Tell me where you’ve heard this before: Jewish voters are unhappy with Barack Obama. He’s seen as insufficiently supportive of Israel. There are questions about whether he can win enough Jewish votes to carry key states. If you guessed “during the 2008 Democratic primaries,” then ding, ding, ding! A loaf of raisin-studded challah for you! Yes, the same concerns that political observers and commentators are raising now about Obama’s relationship with the American Jewish community dogged him as well in his race against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Clinton forged strong ties with Jewish leaders in New York–who were willing to forgive the whole embracing-Suha-Arafat incident–during her time in the Senate, and her strong embrace of Israel contrasted with Obama’s typically measured stance. (At an AIPAC event in 2007, Obama commented that Palestinians suffered more than anyone else in the Middle East.) Overall, 54% of Jewish primary voters backed Clinton while 43% chose Obama. Once Obama captured the nomination, his relationship with Jewish voters was seen as so wobbly that some Republicans even speculated that John McCain could peel off votes to win key states such as Florida and Pennsylvania. Yet on Election Day 2008, 78% of Jewish voters cast their ballots for Obama, just slightly more than voted for Kerry in 2004 and just slightly less than did the same for Gore in 2000. In fact, you have to go back to 1988 to find a presidential election in which the Democratic candidate captured less than three-quarters of the Jewish vote. So why is the political class chattering once again about Obama’s vulnerability with Jewish voters? For starters, his support among Jewish Americans has indeed dropped this year. According to Gallup polls, Obama’s approval rating among Jews was 68% in May, 60% in July, and 54% in September. That’s a significant and steady decline. But the drop has been no steeper or more rapid than the overall decline of Obama’s approval numbers nationally. Jewish Americans continue to hold much more positive opinions of Obama than the average American–14![]()
