Obama’s Approval Rating Is 64 Percent, Among American Jews

By Eric Fingerhut (JTA) October 2, 2009

Sixty-four percent of American Jews approve of President Obama’s job performance, the highest of any religious group surveyed in a new Gallup poll.

The Jewish job approval number was also signficantly higher than the national average of 52 percent approval for Obama.

The 64 percent is down from 83 percent job approval among Jews in January, but the decline is no greater than the one seen in the general population. Obama’s approval rating is down 14 percentage points among the general population in those nine months and 19 points among Jews, which both represent an approximate 20 percent drop. In its analysis, Gallup suggested that the numbers mean Obama’s policies on Israel and the Middle East did not have a disproportionate effect on his approval ratings in the Jewish community.

Obama’s ratings among other religious groups were lower. He received 54 percent approval among Catholics, 47 percent among Protestants and just 32 percent approval from Mormons.

The only subgroup in the poll that rated Obama higher than Jews were atheists, agnostics or those who had no religious affiliation. Among them, Obama has a 65 percent approval rating.

The poll also found that Jews were still overwhelmingly Democratic – 66 percent surveyed said they were Democrats, compared to 27 percent who identified as Republicans.

The poll was based on interviews conducted throughout September with 379 Jews; the margin of error is plus or minus 6 percentage points.

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