NOVEMBER 17, 2024 12:31 ET
BY GABY WINE
A new poll of Jewish voters has revealed that the Orthodox community voted overwhelmingly in favour of Trump, with 74 per cent casting their vote for the Republican president-elect.
The president-elect was also given the backing of Jews who identified most closely with Israel, who said that Trump’s stance was one of the main reasons for their voting choice. Forty-eight per cent of all respondents of the Jewish Electorate Institute’s survey saying they believed Trump would be a stronger supporter of Israel than Biden.
But, according to figures, released by the non-partisan Jewish Electorate Institute, the Orthodox community was the only Jewish group which backed Trump by a majority.
Reform, Conservative and non-denominational and unaffiliated Jews all gave their vote to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris at a rate of 84, 75 and 70 per cent respectively.
These numbers suggest that non-Orthodox Jews were one of the most consistently supportive constituencies for Democrats. By contrast, nearly every other socio-economic group shifted their vote to Trump from the 2020 elections, most notably Hispanic voters, who awarded Trump an additional 25 points, according to an exit poll by Edison Research.
While the JEI poll, which surveyed 1,000 Jewish respondents between October 30 and November 8, said that Democrats “turned in their weakest performance” from Jewish voters since 2012, with drop-offs in support ranging from four to 11 points, the figures showed that Trump only made modest gains among Jewish voters.
Kamala Harris still had the overwhelming support of the Jewish population in general, with 71 per cent of their vote going to the Democratic candidate compared to 26 per cent for Trump.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy organisation, wrote soon after the election: “Mainstream Jewish voters remain a steadfast pillar of Democratic support, rejecting the MAGA [Trump’s “Make America Great Again” mantra] agenda despite cynical efforts to divide our community with fear-mongering over Israel and antisemitism.”
However, the direction of the “Jewish vote” has been contested since the start of the election. An exit poll carried out by Fox News showed that Trump won 32 per cent of the vote among the Jewish community, which would have been the strongest show of support for a Republican candidate since the 1988 election of George W. Bush. But it would still only mark a two percentage point improvement for Trump since the 2020 election.
A poll of Jewish voters conducted by the Orthodox Union’s Teach Coalition said that the race between the two candidates was much closer among Jewish voters in some states than in national polling, with Harris winning by just seven points among Jews in Pennsylvania and eight points in New York.
“Jewish votes are up for grabs in key contested races and states,” the group wrote. “They are not voting monolithically or overwhelmingly Democratic.”
The Jewish Electorate Institute commissioned the Mellman Group, which is run by Mark Mellman, the president of Democratic Majority for Israel, to carry out its poll.
