Talk Elections

Bush Made Inroads Among Jewish Voters, Study Shows
-Those who attended weekly religious services were split between the president and Kerry.

By Ronald Brownstein, Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-jews12apr12,1,2611434.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

That's an interesting article.  It suggests for the first time that I've seen that Jewish voters are following the same behavior pattern as other voters, albeit with a much stronger than average lean to the Democrats because:

1. Even among Jews who attend services regularly, only about 50% voted for Bush, while Christians who attend church regularly lean much more heavily Republican; and

2. A higher percentage of Jews than Christians are secular, at least in my observation.  I would guess that a lower percentage of nominal Jews is observant than nominal Christians.

Still, it's interesting to see Jews classed with other white demographic groups, rather than blacks, in terms of the patterns of their voting behavior.

There is a huge divide between Secular-Reform Jews and Orthodox Jews in voting.

Howdy!

This is facinating! I never knew Jews were so unlikely to attend religious service. Unless I am missing something those numbers can't be that way without this being true.

Absolutely. They're almost separate religions.

As long as the Republican party remains the party of social conservatism, most Jews will definitely stick with the Democrats.

My general rule re the Jewish vote: If you don't wear a hat you're a democrat.  Hassids, Lubavitcher and many other orthodox count a great many conservatives in their ranks

That's a pretty good rule, as far as I've observed.

Age is also a factor, because fiscally conservative young Jews are giving up the Democratic party, which gave welfare money to their grandparents, but have no concern for them now that they are well-to-do.

A lot of Jews never were financially liberal, at least by today's definition. They were New Dealers but so was everyone else... the main problem is that most surveys don't have many Jews in them, and good surveys of Jews are rarely done (i.e. when the ADL does a survey, that's the same as simply inventing numbers).

Ha... that's quite true.

Here's Mr. Exception popping up. My parents, brother, and I are secular Jews and all Republican, to varying degrees. 

I'm a conservative Jew, although theologically, you could call me ultra-orthodox. My dad's family is traditionally Republican and my mom began to vote Reoublican after she had kids.