{"id":109153,"date":"2016-10-28T07:13:34","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T15:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=109153"},"modified":"2016-10-28T07:13:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T15:13:34","slug":"jewish-americans-dont-vote-with-israel-in-mind-they-vote-as-liberals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=109153","title":{"rendered":"Jewish Americans don’t vote with Israel in mind, they vote as liberals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professor Jonathan Bronitsky writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The political behavior of the preponderance of Jewish Americans is in no way substantively different than that of secular liberals of any other religious background. Reform Judaism has been called \u201cthe Democratic party platform with holidays thrown in,\u201d and the services in a Reform temple have been described as \u201cthe Democratic Party at prayer.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nor is the association between Jews and the Democratic Party a new phenomenon. Since exit polling began in 1972, Democratic presidential candidates have received on average 70% of the Jewish vote. In fact, according to several scholars, the 1920 presidential election was the last contest for the White House in which the Republican candidate bested the Democratic candidate among Jewish voters. And that was because the Socialist candidate, Eugene V. Debs, siphoned support from the Democratic candidate, Ohio Gov. James M. Cox, capturing 38% of the Jewish electorate. <\/p>\n

Personally, I\u2019ve grown accustomed to Reform and even Conservative rabbis using \u2014 and arguably exploiting \u2014 the pulpit, especially during the High Holidays, to advocate for public policies virtually unilaterally endorsed by the Democratic Party (e.g., universal healthcare and gun control). Still, I was taken aback this year when a rabbi in my hometown used her sermon to preach the benefits and necessity of electing America\u2019s first female president. I\u2019m no constitutional scholar, but that action would seem to be a violation of her institution\u2019s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit status.<\/p>\n

The \u201cJewish vote\u201d matters, but most Jewish Americans don\u2019t vote as Jews; they vote as liberals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Professor Jonathan Bronitsky writes: The political behavior of the preponderance of Jewish Americans is in no way substantively different than that of secular liberals of any other religious background. Reform Judaism has been called \u201cthe Democratic party platform with holidays … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t