Shmuel Rosner writes for the Jewish Journal:
The Jews of America, generally speaking, lost this election, or so they currently think. Most of them voted for the losing candidate, a vast majority of them view the winning candidate negatively. A poll conducted by Jim Gerstein on behalf of J Street – this is already an Election Day tradition – lets us see some of the nuances related to the Jewish vote. It is an interesting poll, and here is some of what you can find in it other than the headline (70% of Jews voted for Clinton).
1.
Is 70% for her high or low? On the one hand, it is as high as Obama got in 2012. On the other hand, it is lower than 2008 Obama (74%), 2004 Kerry (74%), 2000 Gore (79%), 1996 Clinton (78%), 1992 Clinton (80%). It is higher than 1988 Dukakis (64%).
But is that a satisfactory result from a Democratic viewpoint? I’d say no – it isn’t. Not when Donald Trump was on the ticket. Trump did not stir the expected scare among Jewish voters. The share of the Democratic vote among Jews continues the slow yet steady decline from the early Nineties to today: 80%, 78%, 79%, 74%, 74%, 70%, 70%.
2.
Not all Jews vote the same way. 25% of them voted for Trump. Who are these 25%? Many of them are Orthodox, whose vote was 56% for Clinton, 39% for Trump. But the Orthodox are a relatively small group – just 10% or so of the Jewish population. So there must have been others who also voted for Trump, and here they are: 21% of Reform, 25% of Conservative, 26% of “just Jewish”. So much for the progressive tendencies of all progressive Jews. One in four voted for Trump – whom the other three find to be horrible.
