The political leaning of the Jewish community in America is changing rapidly. In recent years the Democratic Party has waned in its support for Israel, while the Republican Party has stood by Israel; President Trump even moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem, while Biden refused to invite Netanyahu to the White House. The result has been a migration of Jewish voters into the GOP.
The October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas has greatly escalated this change. The Biden administration has continually run interference in Israel’s war with Gaza while kowtowing to the growing Muslim anti-Israel constituency of the Democratic party. Kamala Harris promises to be even worse for Israel. She refused as V.P. even to attend, much less preside over the joint session of Congress when Netanyahu addressed the body, though this is one of the few real duties of her office as Vice President. Harris turned down Josh Shapiro as her running mate which is widely believed to be because he is Jewish. She and her chosen running mate, Waltz, are both known for their anti-Israel bias.
Meanwhile, College campuses, primarily in blue states, are being overrun by antisemitic pro-Hamas “protesters.” While Texas, Florida, and other red states have not allowed their campuses to be hijacked. This is causing many Jewish voters who have traditionally voted Democrat to rethink their votes.
According to a recent report in the Jerusalem Post (Sept. 6th, 2024), as many as 50 percent of Jewish voters in swing states are expected to vote for Trump in the upcoming presidential election. A huge crowd of more than 600 attended the recent launch event for the newly created American Jewish Conservatives organization in Dallas Texas on September 4th. Jewish voters are flocking to the GOP.
Liberty is a Jewish Value
The party of limited government and personal liberty is an ideal match for Jewish voters because liberty is a Jewish value. The Liberty Bell is inscribed with a passage from the Torah “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus 25:10). There is a great connection between liberty and the Jewish people. In her book Discovery of Freedom, Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder), wrote:
With reason, the Old World hates the Jews. Four thousand years ago, a Jew said that men are free. Two thousand years ago, a Jew preached that men are free. In medieval Europe, the Jews came from Spain, knowing that men are free. That knowledge will destroy the whole Old World concept of the universe and of man, it will break up the foundations of Old World nations and States, and shatter the very basis of their subjects’ lives.
So they are afraid of the Jew. They ward him off; they shut him out; they build walls around him; they kill him. Their actions show that they are afraid.
And who leads these attacks? A tyrant. Wherever tyranny is strongest—in 15th-century Spain, in Czarist Russia, in Nazi Germany—attacks upon the Jew are most mercilessly atrocious.
All over the Old World, again and again, for two thousand years, hatred of the Jews has flared up. It is always the hatred that comes from fear, and always—every time, in every instance—it is begun and fostered by men who are afraid of the knowledge that men are free.”
(Rose Wilder Lane Discovery of Freedom pages 79-80; 1943)
Jewish Values and the GOP Platform
The GOP Platform is also a good match for Jewish values. Judeo-Christian values are originally Jewish values. Family values are Jewish values. While many liberal Jews have historically been “pro-choice”, abortion is a violation of Jewish Law. The Jewish Pro-Life Foundation has been fighting to protect the right to life of the unborn since 2007. When it comes to the Second Amendment, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has been defending gun rights since 1989.
As millions of Jewish voters are making the switch to the Republican Party, the future of the GOP does not lie with a few Israel haters nor does it lie with a small number of bad apple antisemites. The future of the Republican Party is in fighting antisemitism while maintaining our pro-Israel platform and welcoming these Jewish voters now gravitating to the Grand Old Party.
This is a commentary published with the author’s permission. If you wish to submit a commentary to Texas Scorecard, please send it to submission@texasscorecard.com.
