actions (as long as he doesn't have official recognition of observing the 7 Noachide Laws, see Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 151:14).
Some rabbis including the one I asked are lenient about the issue of praising, once the person has died.
However, on a personal level I will point out that I have a relative that among the many, many factors that led him to become less observant, I have the feeling that one small factor was praise given to a certain group of Gentiles that have died long ago. So if you don't have a pressing need to make use of my Rabbi's leniency or you want to be stricter than him, I am making you aware of the issue.

I feel the need to discuss Trump's father, because it is coming up in Charedi news articles and also it is the style of the Sages to try to understand why people that you wouldn't expect to be powerful leaders, come to power because their ancestor might have done some good deed that caused the descendant to get special success.

[edu]

An example of how the ancestor's good deed can affect the descendant is the commentary of Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi to Talmud, Sota 46b.
In Breishit/Genesis 12:20 we learn that Pharaoh commanded that Avraham/Abraham be escorted safely out of his country.
Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi comments about this that because of the 4 footsteps that Pharaoh escorted Avraham he subjugated his children for 400 years, for it was stated and they will serve them ... 400 years Breishit/Genesis 15:13.
Torah Temima in his commentary on Breishit contends that the main reason for the subjugation wasn't because of this, because Avraham didn't sin in this issue at all and the subjugation happened for a different reason. Rather the fact that Pharaoh got the task and not some other King or Kingdom was because of the merit of escorting guests.
And the number 4 was chosen because the main mitzva of escorting guests is fulfilled by escorting the guest 4 footsteps [ 4 cubit lengths].

[Shamgar]

Maybe it was not considered charity. I have donated to different Israeli causes. I dont consider it charity. I consider it supporting a cause. A primary one being a strong and powerful Israel is good for the civilized world.

[edu]

In order not to have to "reinvent the wheel" I will refer the reader to a discussion I raised more than 2 years ago about the penalty for Jews taking charity money from Gentiles
https://jtf.org/forum/index.php/topic,74629.0.html

To understand the thinking of those yeshiva officials who took Trump's donation, they must have convinced themselves that this was a matter of Jewish survival with no other way out. Or they might have tried to exploit a loophole, that I saw in the Questions and Answers of Mishna Halachot, where he tries to redefine a somewhat similar donation to the donation made by Trump as a donation to advance a house of prayer, where some (but not all halachic authorities) don't classify as charity, but under a different category.
I am not saying if I agree or disagree with Mishna Halachot or the considerations of those yeshiva administrators, I'm just trying to understand what were those yeshiva officials thinking as part of the mitzva of judging fellow religious Jews for the benefit of the doubt.