were jews republicans before 1928?

[Hnv1]

In many cities - most famously New York - they formed the electoral and activist backbone of the Socialist Party.

Those tended to be Eastern European Jews who came to America at the end of the 19th century.

The German Jews who immigrated in the mid-1800s tended to be fairly affluent small business owners who probably leaned Republican.

The Jews in the South who had been in America since the colonial era (especially South Carolina) tended to be staunch Democrats in line with their non-Jewish counterparts.

There were 2 major hopes for the Jews living in Europe, two ideologies that offered them integration and safe lives. Socialism for the eastern European ones, mainly due to Russia having virtually no middle class until well the 21st century and the few Liberal (economic wise) parties that were there were still ridden with popular folkish anti-Semitism. That's why the Socialist party had so much appeal with the young secular Jews from Slavic countries back then, it was the only ideology willing to accept them. Same was the case for the German Jews and classical liberalism, the early western European socialists had a bias against the Petite bourgeoisie Judaism of western Europe, hence why Jews formed the back bone of most radical (in the old European sense) and liberal parties there.

This division existed in Israel as well with the left-wing parties mostly made of Jews from eastern Europe and liberal parties with Jews from western Europe (with a minority from the Jewish intellectuals of Poland and the Ukraine). For those interested in Israeli culture you can notice how Haaretz was considered right wing in the liberal sense of the word and is now considered the bastion of the left due to the shift in the term (despite the paper not changing its views).

For the American (secular) Jews they had the bulk who turned Dem due to economic reasons early on with the rest joining in when the Rep. turned insane on social issues. Republican Jews nowadays are either: ultra orthodox, extremely hawkish on Israel (religious Zionists) and a fraction of crazy libertarians. Folks I know who are pretty conservative fiscally just can't vote for an evangelical republican party  

(sorry if my English isn't top notch it's obviously not my native language )

[Hnv1]

the early western European socialists had a bias against the Petite bourgeoisie Judaism of western Europe

Yes, Marx and Lassalle certainly had a bias against the community they were attempting to leave behind. (Statement is of course literally true as well as facetious in context. )

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By the time Socialism as a mass movement took shape, not just were Western European Jews not "proletarians", they weren't, on balance, of the other half at all (Eastern European Jewish immigrants to Western Europe being, of course, quite another matter). And of those parties aimed at the haves rather than the have-nots, the sorta-kinda-lefty Liberals were, again, the only ones who'd welcome them - Conservatism having quite the antisemitic strand since its inception, and not only in Germany and Austria.

This also reminds me of that quote I stumbled on once...

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As Jewish nationality was not yet an established term during his time, through Marx's views he was not in fact Jewish (btw the very first Zionist thinkers was Hess - one of Marx adversaries).

Regarding your remark on conservatism: it's true western European conservatives were anti-Semitic but they did so in a rather stately\old fashioned manner they most often just disliked the Jewish nationality or had the old religious arguments (we killed Jesus you see). But none of the European romantic conservative movements showed any of the pure racial hate exhibited by the ideologies that grew from the grass roots socialism of western Europe (Nazism, Fascism, and such). That's why the Jewish community in Germany was so shocked at the rise of Hitler, Germany at the time was the Jewish people biggest hope (more than America with its numerous clauses or WASP\southern racism) and thus it became our biggest disappointment. Up until Hitler's rise to power it was the French ultra-nationalist who showed the greatest amount of racial hatred or the British establishment with its conservative anti-Semitism.
Martin Heidegger's turn is a prime example for the slap in the face that was in store.

I was born in Israel to a Mapam house, we were staunchly pro-soviet once and one of the reasons there was such a wide support back then for Stalin (beyond him "liberating Europe") was that frankly he was a murderous psychopath but he never once showed any signs of true anti-Semitism (his conflict with Trotsky is a different issue). The pogroms of East Europe during the Tzar period would make the KKK ones look like a mild banter. The socialists stopped it, and they always had the credit for it.