Posted on 11/26/2012 7:09:02 PM PST by hecht
Some news, apparently, is fit to print, but not too boldly. Take, for example, the demure self-censorship on display Saturday in the New York Times’ eye-opening report, headlined “On Island, Largely Blue, an Exception: Trump Tower,” on the handful of New York City neighborhoods that voted for Mitt Romney over President Obama. Overall, the city voted Obama over Romney 81% to 18%. The headline and the first five paragraphs were about the two isolated election precincts on the Upper East Side of Manhattan Island where Romney won half or more of the vote. It wasn’t until paragraph 7 to find out that the main news began to trickle out: that the “deepest single bloc of Republican support in all the five boroughs” was a four-square-block section of Gravesend, Brooklyn, “dotted with Sephardic temples and yeshivas.” Finally, well into the jump, we learned that Romney “enjoyed strong support from a range of neighborhoods with large populations of Orthodox Jews.” Many precincts in Borough Park, Kew Gardens Hills and Sheepshead Bay (which is largely Russian, not Orthodox) voted 90% GOP. A note on the accompanying map gave you the money quote: “Mr. Obama’s worst precincts were in Orthodox Jewish areas like Ocean Parkway and Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Kew Gardens Hills in Queens.” The map shows the city’s 5,286 precincts as a sea of blue and red dots, shaded darker or lighter to indicate higher or lower percentages of partisan leaning. The darkest red voted over 80% for Romney, while pale pink gave him 50% to 65%. In addition to the broad swathes of dark red running down Brooklyn from Hasidic Borough Park down Sephardic Ocean Park to Russian Brighton Beach, there are dark red clusters in mostly Italian-American Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and mostly Irish-American (and storm-ravaged) Breezy Point, Queens. The Irish-Italian south shore of Staten Island is all pink, but the borough overall gave Obama a slight edge. There are interesting pink clusters as well in the Irish enclave of Woodlawn in the north Bronx and heavily Italian Pelham Bay in the east Bronx, as well mostly Italian Howard Beach, Queens, plus tiny red clusters in the Satmar section of Williamsburg and the Lubavitch section of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and one isolated red dot in what appears to be the dwindling Modern Orthodox east Bronx enclave of Pelham Parkway. To understand why the Times buried its very serious lede below a frothy Trump headline, consider this Politico story reporting on the Times’ findings. The headline, “Inside Obama’s New York win,” is bland enough. But the report doesn’t mince words: It comes right to the point, noting twice (once in its citywide summary, once in its Brooklyn borough breakdown) that Orthodox Jews were Romney’s strongest base in the Big Apple. Not surprisingly, the Politico story is followed by a lively and at times venomous exchange of comments. A few nuggets: As a traditional/orthodox Jew, I really don’t appreciate all the orthodox bashing going on here. Overall, I think we are a very kind and charitable community. The bottom line is that most traditional Jews voted for Romney for two main reasons #1 they felt that Obama was soft on Muslim extremism/hatred for Israel in the Middle East. … …If the Orthodox and/or hardline view ever gain a dominant foothold in Isreal or among American Jews, I will demand that we losen our ties with Israel.
Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/166681/shhh-ny-times-reports-on-orthodox-gop-vote/#ixzz2DO9EY4kS
The headline and the first five paragraphs were about the two isolated election precincts on the Upper East Side of Manhattan Island where Romney won half or more of the vote. It wasn’t until paragraph 7 to find out that the main news began to trickle out: that the “deepest single bloc of Republican support in all the five boroughs” was a four-square-block section of Gravesend, Brooklyn, “dotted with Sephardic temples and yeshivas.”
Finally, well into the jump, we learned that Romney “enjoyed strong support from a range of neighborhoods with large populations of Orthodox Jews.” Many precincts in Borough Park, Kew Gardens Hills and Sheepshead Bay (which is largely Russian, not Orthodox) voted 90% GOP. A note on the accompanying map gave you the money quote: “Mr. Obama’s worst precincts were in Orthodox Jewish areas like Ocean Parkway and Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Kew Gardens Hills in Queens.”
The map shows the city’s 5,286 precincts as a sea of blue and red dots, shaded darker or lighter to indicate higher or lower percentages of partisan leaning. The darkest red voted over 80% for Romney, while pale pink gave him 50% to 65%. In addition to the broad swathes of dark red running down Brooklyn from Hasidic Borough Park down Sephardic Ocean Park to Russian Brighton Beach, there are dark red clusters in mostly Italian-American Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, and mostly Irish-American (and storm-ravaged) Breezy Point, Queens.
The Irish-Italian south shore of Staten Island is all pink, but the borough overall gave Obama a slight edge. There are interesting pink clusters as well in the Irish enclave of Woodlawn in the north Bronx and heavily Italian Pelham Bay in the east Bronx, as well mostly Italian Howard Beach, Queens, plus tiny red clusters in the Satmar section of Williamsburg and the Lubavitch section of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and one isolated red dot in what appears to be the dwindling Modern Orthodox east Bronx enclave of Pelham Parkway.
To understand why the Times buried its very serious lede below a frothy Trump headline, consider this Politico story reporting on the Times’ findings. The headline, “Inside Obama’s New York win,” is bland enough. But the report doesn’t mince words: It comes right to the point, noting twice (once in its citywide summary, once in its Brooklyn borough breakdown) that Orthodox Jews were Romney’s strongest base in the Big Apple.
Not surprisingly, the Politico story is followed by a lively and at times venomous exchange of comments. A few nuggets:
As a traditional/orthodox Jew, I really don’t appreciate all the orthodox bashing going on here. Overall, I think we are a very kind and charitable community. The bottom line is that most traditional Jews voted for Romney for two main reasons #1 they felt that Obama was soft on Muslim extremism/hatred for Israel in the Middle East. …
…If the Orthodox and/or hardline view ever gain a dominant foothold in Isreal or among American Jews, I will demand that we losen our ties with Israel.
I don't think I can say the same for Reform and Conservative Judaism. The Orthodox also oppose abortion, saying it violates the Torah.
Thank you very much for finding this post.
I am sick to death of the posts here about the “Jewish vote” for the Marxist, when it was the secular Jewish vote, just like it was the cafeteria Catholic vote.
The problem is that the "secular Jewish vote" eclipses and obscures the Orthodox Jewish vote, just as the "cafeteria Catholic vote" eclipses and obscures the "faithful Catholic vote."
The difference is that the Catholic bishops in the USA will count cafeteria dwellers as fellow Catholics, when the bishops issue press reports on the total number of Catholic adherents. I don't see Orthodox Jewish leaders doing anything like that.
...the handful of New York City neighborhoods that voted for Mitt Romney over President Obama. Overall, the city voted Obama over Romney 81% to 18%. The headline and the first five paragraphs were about the two isolated election precincts on the Upper East Side of Manhattan Island where Romney won half or more of the vote.
RC Bishops and Cardinals have forever failed in their solemn duties to deny Holy Communion to abortion-touting Catholics like Pelosi and Biden (dare I say ex-communicate?) because they’re afraid of offending the “ some of the flock”, when in fact, those public denials would do more for the Church than offend.
Also don’t forget, of the Americans who live and voted in Israel, Romney won 85%.
It gets old on every thread where Israel is mentioned, within 3 posts someone runs out that old saw that Jews vote democrat. Among the real ones, not just someone who has a Jewish last name, they are among the most loyal conservative voters to be found.
Bump.
“Take a four-square-block slice of Gravesend, Brooklyn, a warren of high-priced residences dotted with Sephardic temples and yeshivas that happens to be the deepest single bloc of Republican support in all five boroughs. “
Interesting that the strongest Romney vote was from the Sephardic Community - the one with roots in Muslim lands.
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“Interesting that the strongest Romney vote was from the Sephardic Community - the one with roots in Muslim lands.”
Hmm, maybe because that community has had disasterous first hand experience with the treatment of non-Jews in Muslim lands. Maybe because many of their families were forced into exile from those lands when Israel became a nation in 1948.
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