50% of the financial donations to the Democratic Party and 25% of those
to Republicans come from Jews. Ten US senators are Jewish, as are three
Supreme Court justices. And yet, Jews are a mere 2% of the American
population. How did they become so influential, and why are most of them
voting for Clinton—except for the Orthodox?(Disagree - Witness all the Hasidic sects)
US Jewry only makes up two percent of the electorate, so even if the
entire Jewish community comes as one to vote (which won’t happen), it
cannot in any way sway the outcome of the elections in favor of one
nominee or another. And yet, “the Jewish vote” is a term that has been
accompanying US election cycles over the years, and it appears there
have never been so many efforts made to win the support of such a small
community.
The simplest answer to the question why do US presidential candidates
try to woo the Jewish community is that: Jews is news. It’s always
interesting to know who the Jewish community supports, and what the
overall mood within the community is.
But a closer, more in-depth examination reveals several more established reasons to the incessant courting of the Jews.
A study conducted by Prof. Gil Troy as part of the Ruderman Program
for American Jewish Studies at Haifa University raises several reasons
that could provide an explanation for Trump and Clinton’s pro-Israel
speeches and statements.
“American Jews are relatively quite wealthy, they’re large donors and
very politically committed,” said Troy, a US presidential historian and
a history lecturer at McGill University in Montreal.
“According to
estimates, the Jewish contributions to the current presidential election
constituted 50 percent of the sum total of donations to the Democratic
Party and some 25 percent of the sum total of donations to the
Republican Party.”
Troy went on to note that in key swing-states, which help determine
the outcome of the election, there is a high concentration of Jews, and
they have a considerable influence relative to the community’s size.
The fact the overall voter turnout in the US barely passes 50
percent, while the voter turnout in the Jewish community is 85 percent,
also increases the importance of the Jewish vote.
Another reason is that much like in Hollywood, there are quite a few
Jews in key positions across the US. Beyond the Jewish share in the
presidential candidates’ campaigns, there are also 10 Jewish senators,
19 Jewish Congressmen and three Jewish Supreme Court justices. It’s hard
to ignore such a significant presence of members of the Jewish
community in senior positions, and this presence has a cumulative,
significant effect.
However, Troy claims that on the practical level—rather than the
political one or in consciousness—the Jews only played a marginal role
in most election outcomes. “Even with a high voter turnout and high
concentrations of Jews in key states, there simply isn’t enough American
Jews to affect the US elections,” he said.
Good news for Clinton
The Republican nominees can give warm speeches at AIPAC (the
pro-Israeli lobby in Washington), embrace Israeli Prime Minister
Netanyahu and make decisive statements against Iran and Israel’s
enemies, but on election day they will almost always be disappointed.
Since the 1928 elections, most of the Jews have been liberals, with some
70 percent voting for the Democrats.
In his study, Troy determines that the classic explanation for Jews’
support of the Democratic Party is the liberal nature of Judaism. Basic
Jewish tenets like charity, justice and social justice find fertile
ground in liberal ideology. In addition to that, many American Jews
consider their liberalism part of their Jewish heritage—like an
impressive immigration story, silver candlesticks, or grandma’s Matzah
ball soup recipe.
Historically, it was President Franklin D. Roosevelt—a great liberal
icon—who became the object of admiration for US Jews and brought them to
the Democratic Party. And even though the Republican Party is more
pro-Israel than before, and is even perceived as more pro-Israel than
the Democratic Party, American Jews continue voting for the left, which
represents their mentality, ideology and cultural identity.
In this regard, Troy notes that Jews tend to vote for liberal values
more than for pro-Israeli stances. This doesn’t mean that American Jews
aren’t pro-Israeli. On the contrary, they perceive the Democratic Party
as taking a strong pro-Israeli stance.
“Today more than ever, many American Jews are sticking to their
liberalism,” explains Troy. “They are united by their fear of the
Evangelists, of the Donald Trumps and of the Tea Partiers. Their
liberalism is defined by freedom and autonomy.”
All this is excellent news for Hillary Clinton. Recent history
teaches that over 70% of Jews voted for Obama for both of his
presidential terms, despite his many points of friction with the Israeli
government, largely because of his support for marriage equality,
healthcare and other subjects on the liberal agenda.
A party of gentiles
During the Democratic primaries, Clinton competed against Bernie
Sanders, the first Jew to win a presidential primary. Despite his
Judaism, Sanders’s views on Israel seemed closer to those of Obama.
Sanders believed in Israel, but also said that we need to discuss “the
needs of the Palestinian people.”
In contrast, Clinton has always maintained the classic strong
position of supporting Israel—she has condemned Hamas, terrorism and
Sanders’s ambivalence. During her time as a senator, she stood out as a
dedicate supporter of the Jewish state. The bottom line is that, despite
the historic title of “first Jew to…”it turned out that Clinton won two
thirds of the Jewish vote in the primaries.
Now Clinton is positioned before the continuing Republican tendency
in which politicians compete against each other to show just who loves
Israel more. Trump was even quoted as saying that he couldn’t understand
how his Jewish friends financially supported Obama when the president
himself was so unfaithful to Israel.
Trump’s question has a complicated answer that Israelis won’t like
hearing: Most Jews who vote don’t put Israel at the top of their list of
priorities, but rather to prefer to stick with liberal values, which
are not met by the Republican Party.
In addition, the revolution that began during the Reagan
administration—during which time the complete identification with
Evangelical Christians began—branded the Republicans as a party of
gentiles, and despite their support of Israel, this group has an
internal agenda that is seen as contrary to the Jewish agenda.
More Orthodox, more Republicans? Not Lately! (Disagree - Ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic goes Democrat!)
Trump himself doesn’t attract the typical Jewish voter. According to
Troy, the candidate’s controversial pronouncements, combined with his
personality and agenda on foreign and domestic matters, created cultural
barriers and political disgust towards him within the liberal Jewish
community.
Many American Jews see him as an existential threat and don’t
hesitate to compare him to Hitler. His candidacy has conjured racist and
anti-Semitic ghosts. With all this commotion, Clinton enjoys a
significant advantage with voting Jews, and the Jewish consensus loyal
to Democrats remains in place.
It’s difficult to fully segment the Jewish vote, as the sample size
is relatively small. However, previous studies have shown that while the
distribution of Jews is 70% voting Democrat and only 22% Republican,
amongst Orthodox Jews the data are different. They are more included to
vote Republican at 57% and only 36% Democrat. “We can say generally that
the more the Jew is Orthodox, the more he tends to be Republican,”
summarized Troy. (Not necessarily at all)
Whom are we against?
If you ask Israelis what characterizes Judaism in their opinion, the
answer would be conservatism. But in the USA, the answer is the
opposite. Troy explains that this comes from deep differences between
the communities. “The history of Israeli Jews is not similar to that in
the US. While in Israel, tradition is something that is present in
everyday life and the rabbinate and Orthodoxy have a role in how Judaism
is perceived, in the US, Judaism is the right to be free and completely
voluntarily realize signs of religion or tradition.”
He continued, “Jews in the US are happy to be free. It’s an ancient
Jewish dream to be like everybody, citizens of the large world. It’s not
parallel to what we see in Israel or the challenges that stand before
Jews in Israel. The liberal values and voting for Democrats reflects the
mood of American Jewry.”
Troy struggled to see a future in which Jews left the liberal camp en
masse: “Since Reagan’s victory in 1980, they’ve been saying that the
time has come for Jews to cross over to the Republicans, but it hasn’t
happened. True, there’s a Jewish vote in the right, but since 2000,
we’ve actually seen the liberals increase. The prevailing view is that
liberalism and Judaism are the same thing.
“We always think whom we’re for, but sometimes the question is whom
are we against. The Jews came to the US in the beginning of the last
century, and since then they’ve been free, and they’re afraid that the
Christian right and their agenda will take America back to the 50s. More
than half of the population see supreme value in the ability to be free
in their lives, and this is threatened by the right.”
A few hundred thousand Israelis also hold American citizenship. Asked
if there was such a thing as an “Israeli vote” in the US elections,
Troy answered, “I think that we’re beginning to see that. We’re trying
to build an Israeli-American identity, when it’s pretty clear that in
this case, being pro-Israeli plays a central role, and it’s an important
value at election time. Some mix between conservatism and secularism
speaks more to this community.”
Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation that works
to strengthen the ties between Israel and American Jewry, said, “While
Israel is not the central issue for Jewish voters, it remains an
important issue. Most Jewish voters want to elect a president who will
support the Jewish state. Because the US is Israel’s biggest ally, it’s
important for Israelis to follow and better understand American politics
and its impact on them.
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