Published: 15 November 2022
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Concerns about Republican antisemitism, the future of democracy and reproductive rights are major motivators for American Jews.
Three out of four Jewish Americans voted for Democrats in the US midterm elections, significantly motivated by rising antisemitism and extremism fostered by former president Donald Trump’s influence on the Republican Party.
Jews backed Democrats over Republicans by a 74% -25% margin, according to a GBAO Election Night poll commissioned by J Street, with 55% of voters citing “the state of democracy” as their top issue while 40% cited abortion.
Eighty- five per cent of voters said they were very concerned about antisemitism, with 76% who believed Trump and his Republican allies are responsible for its spike.
Eighty-five per cent of voters said they were very concerned about antisemitism, with 76% who believed Trump and his Republican allies are responsible for its spike.
A further, 74% believe Trump and the Make America Great Again movement are a “threat to Jews in America.”
These concerns over democracy and antisemitism were captured in voters’ sentiments toward the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as well. Seventy-two per cent of Jewish voters said they disapproved of AIPAC’s decision to endorse more than 100 Republicans who refused to certify the 2020 presidential election results.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) disputed the results of the J Street poll, citing a Fox exi poll which found a 65%-33% Democrat-Republican split among Jewish voters.
“J Street doesn’t like the poll, so they shopped around and paid for a poll they do like. The trends are absolutely clear: Jewish voters are moving towards the GOP,” said RJC National Political Director Sam Markstein.
Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer countered, “The future of democracy and reproductive rights were on the ballot in these elections, and three out of every four Jewish voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats because of those two key issues.”
A Haredi rabbi expressed concern about Jews who support Trump.
“Trumpism has infiltrated the Jewish camp and twisted so many minds,” Satmar Grand Rebbe Aron Teitelbaum said in a beginning-of-semester address to Satmar Yeshiva students in Kiryas Yoel, New York.
“When we think of Trumpism, it’s so antithetical to Judaism and it infiltrated our Jewish camp by a gang of hacks who raised their heads,” he said, according to a translation from Rabbi Meyer Labin on Twitter.
READ MORE
Three-Quarters of Jewish Voters Polled Blame Trump for Rise in Antisemitism (Newsweek)
74 Per Cent of Jewish Voters View Trump, MAGA as ‘Threat to Jews in America,’ Poll Finds
American Jewish voters overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates in the US midterms, with democracy and abortion being the key issues of concern
Satmar Rebbe: Trumpism has infiltrated Judaism, twisted many minds (Jerusalem Post)
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Photo: Republican party supporters attend Donald Trump’s rally in support of Senator Marco Rubio’s re-election in Florida’s midterm election EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/ AAP)
