Is There Really a Jewish Vote?

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE Since the 1920s American Jews have retained a strong preference for the Democrats in most presidential elections. Will 2016 be any different? (Photos: AFP/ImageBank)

N obody conducted exit polls when Abraham Lincoln was president but if they had been taken chances are high they would have shown most American Jews voted for the Republican from Illinois. Democrats could not rely on winning the Jewish vote until the mid-1920s when streams of new European Jewish immigrants steeped in socialist and liberal ideologies became the majority among Jewish registered voters.

Since then American Jews have retained a strong preference for the Democrats in most presidential elections. While 2016 should be no different Hillary Clinton is unlikely to receive the 78% of the Jewish vote that Barack Obama received in 2008 and may struggle to reach Obama’s second term level of 69%.

“There is still a sizable portion of the Jewish community that are really worried about where the Democratic Party is going and where it’s gone under Barack Obama” says Professor Gil Troy a visiting professor at the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa and author of a new research paper “The Jewish Vote: Political Power and Identity in US Elections ” which chronologically traces the historical voting patterns of American Jews and analyzes the complex factors that make up the Jewish vote.