When It Comes to Jewish Voters, Social and Cultural Issues Matter Most

The country is hurtling toward the 2024 election and Americans are as polarized as ever. Although the race for the White House looks more and more like a Biden-Trump rematch, the nation is in an era of unstable majorities and there will be considerable activity among the parties and politicians in the numerous down-ballot races — critical for setting the tone for national politics. 

It is therefore valuable to have a sense of where various constituencies across the American polity stand, and one such group is Jewish Americans who have historically been donors, activists, influencers and voters in high numbers. 

My analysis of almost 100 Jews in a spring 2023 survey organized by the Survey Center on American Life found that the Jewish community is not particularly focused on economic matters, and this is a marked difference from earlier elections. Rather, broadly speaking, American Jews are more motivated by cultural concerns and social policy. As such, parties and politicos should take note that social issues may be more critical in motivating and engaging with the Jewish community as the election of 2024 unfolds.

The survey presented 15 sociopolitical and economic policy issues and asked respondents to evaluate how much each one is a problem in the country today. Jews, like Americans broadly, are not particularly concerned about job opportunities for all Americans. Only 16% of Jews and 21% of Americans see the state of the labor market as an issue. While 62% of Americans view inflation as a very big problem, about 50% of Jews agree. This discrepancy appears again when a question is posed about the federal budget. Fifty-one percent of Americans see the budget deficit as a very big problem, while only 37% of Jews agree. On these questions, Jewish voters evidence less concern with the economy than others and they seem in concert with liberal economists.

On economic issues involving costs and significant capital, Jews are very much aligned with the nation at large. They respond similarly to other Americans with respect to such issues as college affordability (42% for all Americans and 50% for Jews), health care affordability (58% for all Americans and 61% for Jews), and the quality of K-12 education (42% for all Americans and 45% for Jews). 

On social and cultural issues, Jewish voters deviate repeatedly from the American public. For instance, as many as 79% of Jews see gun violence as a very big problem compared to 58% of Americans who believe the same. Jews’ positions may simply reflect the overall attitudes of highly educated liberals. But gun violence may be an issue of particular salience for the Jewish community.

With the potent rise in antisemitism and violence against Jewish communities across the nation — 41% of American Jews say their status in the United States is less secure compared to a year ago — this high level of concern with gun violence is understandable. This fits with the observations of conservative rabbi and founder of Online Jewish Learning Danielle Eskow, who stated that the most pressing issue facing Jews today is “antisemitism, especially in America right now. It’s a bigger issue than ever before, and that’s scary.”

Abortion is another issue where Jews and other Americans part company. While more than a third (35%) of Americans consider abortion a very big problem today, half of Jews do. 

When asked about climate change, sizable gaps emerge. While about 40% of Americans see climate change as a very big problem, 56% of Jews agree. The same pattern plays out on questions of racism, where 54% of Jews see racism as a very big problem, compared to only 40% of the American public.

And amid a nationwide loneliness epidemic, about a third of Jews (33%) and about a quarter of Americans (24%) see loneliness as a very big problem. 

All these question evoke broader and deeper reactions among Jews than among other Americans. While there are certainly economic components here, these issues tend to trigger moral and social questions which are top of mind for those in the Jewish community. Such behavior is consistent with the position of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who noted that Judaism has a “positive attitude to the creation of wealth” and with wealth comes “an obligation to use it for the benefit of the community as a whole” and look outward toward communal and social needs. 

Put somewhat differently and more recently, Rabbi Jay Moses notes that economics are important to Jews, but there is something else, too: “Jews have always valued earning a living, even a comfortable one; but we have valued caring for our community and those in need even more highly,” and that is what we see in the data today.

Come November 2024, in addition to a presidential election, 33 senators and 11 governors will be on the ballot, not to mention a host of other state and local representatives. Primaries will happen well before the general election that will help establish the direction and tones of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and the Jewish community will undeniably be a force in electoral politics. 

While it is not wise to make claims that describe the Jewish community as a monolithic, liberal bloc, there are a handful of political issues ranging from gun control and abortion to the environment and racism that are of real concern to Jewish Americans today. Candidates and party organizations which address these issues are most likely to engage with the Jewish community. Contrary to so much literature about the centrality of pocketbook voting and economic considerations, as was the case in prior elections, social and identity issues are driving Jewish politics at the moment, not economics.

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College in New York and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.