American Jews, probably to no one’s surprise, tend to be overwhelmingly liberal. According to a Pew study conducted in 2021, “seven-in-ten Jewish adults identify with or lean toward the Democratic party, and half describe their political views as liberal.”
Being from Brooklyn, where I have befriended and become acquainted with plenty of Jews (both practicing and secular), I am actually surprised by this seven-in-ten statistic from Pew; I thought it would have been much higher!
My mother, who is a secular Jew, came from a family that voted solidly for Democrats. Most of the Jews that ran for congressional office in New York, where she was raised, just so happened to be from the Democratic party. A Jewish Republican was about as rare as a sasquatch or a vegan lion.
What’s more, most secular Jews, like those on my mother’s side of the family, think of Republicans as being reactionary evangelicals, whom they have nothing in common with. To them, Republicans are illiberal, gun-toting, bible-thumping, pro-life Christians who espouse bigotry and racism. This depiction of Republicans, though obviously myopic and distorted, is about in line with what most secular American Jews believe.
Of course, none of this is true. Republicans are not a monolithic group; they are, as I have learned in my 25 years of life experience, actually quite ideologically diverse. Being active in Republican circles, I have encountered Republicans of many stripes: libertarians, neocons, paleocons, those who were socially liberal and fiscally conservative, socially conservative and fiscally liberal, etc. In fact, the eclectic nature of conservative thought has, in many cases, proved to be an obstacle to passing legislation in Congress, even with clear Republican majorities. Just look at what happened with the Speaker of the House vote. Freedom Caucus types are very different from those on the center-right. So no, Republicans are not monolithic by any stretch. In fact, they could afford to be a little more ideologically cohesive.
Nn Jews have not changed their minds about Republicans over the decades. As stated in the aforementioned Pew study, “…Jews are the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the U.S. population.”
The religious composition of the 118th Congress affirms this point. Out of 222 Republicans in the House of Representatives, two are Jewish: David Kustoff, (R-TN), and Max Miller, (R-OH). This pathetically short list, of course, does not include George Santos, (R-NY), who has been rather deceptive about his Jewish heritage. In Santos’s defense, he did say that he wasn’t Jewish, but rather, “Jew-ish,” whatever that means.
I also have to give a lot of credit to former House Representative and New York gubernatorial candidate, Lee Zeldin, the Jew who effectively led the charge in winning the House for Republicans.
In any case, Jewish Republicans in the House are few and far between. In the Senate, there are exactly zero Jewish Republicans, with the last one being Norm Coleman, (R-MN), who lost his re-election bid in 2008 to comedian Al Franken, (D-MN), who is also Jewish. Oddly enough, Minnesota is also the home of another former Jewish-Republican senator: Rudy Boschwitz, (R-MN). What is it, I wonder, about Minnesota?
A recent Pew report shows that, all in all, Jewish representation in the 118th Congress stands at about 6%, three times their demographic representation in the U.S. Of these 33 Jewish House members, 31 are Democrats.
To diagnose why Jews vote so heavily Democratic would require a study of unusual breadth. It could be a cultural inclination towards more liberal values or a myriad of other variables that drive Jews to the Democratic Party. I am not in the business of getting to the bottom of why American Jews are liberal. Rather, I am simply observing a demographic block that seems to be unmovable in their political convictions. A friend recently told me about a book Why Are Jews Liberals written by neo-conservative luminary Norman Podhoretz, widely known for his provocations in Commentary Magazine, which may offer some answers.
As a Republican with maternal Jewish ancestry, I haven’t been totally pessimistic about the prospect of other Jews converting to the Republican Party. Orthodox Jews and other more religious sects seem to be more inclined to vote Republican. In fact, the Pew study which I cited at the beginning of this article states that “60% of Orthodox Jews describe their political views as conservative, 75% identify as Republican or lean toward the GOP, and 81% approved of Trump’s job performance…” These statistics are nothing to scoff at. While I was well aware of the fact that Orthodox Jews were more conservative than secular Jews, I had no idea the contrast would be this stark.
As for secular Jews, it doesn’t appear that they will be bubbling in Donald Trump’s name on their ballot anytime soon.
HI, Sebastien.
“Nuts”, eh. I think you’re on to something, and it’s not just about being Jewish. We have goy friends and loved ones who still get the death jab, even when it literally kills them; and some even wear masks. Others nearly choke on their food when we say the word “trump“. It’s not a good time to play schafskopf, euchre or pinochle.
Jews are all over American politics. When they align with the Obidenschumer weirdos, they get outsized recognition as freaks. In other settings, like MAGA meetings, they represent an influence more reflective of their proportion (about 2%) of the population.
@Marc There have been so-called, ” Zionists” who pushed for a bi-national state going back to Herbert Samuels and Albert Einstein.
The question that troubles me is: Why have American Jews who claim to be Zionists, and who have worshipped the Democratic Party most of their lives, continued to be steadfast democrats despite the fact that the Democratic Party clearly has been overrun by woke anti-Zionist extremists since Obama’s reign as president began?
@Bigbandss
Thanks for the upbeat comment.
On the other hand, I have discussed politics with two of my mother’s first cousins who live in Manhattan, are not poor, are not renters, are observant Jews, one is Conservative, the other is Modern Orthodox – and his grown kids feel as he does – and the are staunch liberal Democrats, true believers. I even had an argument with ultra-Orthodox in Washington Heights so it’s just an article of faith, I guess. But, not just with secular Jews like my mother who spoke as if I would shorten her life if I didn’t vote for Obama in 2008.
A woman I never saw before or since who made a point of being Jewish conversationally asked me if I was following the Jan. 6 hearings on TV at the counter of a diner and I said I wasn’t, which side was she on? and she went nuts, screaming at me that I had no right to live on the Upper West Side.
I had a more civil comparable discussion with a black woman at a bar. I think it’s just where we live.
Well, in New York, certainly, it’s a bit more complicated since Jews who are tenants, who are elderly. who are poor with big families, like many of the Chasidim in Brooklyn, rely on many of the programs Republicans like Lee Zeldin want to balance the budget and lower home owner and real estate taxes by cutting, such as Medicare, Medicaid, rent stabilization, and rent control. Even Dov Hikind always ran as a Democrat while voting with Republicans on other issues.
I grew up in a Conservative synagogue. I am now 72 years old. I realized by the time I was in my 30’s that the Rabbis and congregants in my synagogue didn’t seem to practice what I would call Torah Judaism. They seemed to practice what is now known as social justice with a pinch of Torah here and there. So I decided to join an Orthodox synagogue and found that this was a better fit for me. My parents always voted Democrat, but from the time I was voting age I was a registered Independent. Around the age of 45, I decided to switch to the Republican Party. I wanted to be able to vote in primaries. I find that the Republican Party is very suited to Jews who have conservative values. I would say that conservative values align with Torah values. I have met many Jews who now vote Republican even though they were raised in Conservative and Reformed families. Many of them have become very observant. Many became religious after associating with a Chabad on a college campus or in their communities. There is even a national group with many chapters called Jexit., Jews exiting the Democrat Party. I’m so happy seeing this happening. I don’t know if there will ever be a majority of Jews becoming conservative and joining the Republican Party, but I like what I’m seeing and hearing around me. Now if we could only put a stop to the rise in anti-Semitism, I would be even happier.
John Galt III When I left the Democratic party and became conservative I was shunned by family and friends. For many Jews, their attachment to the democratic party is then attachment to Judaism
Edward Defonzo The children of Indian and Asian immigrants are putting Jewish children to shame
At age 68 i discovered that Jerwish children were smarter than all.
A glance at the list of Nobel winners proves that !
Now, the most intelligent, play a new version of RUSSIAN ROULETTE !
Now, they alone, LOAD ALL CHAMBERS !
MARXIST ROULETTE
My theory—ALLAH created this game because he knew the Jews better
than a very well known Jew…………JESUS CHRIST………..
Eddie
“To diagnose why Jews vote so heavily Democratic would require a study of unusual breadth. It could be a cultural inclination towards more liberal values or a myriad of other variables that drive Jews to the Democratic Party. ”
I will give it a try.
Europe has been Christian for 1500 years or so, and mostly anti-Jewish. The Jews embraced the new Socialism of the 19th century as they believed the secular political parties would stand up for them against the anti- Jewish, traditional Christian parties and Christian culture including monarchies.
Instead, the Jews got the three new European Socialist varieties: national Socialism in Nazism and Fascism and its International Socialism variety – Communism. These three movements were way worse.
The Jews who came to America from Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries carried these ideas and political beliefs with them as they knew nothing else. This was after slavery, so the Jews never made the connection between the Democrat Party and its love of slavery or they simply ignored it and before the advent and peek of Nazism, Fascism and Communism.
In Europe, including the USSR, Jews were either exterminated or they survived and moved to Israel with only a small remnant left from the 10 million who lived there prior to WWII. In the US where at least so far Jews have been more welcome than any other country other than Israel, Jews have continued with this Left Wing ideological preference.
In the US Jews made a compromise and secularized their religion in the Reform and Conservative movements so today Judaism in the US is a hybrid of Jewish culture and Socialist/Communist thinking.
The Orthodox Jews are not like this at all and a portion of the other Jews are seeing the Democrats as their enemy. The new Democrat Party hates Israel, embraces it enemies and have no further use for Jews. Whereas Jews may have been one of the Democrats most important constituencies, those days are long gone. Jews are now completely expendable and now are a group the Democrats detest.
We will see how this all plays out for American Jews sooner rather than later. Either Jews leave the Democrat Party or they remain as people who are Jewish at birth but become 100% Secular Leftists, remain Democrats and are willing to denounce or hide their Jewish identity.
That’s my two cents.