Posted on 11/05/2004 11:10:33 AM PST by Jaysin
Hi all:
As an orthodox (obervant) Jew, I want to explain to everyone about the Jewish vote, why we vote the way we do, and most importantly to us conservatives--the future of the Jewish vote.
First off, most of the Jewish democrats are older. they vote with some preconceived notion that the democratic party represents the people and the underdog (Jews have historically been a persecuted minority)
Many Jews have a complete disdain for their heritage (as most of my family does) So they see religion as "the old world" and the rigidness of Orthodox Jewish Law as barbaric. Democrats (supposedly) represent the enlightened view. Most Jews are very intelligent and overthink, overanalyze, and overeverything to the point that they lose their minds.
Believe it or not, but Israel is NOT the main thing concerning Jews. it really isn't--the more secular they are, the less connection to Israel, and most Hassidim wont even acknowledge Israel's existence as a governing state.
And now the cold hard reality of things. The Jewish demographics of America are changing very rapidly. The non-orthodox Jewish community is rapidly declining through such factors as intermarriage, loss of identity, having less children at a later age, and old-age. The orthodox community is by far the fastest growing element of the Jewish world (both here and in Israel) today. Orthodox Jews are generally intelligent, business savvy, socially conservative, and we stick together. the average orthodox home consists of 5 to 8 children. There is also a large "Ba'al Teshuva" (secular Jews becoming orthodox) movement throughout the world (including myself--I come from a standard unaffiliated family and have become quite observant in the past 5 years)
The orthodox Jews vote conservative because it is what we believe is the more morally correct party to vote for. We are not interested in gay rights, leftism, radicalism, blind peace treaties etc....
I believe the Jewish vote in 2004 was considerably higher then 24%. Orthodox Jews only live in certain communities, and many of them keep their views to themselves. over the past year I met AT LEAST 25 Jews who voted Gore in 2000 and were now 100% for Bush. It was almost a give-in that the people sitting next to me in services were Republicans. I did meet several Jews that weren't thrilled with Bush but were voting for him because of his strong stand on terrorism and because "they just couldn;t vote for Kerry"
SO now for the future--the stereotypical Boca Raton Jewish liberals are in their 70's and 80's. They will only be able to influence the next 2 elections at the most. The orthodox community is growing rapidly and these younger Jews are staunch Conservatives (usually). I seriously predict that the Jewish vote will be more and more Republican in each subsequent election and it might even be fair to say that by 2016--a majority of the Jews in America will vote Republican.
All is of this is just my opinion but I would bet on it if I were a gambling man.
SO with all that said, It is Friday, and I am going to go home for the Sabbath and discuss the election with my friends.
That doesn't mean there's a "religious element" to anything I've said. If the subject of this thread had been Christians of Polish or Hungarian descent, my comments would have been no different.
Thank you very much. You explained a lot of what is puzzling to many on this board. GLTY.
When you understand that Reform Judaism (the largest sect in the US) used to have as its base the concept of the local synagogue replacing the original Temple (hence they call them temples), and were very much anti-zionist, having essentially placed their permanent future outside of Israel.
In recent decades, their has been a trend away from that philosophy and toward Israel's support, but IMHO many still have that traditional attitude that there is nothing special about Israel that cant be done right here at home (so to speak).
It is this Jewish voice that you often hear that is contrary to Israel's hard right stand on issues of security, and is determined to strengthen the voice of Reform Jews in Israel itself (but that is for another thread).
Very good post, I hope your analysis proves correct.
I'm not Jewish but I'm a Zionist since 9/11.
On target assessment!
bump
good! All Jews know that Jews are a hard people to understand.
Hey! It's Friday night...doesn't your animated fishy EVER quit downloading? Must have a helluva diet.
I am a reform Jew in my 40's. I live in Westchester, NY. While we do look at the Orthodox community as a bunch of atavistic fanatics trying to live as if they were in the 1600's my community has a great allegiance towards Israel. We are all highly educated, successful and affluent. I personally voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. Most of my friends however did not. I really have no explanation other than they are following in their parents' footsteps. I explain to them that a vote for Kerry is a vote against Israel but it just doesn't seem to register.
They are died in the wool liberals and so fear a religious takeover by the right wingers that they keep voting 'rat. We are only 40 miles from ground zero and yet they act as if they believe it will never happen again. I personally believe their attitude is similar to the Jews of Europe pre WWII.
I have little patience for them. I just say I am very happy that they are so in tune with the political party of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and move on. I thank my lucky stars that the non-Jews in the midwest and flyover country understand the situation and made sure that Bush was re-elected.
LOL So what else is new? Do you know how much fun I have just sitting back and watching her rip on jewhaters? They always flock to these threads.
I agree that "most Chassids" believe in Israel as a state. I am not sure how the actual population breaks down but I was under the impression that Lubavicher Chassids are a large %age of this country's chassidic population and I know they support Israel.
May God Bless you and your family, always.
You want honesty?
I am a conservative, not Orthodox, Jew but I live in a community where there are lots of Orthodox. I know several wonderful chassidic rabbis. One is really a very holy man, and yet he persists with a frankly unholy fear of Christianity. He fights against messianics (people of Jewish origin who are now Christians and who try to convert Jews to Christianity using some subterfuge) as though this was our worst enemy. It's dirty pool, but it's hardly the worst problem for Jews today.
People in the local (chassidic) Orthodox community will not say "Christmas," for example. They will only say "December 24th" or "X-mas." I consider that to be not Judaism but superstition, which the Torah actually does not approve of.
There is something wrong when you FEAR another religion that much. I love Christians. Christianity is the right religion for Christians. A good Christian and a good Jew are both trying to live a holy life in G-d's path, and it doesn't get much better than that. Neither is a threat to the other and we should coexist joyously. But some chassids have lived so isolated a life that they have fear of what they do not understand.
When "The Passion" came out, they were afraid that "it" might start to happen here. Many Jews have family members who went through the Holocaust. Antisemitism begins small, through social jealousy and religious bigotry. Most Jews were relieved to find that Christians were thrilled with the movie but not filled with bitterness toward Jews. Passion plays used to inflame Christians specifically against Jews. Gibson using that same word in his title was cause for ears perking up, at least, in the Jewish community. When I think of what my father lived through, I can understand the slight anxiety. It wasn't all that long ago.
But all's well and I am personally very happy that a pro-Christian movie did so well, considering how anti-Christian Hollywood is. It offends ME how openly Hollywood hates all Christianity (unless it's a "black church"??), and I am not even Christian.
I tried to talk to my liberal brother about it. Isn't it ironic that those who fear a religious takeover are the least religious themselves? They seem to be liberals first, Jews second.
This is it in a nutshell.
I suppose the notion of "NYC Jews" also includes radical campus Jewish intelligencia all over the country.
I agree that the Orthodox community may be the fastest growing part of the Jewish population. However, the atheistic anti-Israel left wingers by far outnumber the rest of the Jews, so I wouldn't expect big changes in the Jewish vote any time soon - that is, if some really spectacular confrontation between the forces of Good and Evil doesn't occur.
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