What does it mean that American Jews rank Israel low on their priority list?
A child waves an Israeli flag during a rally outside of the Israeli embassy on Oct. 8, 2023 in Washington, DC. Photo by Getty Images
By Lauren Markoe September 9, 2024
Even as Israel is at war, the Jewish state remains a second-tier issue for most American Jews.
A poll of Jewish Amercians released Monday shows that 9% name Israel as one of the two most important issues to them.
Among the Orthodox, who represent about a tenth of the Jewish population in the U.S., the number is much higher: 31%. That compares to 8% of Reform, 16% of Conservative and 3% of unaffiliated Jews who put Israel in their topmost slots.
What ranks?
Democracy and abortion: 44% of respondents named democracy as one of their two most important issues, and 28% named abortion.
Israel’s relatively low position on the list — behind not only democracy and abortion, but also the economy, climate change, national security, antisemitism, immigration and healthcare — aligns with past polls of American Jewry. Some might expect that this year, given the ongoing war with Hamas, and attacks on Israel from Iran, Hezbollah and other group’s hostile to the Jewish state, Israel might have risen as a priority.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which sponsored the poll, said Israel’s ranking doesn’t mean Jewish voters don’t care about it. Another poll question showed that 75% of respondents said they feel an emotional connection to Israel.
Support for Israel is a “threshold voting issue” for Jews, said Soifer. “Democratic candidates, including Kamala Harris, far exceed that threshold level of support. Jewish voters are therefore prioritizing other key issues at the ballot box.”
Democracy and abortion, she added, were also the top two issues for Jewish voters in a 2022 survey.
The poll showed that among the three-quarters of respondents who described themselves as attached to Israel, 43% called themselves very attached. That compares to 14% who felt not too attached and 11% who felt not at all attached.
A full 100% of Orthodox Jews said they were attached.
Desire for a ceasefire; dislike of Netanyahu
The poll also showed overwhelming support for a ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, with 87% of respondents in favor. Less than 9% of non-Orthodox but most Orthodox Jews — 59% — opposed a deal either somewhat or strongly. The stark differences between Orthodox and non-Orthodox American Jews in the survey reflect a broad and growing divide reflected in earlier surveys.
The poll also showed widespread dislike for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: 63% viewed him unfavorably. But even more — 76% —took a negative view of former President Donald Trump, who is running against Harris. By a wide margin, respondents said they would vote for her over Trump: 68% to 25%.
Jim Gerstein, who conducted the poll, said Netanyahu’s standing with American Jews began to fall in 2015 when he addressed a Republican-led Congress to attack the Iran deal negotiated by President Barack Obama, who was very popular among Jewish voters.
“When Netanyahu went on to embrace Trump,” Gerstein said, “his support among American Jews crashed and has never recovered even during a war when Jews in the U.S. feel very connected to Israel,”
Sam Markstein, spokesperson for the Republican Jewish Coalition, said the poll is flawed. “The only poll that matters is Election Day, Nov. 5,” he said, and the voters that will determine the outcome are in swing states.
“And so these national numbers — while good for headlines — don’t actually tell the story of who’s winning the election,” he continued, “because a Jewish voter from Chicago, a Jewish voter from the Upper East Side or from Beverly Hills, does not impact the election in nearly the same way as a Jewish American living in Atlanta or Detroit or Phoenix or Las Vegas.”
The web-based poll, conducted between August 27 and September 1, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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