Why are American Jews so Democratic if Republicans are so pro-Israel?

[darklordoftech]

1. The American government doesn't effect Israel much.

2. The GOP exagerrates the difference between themselves and the Democrats on Israel.

[darklordoftech]

A history of being discrimated against tends to make people vote against candidates who preach religion, militarism, war, and patriotism.

[darklordoftech]

In America, Jews disproportionately tend to...

(1) Have college degrees
(2) Live in urban areas

Those things, particularly when taken together, make it extremely unlikely that someone is going to vote Republican.

If Republicans really want to win a larger share of the Jewish vote, they should start a campaign to discourage young Jews from attending college and convince them to go live in places like Huntington, WV and Cape Girardeau, MO. Over time, they will "assimilate" to their new surroundings (of course, they will also probably stop identifying as Jewish).

This is true, but Jews have been voting Democratic far longer than other urban/upscale suburban college-educated white groups have been.  They were some of the strongest supporters of FDR and have been solidly Dem since.  It is surprising that Hillary did worse than Kerry with Jewish voters, for example.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-voting-record-in-u-s-presidential-elections

There is strong Democratic ancestry at play here, on top of the contemporary factors associated with Democratic voting, such as being a college-educated person residing in an urban area.

As for Kerry, I wouldn't be surprised if many Jews thought "You're unpatriotic if you oppose my war" sounded like Hitler calling them "un-German".

[darklordoftech]

The Republicans weren't consistently "the party of Israel" before 9/11.

[darklordoftech]

I should also point out that people don't like being told that they should vote a certain way for their own good and some people vote based on their values and not their self-interests.