Will American rabbis vote Republican?

If I had to choose the one, most surprising, finding of the Rabbinic Leadership Survey conducted by STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal), a national foundation dedicated to synagogue innovation and leadership development, I'd go for the one dealing with American politics. Maybe it's because everybody now is consumed by politics - maybe it's just me. Whatever the reason might be, if these findings represent the conventional wisdom in the Jewish community, some interesting conclusions can be drawn from it.

So, here it is: "While rabbis promote involvement in a variety of political and civic causes," the survey explains, "Israel is still the main issue they rally their synagogues around." Not very surprising. But take note: When the rabbis were asked which party is more supportive of Israel, their answer did not reflect what we all know about the preferences of the Jewish community in general (78 percent favor John Kerry, 22 percent support George Bush and 65 percent to 74 percent of Jews identify as Democrats, according to The Solomon Project). Thirty-six percent - a fair share - of the rabbis said that "all parties are equal" in their approach to Israel. However, more than a third of them, 35 percent, pointed to the Republican Party as the more supportive party, and only 14 percent said the Democratic Party was more supportive of Israel.

Coming from people who generally support the Democratic Party, what does this mean? Are they going to switch, or do they just not think Israel is the most important thing? We'll have to wait and see.

But first, more details on the survey (on which I will write more in the coming days). The Rabbinic Leadership Survey: Vision 5767 was conducted online between August 30 and September 12 among 214 rabbis nationwide, all whom have participated in Star activities. The survey received 118 responses. The press release promised "a cross section of rabbis with varied affiliations, lengths of service and geographic regions."

I was skeptical at first, but the numbers speak for themselves: 47 percdent were Conservative rabbis, 44 percent were Reform, 5 percent were reconstructionists and only 2 percent were Orthodox. If anyone is under-represented here, it's the Orthodox rabbis. Therefore, there is no reason to suspect that the new reliance on the Republican Party is due to an over-representation of the more traditionalist of the branches. Rabbi Hayim Herring, the Executive Director of STAR with whom I spoke Thursday, said the survey should be perceived as more or less representative of the American rabbinic community. Assuming he is right, there is much to be learnt from it.

But for now, let's focus on the parties and their support for Israel. Clearly, there is some contradiction between what these rabbis believe is better for Israel and the way their communities vote. Of course, one can rightfully claim that Israel is not the only issue on people\s minds when they go to the polls. However, when nearly eight in 10 rabbis (79 percent) say they are "more inclined to back political candidates who are pro-Israel more than those who are not viewed as pro-Israel," and when only 14 percent perceive the Democrats to be more supportive of Israel, you have to ask yourself if this will be reflected in some of their votes in the coming years.

Undoubtedly, if life were that simple, Republicans would have a reason to celebrate the new trend without examining the matter further. But as we all know, it is not that simple.

First, 88 percent of respondents believe the United States is "adequately supporting Israel," meaning: There's no need to switch parties, not even for Israel.

Second, on many other questions, the rabbis would clearly feel more comfortable voting for the Democratic Party. They emphasize social justice and charitable giving, they plan to encourage their community to become involved in the situation in Darfur (91 percent), and significant numbers have also encouraged participation in rebuilding New Orleans (88 percent). These are not all "Democratic" issues, but one might suspect that the rabbis look at things through the more liberal lenses they wear.

Israel came out very strong in this poll anyway, but in some strange ways.

On the one hand, support for Israel ranked high (72 percent) in plans for High Holiday sermons - the number one issue by far.

On the other hand, when asked about their "number one goal for the sermons," rabbis split in their responses between "bringing the congregational community closer together" (27 percent), "increasing the level of moral/ethical behavior of the congregation" (20 percent), and "inspiring congregants to become involved in additional activities" (12 percent). The issue of increasing the support for Israel got only a meager 5 percent.


How can this be? Herring had a good explanation in mind: Forty-five percent of the rabbis say that U.S. Jewish community's support for Israel has increased over the past three years, and half (50 percent) of the rabbis said that expected it will continue to rise in the years ahead. So there may be no need to do even more to increase the support that they think is already high (I think it's not that simple, and wrote about it extensively in the past).


More on this survey to come - stay tuned.

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