US Jews overwhelmingly backed Democrats in midterms

(RNS) — For a lot of American Jews, the midterm election outcomes introduced a collective sigh of aid when Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, misplaced his race, defeated by Josh Shapiro, the state’s legal professional normal and a fellow Jew.

The U.S. Jewish group has strained prior to now few months underneath a barrage of antisemitic assaults from a number of instructions: the rap artist Ye, Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and even former President Donald Trump.

Mastriano appeared most horrifying of all: A professional-Trump Christian nationalist (although he dismissed the label) and 2020 election denier, the state senator from Gettysburg had proven himself to be illiberal of spiritual minorities and his marketing campaign had paid an antisemitic proper wing activist as a marketing consultant.

As prior to now, Jews throughout the nation voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates — 74% to 25%, in accordance with a brand new exit ballot of 800 registered Jewish voters sponsored by the pro-Israel group J Road. However this yr their votes had been as a lot towards one thing or somebody — as within the case of Mastriano. The J Road ballot confirmed {that a} whopping 97% of American Jews mentioned they had been involved about antisemitism.

Graphic by GBAO, Courtesy of J Road

In addition they laid the blame for rising antisemitism on the ft of Trump and the Republican Get together. The ballot, performed Nov. 1-8, discovered that 76% of Jews imagine Trump and his Republican allies are instantly answerable for the rise in antisemitism and white supremacy in the USA. On one other query, 74% of U.S. Jews mentioned Trump and the “Make America Nice Once more” motion are a “menace to Jews in America.”

“There’s a new aspect of the Jewish vote that takes place within the aftermath of Charlottesville and Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol and the high-profile antisemitism happening within the nation proper now,” mentioned Jim Gerstein, founding companion of GBAO Methods, which performed the ballot for J Road. “It frightens individuals and introduces a brand new dynamic.”

Final month, the previous president attacked American Jews for being insufficiently supportive of him. “Fantastic Evangelicals are way more appreciative of (Trump’s file on Israel) than the individuals of the Jewish religion, particularly these dwelling within the U.S.,” Trump mentioned.

Within the ballot, 55% of Jews cited concern for democracy as their prime difficulty. The second most essential difficulty on Jewish voters’ minds on this yr’s midterms was abortion — 40% mentioned it led them to vote.

“I’ve by no means seen a single occasion rework an election the way in which I noticed the Dobbs choice rework this election, except for 9/11, which reworked the 2002 election,” Gerstein mentioned, referring to Dobbs v. Jackson, the Supreme Courtroom case that discovered that the Structure doesn’t grant a proper to an abortion.

Jewish custom permits abortion and typically even requires it, when the lifetime of the pregnant individual is in danger. Jewish leaders throughout the spectrum have decried rising restrictions on abortion. On Wednesday, about 100 rabbis from the Conservative Jewish motion gathered in a St. Louis park to protest that state’s ban on abortion.

RELATED: Abortion rights scored the most important midterm victory

Members of the Orthodox Jewish group solid their ballots at a polling heart Nov. 8, 2022, within the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photograph/Wong Maye-E)

In Tuesday’s midterms, the overwhelming majority of Jewish candidates for Congress or for state governorships had been Democrats. One exception, Lee Zeldin, a Republican congressman from New York who ran for governor, misplaced.

Orthodox Jews, who make up about 9% of the U.S. Jewish inhabitants, are an outlier in terms of Democratic Get together allegiance. Of the 25% of Jewish voters who solid their votes for Republican candidates, self-described Orthodox Jews represented the overwhelming majority.

However even amongst this group there have been fractures.

In an uncommon rebuke at some point after the election, an influential Haredi rabbi from Orange County, New York, known as out his fellow Orthodox Jews for his or her uncritical help of Trump.

Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum of the Satmar sect in Kiryas Joel, about 60 miles north of New York Metropolis, advised college students in his yeshiva that Trumpism has twisted the minds of many Jews. “It brainwashed individuals — and that’s so painful,” Teitelbaum mentioned.

Not like many different Haredi Jews in New York, Teitelbaum threw his help behind Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who received the election.

The ballot additionally confirmed a deep disapproval of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a gaggle that backs pro-Israel candidates, each Democratic and Republican.

This previous yr, AIPAC endorsed 109 of the 147 Republicans who refused to affirm President Joe Biden’s election on Jan. 6, 2021. The exit ballot discovered that 72% of Jewish voters disapproved of AIPAC endorsing and fundraising for candidates who voted towards certifying the election.

“The Jewish group continues to be a constant center-left voting group, mentioned Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Road’s president. “Most significantly, it’s a group deeply involved about democracy.”

The ballot had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 proportion factors.

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