First off, hate is a strong word. I doubt most Jews hate her. Dislike, not care for? Sure.
2nd, most Jews probably don’t like her because most Jews are liberals(and on the left side and more liberal than most at that)and urban/upscale/intellectual type folks...and she’s pretty much the polar(word used deliberately)opposite of that.
Northeast liberals tend not to like people who are religious(especially evangelical christians). They don’t like people they see as “hicks” or “white trash”. They make a big deal about going to the Ivy League, being intellectual, urbane, witty, cosmopolotan, etc...
It’s why they liked Obama but didn’t take to hucksters and more typical old-school blacks like Sharpton or Jackson who don’t project the same campus cool and smarts that Obama does. They see a woman who went to the University of Idaho and that doesn’t play well. They don’t like having 5 kids. They don’t like the husband who also isn’t an intellectual and is more into the hands-on and outdoors approach. Not too many Jews are going out hunting and fishing, having animal skins in their office or moose heads on the wall, and working with their hands and racing snowmachines in subzero temps. He didn’t graduate college. Again, compare that to Columbia/Harvard and Princeton/Harvard Barack and Michelle. If Todd Palin had a diploma from Harvard Law they’d probably be a little more comfortable.
I suspect if you polled Jews and broke it down by ideology/party/region you’d get different results. Most democratic/liberal Jews from the urban areas in the northeast, south Florida and the west coast(the overwhelming majority of Jews) probably can’t stand her. But they couldn’t stand Bush, Cheney, Gingrich, Reagan or any other conservative. It’s not unique to her. They just don’t like conservatives(and especially the more christian and southern conservatives). But republican/conservative Jews(the small % of them), Jews in the South and more rural areas(what few of them there are), more religious/orthodox Jews, etc... they probably like her, certainly as much as they like any other Republican.
It’s not really a big deal in the big sceme of things. Commentary has a large Jewish base so this issue matter to them, but in terms of winning an election for a Republican, the Jewish vote is irrelevant. It only really matters in NY(possibly FL). And if the GOP is close enough in either of those 2 states for the Jewish vote to come into play, they’ve likely won the state already.
In 2008, for example, McCain/Palin did about as well among Jews as Obama/Biden did among evangelicals, but you don’t see any “why do Christians hate Obama?” articles. And that was after the economic meltdown and it became obvious for 6 weeks that McCain was finished. If the election had taken place under normal circumstances and there was no sept/oct meltdown, McCain/Palin would have easily gotten the 24% Bush did in 2004 and probably a few pts higher. As it was they still did a few pts better than the 19% of Jews who voted for Bush in 2000.
But the answer to her question is the same answer you’d get if you asked “why do liberals hate Sarah Palin”. Most Jews are liberals. There’s your answer.
Most Jews are secular, educated, urban liberals. They’re pro-choice, pro-gay rights and gay marriage. They’re anti-gun. Don’t understand hunting. Value higher education and careers like doctors, lawyers, accountants, professors etc... They don’t get the outdoors and living in rural areas far from New York or Los Angeles or DC or Miami.
I agree, the vote is mostly irrelevant. But the campaign against Palin the Jewish community could launch is not. I do think future attacks have been made difficult because the Kos kids, Letterman and the snot media went overboard. When I hear someone attack her, my first reaction now is to wonder if they are mental. If they have some sick sex thing going on in their head. The men who go after her can be profiled and the profile is not manly or healthy.
But they couldn’t stand Bush, Cheney, Gingrich, Reagan or any other conservative.
Gringrich, yes..sorta. But the intensity of the attacks against Palin are unlike anything I've ever seen.