The Pew Research Center’s “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” released Oct. 1, found that the U.S. Jewish community remains “a largely Democratic, politically liberal group.”
The data compiled from polls and interviews done in the winter and spring of 2013 found that 70 percent of all Jews surveyed describe themselves as “Democrat” or “lean Democratic,” while 22 percent say they are “Republican” or “lean Republican.”
The study’s figures for the general U.S. public are 49 percent and 39 percent, respectively.
Moreover, 49 percent of all Jews describe themselves as “Liberal,” 29 percent as “Moderate” and 19 percent as “Conservative.” The U.S. general public’s figures are 21 percent, 36 percent and 38 percent, respectively.
“But while Jews overall are a strongly liberal, Democratic group, there are pockets of conservatism and Republicanism within the Jewish population,” the report stated.
Orthodox Jews particularly “identify with or lean toward the Republican Party over the Democratic Party by a 57 percent to 36 percent margin,” the report states. Moreover, 54 percent of Orthodox Jews “consider themselves politically conservative,” according to the study.
The study took a closer look at the community’s views of two issues that tend to divide liberals and conservatives: social acceptance of homosexuality and the “size of government.”
In the first, 82 percent of all Jews surveyed said homosexuality should be accepted by society, while 13 percent said it should be discouraged. This contrasts with 57 and 36 percent respectively of the U.S. general public.
In the second, 54 percent of all Jews surveyed prefer a “bigger government” with “more services” and 38 percent prefer a “smaller government” with “fewer services.”
This also contrasts with the U.S. general public, where the figures are 40 and 51 percent, respectively.
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