HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For Rona Kaufman, there are indicators in all places that increasingly Jews really feel deserted by the Democratic Party and should vote for the Republican Party. Donald Trump.
It’s in his Facebook feed. It’s within the discomfort he noticed throughout a back-and-forth at a current Democratic Party marketing campaign occasion in Pittsburgh. It’s in his circle of relatives.
“The household that’s my technology and the older generations, I do not assume anybody is voting for Harris, and we’ve got by no means voted Republican, ever,” Kaufman, 49, mentioned, referring to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. “My sister has a Trump signal exterior her home, and that is an enormous change.
How large will the change be? Polls proceed to disclose that almost all Jewish voters nonetheless help the Democratic place, and Kaufman acknowledges that he’s an exception.
However, any change might have enormous implications Pennsylvaniathe place tens of hundreds of votes determined the final two presidential elections. Many Jewish voters say the 2024 presidential election is unparalleled in reminiscence, and comes amid rising fallout from Hamas. brutal attack on the Israelis final 12 months.
Jews make up a bit of the voting-age inhabitants in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the so-called blue wall of states that Democrats have relied on in current presidential elections. In a detailed election, they’re a big sufficient constituency to help campaigns Harris AND Trump see the potential for any slippage to have an effect on a detailed race.
That compelled Harris to stroll the road between conventional Democratic constituencies with robust emotions concerning the conflict in Gaza, each Jews and Arab Americans — balancing help for Israel with outrage over the deaths of Israelis and Americans. Palestinian civilians and destruction within the area. The Biden administration applied pressure Israel ends its assaults, which continued final week with the killing of the Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar by Israeli troops.
Trump sought to use the opening particularly amongst Jewish voters, saying that Harris “ he doesn’t like it The Jewish individuals, the Jews who don’t vote for him “want their very own head examined “and that he would be the one” best friend American Jews have ever had within the White House.”
In the previous, polls have proven that the overwhelming majority of Jews vote Democratic. A Pew Research Center ballot launched final month discovered that about two-thirds of Jewish voters help Harris. In 2020, about 7 in 10 Jewish voters supported President Joe Biden, based on AP VoteCast.
The query is whether or not that has modified, as Jews now see Israel’s survival in a brand new mild war with Hamas it extends to Hezbollah and Iran.
This has positioned a brand new concentrate on the connection between Israel and the United States, which continues to supply army assist. And many Jews say rising acts of anti-Semitism within the United States and anti-Israel protests sweeping cities and school campuses — together with in Philadelphia — have made them really feel unsafe.
In Pennsylvania, a gunman continues to be contemporary in many individuals’s minds white supremacist ideology that kills 11 loyalists to Tree of life Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, the deadliest assault on Jews in U.S. historical past.
With Pennsylvania enjoying such a central function in elections, many say they’ve by no means seen such marketing campaign outreach as they do now.
From Trump on down, Republicans try to win over Jewish voters by highlighting a Democratic Party divided between its conventional, unconditional help for Israel and a rising faction that has accused Israel of conflict crimes in Gaza, referred to as on Israel to unconditionally cease attacking Hamas, and referred to as on the United States to finish its army help for Israel.
For some Jews who sometimes vote Democratic, this resonated.
“I feel there are reluctant Trump voters who really feel scared as Jews on this nation,” mentioned Jeremy Kazzaz, a Pittsburgh resident and Harris supporter.
Kazzaz, nonetheless, mentioned Harris has an extended monitor report of preventing anti-Semitism that’s comparatively unknown to many citizens.
She identified that the Biden administration assigned her husband, Doug Emhoff, who’s Jewish, to steer a process drive to develop a technique to fight anti-Semitism nicely earlier than Hamas attacked Israel. Emhoff was a key surrogate, campaigning earlier than Jewish audiences within the Philadelphia suburbs and Speaking of on the opening of a brand new complicated that can exchange the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
However, the place Harris supporters see robust help for Israel – for instance, the Biden administration has despatched a Terminal battery for the defense of high altitude areas to Israel, together with the troops wanted to run it – others see conditional help.
This contains Biden urging Israel to not strike The Iranian nuclear program or oil fields. At the identical time, Biden emphasised his administration’s support for Israel and, in her speech marking the anniversary of the Hamas assault, Harris mentioned she’s going to “all the time make it possible for Israel has what it must defend itself and that I’ll all the time work to make sure the protection and safety of the Jewish individuals right here and within the surrounding space.” world.”
Steve Rosenberg, of Philadelphia, who voted for Trump in 2016 after which for Biden in 2020, will vote for Trump in 2024. Rosenberg believes Biden lifting of Trump-era sanctions in opposition to Iran as they supplied cash to the Islamic Republic to finance a conflict in opposition to Israel. Trump imposed the sanctions after canceling a treaty made by the Obama administration to sluggish Iran’s progress towards nuclear weapons, which he referred to as a foul deal.
“The query is, ‘Who is best off as we speak than they have been 4 years in the past?’” Rosenberg mentioned. “And the reply is Iran, the mullahs and their proxies, and that is as a result of Biden and Kamala Harris have capitulated to Iran.”
Kaufman, a progressive who lives in Pittsburgh’s closely Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood, by no means thought she would vote for Trump.
But she now expects Trump to proceed to keep up a tricky stance in opposition to Iran – which she calls an imminent menace to democracy, human rights and Western civilization – and fears that Harris could appease Iran and pander to the nation’s left wing. match.
Jews with very robust ties to Israel — her mother and father have been born there and her daughter simply completed a two-year, eight-month obligatory service with the Israeli military — are equally torn about supporting Harris, Kaufman mentioned. “I say it out loud in all places, however most individuals do not say it out loud.”
Many Jews who help Harris, nonetheless, say they see Trump as a menace to democracy.
This is necessary, they are saying, as a result of minorities – together with Jews – have cause to concern persecution below dictators.
They can deploy an inventory of Trump feedback they think about threatening: utilizing the army in opposition to the home market enemies, dealing twin loyalty tropes about Jews, who view Jews as scapegoats if he loses and, within the days following the Hamas assault, criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praises Hezbollah as “very clever.”
Emhoff referred to as Trump a “infamous anti-Semite.”
Some see Trump’s efforts persevering with January 6, 2021stay in energy as a menace. Many are cautious of its affinity with dictatorsand make his seem dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort with far-right activist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, two males identified for spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric.
“This is the dialog I’m having with Jews,” mentioned Rabbi Beth Janus of Philadelphia.
Janus mentioned Jews he is aware of are thrilled {that a} girl can turn out to be president and that she is married to a Jewish man. In distinction, Trump’s help for Israel is transactional, he mentioned.
“When it serves his wants, his targets, he helps Israel,” Janus mentioned. “But if he did not, then he would not help Israel.”
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Follow Marc Levy on twitter.com/timelywriter.
