Opinion | American Jews Are Politically Homeless Again

With antisemitism everywhere on the rise, including in the Democratic Party, there is still no clear sign that American Jews have begun to abandon the Democrats. Past polls have shown 7 in 10 American Jews voting Democratic in recent presidential elections, and my guess is that the ratio may even be higher in 2024. A joke has it that Reform Judaism is nothing more than the Democratic Party platform with holidays added. I don’t hear many Republicans laughing.

How has it come about that the Jews, a people known for their cerebral powers, often vote and act against their own best interests? Might it be that until the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, the Jews had almost no firsthand or direct experience of political power? Yiddish is said to be the only modern language never to have been spoken by a ruling class. Before the formation of the state of Israel, Jews were perennially political outsiders.