The importance of Jewish voters in the Democratic party has waned to the point of the party not caring very much for them or their votes.
Jews, like most minority groups, take great interest in the success of other Jews. It does not matter what the subject is or who the specific Jew in question is. The matter is one of pride: look how far that Jew got! Did you know that the new British prime minister, who is trying to destroy what is left of the UK, has a Jewish wife? Probably not. But here in Israel, every news website had to have an article on that point. “Keir Starmer’s Wife will Bring the Sabbath to 10 Downing Street” and the like. And while Israel has had quite a good run at the Olympics with a record six medals, the local press also covers Jewish athletes from other countries, like an Australian woman who has medalled in four consecutive Olympics. Jews like to hear about other Jews succeeding. I have a guy in my local synagogue who went to grade school with Sandy Koufax, who famously refused to pitch in the World Series on Yom Kippur.
Just as time moves on, so too things change for the Jewish communities in the world. Three of the medals won by Israeli athletes were secured this past Saturday, which is the Jewish Sabbath. There were two Israeli Olympians 50 years ago who tried to bring the small country its first gold medal. They were in the finals of sailing and the finals fell on Yom Kippur. A phone call from Menachem Begin came in and the Israeli prime minister said that under no circumstances can they compete. They promised to fast as is the requirement of the day, but Begin would hear nothing of it. If they competed, the religious faction would bolt and his government would collapse. And while Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s present government has a large religious component, nary a word was said about Israeli athletes competing and winning on the Sabbath.
Things also change for the Jews in the US. For my entire life and well before I was born, Jews and the Democratic party were tied at the hip. We had a cousin in Washington Heights, and the only picture she had on her wall was a framed one of John F. Kennedy. Roosevelt was feted for his very liberal policies and Jews pretty much ignored his lack of action on the concentration camps due to their love of his progressive rhetoric and policies. That was then. I remember when John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. Many of the left said that the Arizona senator made his first decision as nominee and it was awful. Using this as our metric, let’s look at Kamala Harris’ first decision, namely choosing her vice-presidential candidate.
Chuck Schumer pointed out recently that he is the highest elected Jewish politician in the country’s history. And on that one point he is correct. Joe Lieberman’s shot at the White House failed, so Schumer being the head of the majority party in the Senate makes him the Jew who has gotten the furthest in 250 years of American politics. Kamala Harris had an opportunity to select a Jewish running mate in Josh Shapiro. On paper, Harris, Shapiro and the actual VP candidate, Tim Walz, are all clones on policy: trans for kids, open border, light on crime, climate emergency, weakness abroad, lousy economy, etc. So Josh Shapiro having been selected yesterday to run with Kamala Harris would have made no difference on the policy side of things. But for Jews, especially those who still vote for Democrats, it would have been a big deal. We’ve got a guy in the VP slot! But Shapiro was not selected. Was it his summer of IDF volunteering or an ancient oped in which he said that the Palestinians are incapable of making peace? Maybe. But the real answer is that Jews are a spent force in the Democratic party.
The Jewish population in the US is not particularly growing, as opposed to black, Hispanic and college-educated young adults. You have about 15% orthodox that identify strongly Republican. There is a similar percentage that has no affiliation with Judaism at all. And those who are left? Whereas my mother broke down in tears on Broadway when she saw the news flash by that the state of Israel had been declared, many liberal Jews—especially the younger ones—do not have Israel as the central issue in their political lives. Israel is feeling this lack of affinity and has enacted with generous donors programs to bring young Jews to Israel for free to get to know the country. Over half a million people have gone through the “Birthright” program. Talking to young, liberal Jews about Israel is like talking to them about Norway. Their bigger concerns might be abortion, an open border, trans rights—all of the things that the new Democratic Party holds near and dear.
The leftist base of the party is the future in the eyes of Harris and those around her. Picking Walz, who presided over BLM and Antifa burning down Minneapolis, is meant to appeal to this sector. But these are the people who are screaming for an “intifada revolution” not just against Israel but against Jews in general. They demand “death to the United States”--and not just Israel. Realizing that Shapiro would alienate a portion of this demographic and knowing that Jews just keep voting in large numbers for Democrats out of habit and with a view of the Republican Party circa 1972, they threw their lot with the pro-Hamas wing of their party. Where are the Jews going to go? The liberal ones will vote for Trump who wants to close the border and send people packing? They’ll vote for the party that supports abortion restrictions? So Kamala Harris and the Democratic brain trust have concluded that their future is with the most left-leaning wing of the party and that many young Jews are worried about access to birth control and abortion more than the future of Israel. They also figure that they have “The Second Gentleman” whom they can trot out when they need someone to eat lox and bagel or say, “Oy!” at a Jewish nursing home. Picking Shapiro would have energized liberal Jewish voters. But their numbers are small and they are mostly in the bag. Shapiro would have turned off the campus Hamas supporters, and that would have been too risky.
It is my hope and prayer that Jewish voters conclude that they cannot vote for the candidate supported by the very people who would smash the windows of their businesses, harass them, and publicly state that they want them dead. The Jewish-Democratic partnership officially died with the selection of lefty Walz over lefty Shapiro, whose biggest fault was being Jewish. Come on over to the Republicans. There’s plenty of room—and you are actually wanted.