The politics of American Jews

Author / Creator

Weisberg, Herbert F., author

Available as

Online

Physical

Summary

"Jewish voting is both distinctive and paradoxical. Stereotypes about the voting habits of American Jews include that they vote at unusually high levels, that they're all liberals, that they vote o...

"Jewish voting is both distinctive and paradoxical. Stereotypes about the voting habits of American Jews include that they vote at unusually high levels, that they're all liberals, that they vote overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates in disregard to their self-interest, and that Israel is their most important issue. Not only are all of those claims wrong, but, more important, they obscure aspects of Jews' voting behavior that are much more interesting. This book uncovers new perspectives on Jews' political choices by analyzing the unprecedented amount of survey data that is now available, including both surveys of Jews and surveys that permit contrasting the voting of Jews with that of comparable non-Jews. The data suggest several mysteries about Jewish voting. It is known that more Jews are Democrats than are liberals, but there has not been a previous exploration of why more politically conservative Jews are not Republicans. Rather than all Jews being flaming liberals, a substantial number of social issue liberals favor a smaller government. The Democratic presidential vote of Jews was about the same in 2012 as in 1932, paradoxical stability given that the same people would not have voted in these two elections. And while most American Jews care about Israel, most also are ambivalent about many of its policies; as a result, they are less likely to vote on the basis of what Israelis consider Israel's best interest. A fresh picture of Jews' political behaviors shows Jews are no longer politically monolithic. They vote on the basis of their self-interest and their values, but not all Jews share the same self-interest or the same values."--

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