Jewish vote in Maryland: Why was Clinton on top?

1.

I have a couple of friends here in Maryland. Jewish friends. And most of them voted yesterday for Hillary Clinton. As you might know by now, most Maryland Jews voted for Clinton. 60% for her, 40% for him.

2.

What happened in Maryland (There is no data from Virginia as the percentage of Jewish voters was too low, 3%, compared to 4% in Maryland) makes life more complicated for those of us who are trying to understand what is it that makes the Jews tick.

In Super Tuesday, we saw three types of Jewish-voter states: those who vote overwhelmingly for Clinton, like in New York; those who go to Obama, like Connecticut; and others that are more competitive, like Massachusetts (Obama), California (Obama), or Arizona (Clinton). Our explanation was this: "Clinton won the Jewish vote handily in her backyard (New York and New Jersey), but did not have such luck in other places. She won some, and lost some, but the margin in all places but those two backyard states was not significant".

3.

Maryland made this argument, well, not exactly valid. It is not a backyard state for Clinton, but it was also not very competitive. The Jews of Maryland acted more like those of Nevada or Florida. Obama is no longer with the very low 25% of those states. But Clinton is winning handily.

Why?

4.

Here's one possibility (the data is from a 1999 study of the Jewish community in Baltimore, MD): "Baltimore, compared to other American Jewish communities, has the highest proportion of Orthodox Jews. In 1999, 17% of respondents in Baltimore Jewish households identify as Orthodox. Comparable percentages are 10% in Cleveland, 8% in Detroit, and 4% in Philadelphia".

On the other hand: Orthodox Jews tend to belong to the Republican Party in greater numbers, thus losing some of their possible influence in Democratic primaries.

5.

The study of Greater Washington Jews (This includes Jews in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in Maryland) tells us that "52% (57,530 households) of respondents generally consider themselves as liberal; 37% (40,150 households), moderate; and 11% (12,320 households), conservative".

This is less liberal Democrats than the national Jewish average (57%) and many more moderates than the national Jewish average (20%). If you assume that the more moderate the community the greater the chances it will vote for Clinton - maybe that's another answer.

On the other hand: this data is merely anecdotal, and can't provide the real explanation. It also contains many contradictions. For example - even with the higher number of so-called moderates, Greater Washington still has more liberal Democrats (Jews) than moderates. 44% of respondents consider themselves as liberal Democrat and 22% as moderate Democrat.