Editor's Notes: A break with Israel would hurt American Jews, too - comment

During a visit to the US a few months ago, I met a woman born in postwar Europe to Holocaust survivors. She told me she felt another Holocaust was coming. Zohran Mamdani had been elected mayor of New York, and she was frightened.

She usually voted Democratic. She and others I spoke with were frustrated and unsure whom to support. Trump offended much of what they believed in. They were trying to work out how to vote without ignoring either their fears or their values.

I listened. I live in Israel, where a Jewish vote for a politician hostile to Israel can be hard to understand. An American Jew may feel just as strongly about Israelis voting for National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Reconsidering a political allegiance is reasonable. So is taking the consequences of a change seriously. American Jews have to live with the government they elect, including its decisions about their safety and their economic future.

What if frustration with politics leads some Jews to withdraw from Israel altogether?

My greater concern is that frustration with politics will lead some Jews to withdraw from Israel altogether. That would hurt Israel, and it could also leave American Jewish life poorer. For many families, Israel helps give being Jewish a place in everyday life. Losing that connection would affect what they pass on to their children.

This week, CNN’s Harry Enten presented Siena polling averages showing that Democrats’ lead among Jewish voters in New York on the congressional ballot had fallen from 49 percentage points in 2022 to 13 this year.

A national Mellman Group survey of 800 Jewish registered voters for the Jewish Electorate Institute, conducted in late August and early September, found Democrats ahead by 71% to 23%, essentially unchanged since March. Thirty-five percent of Jewish Democrats said the rise of anti-Israel candidates made it harder to identify with their party. Many still intended to vote Democratic.

British Jews have already been through several such reassessments. JPR, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, put Labour’s share of the reported Jewish vote at 12% in 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn, when concerns about antisemitism drove many traditional supporters away. Labour recovered to 44% under Keir Starmer in the 2024 election. By mid-2025, its share of Jewish voting intention was down to 30%. Both major parties were losing support to the Greens and Reform UK.

Israel has to keep working with people, despite political changes

Those figures show how much a party’s standing can change. Voters are entitled to ask whether a familiar party still represents them. Its response to antisemitism and its treatment of Israel belong in that assessment, along with personal safety, livelihoods, and other deeply held beliefs. Conduct that would be unacceptable in a rival party deserves scrutiny at home.

Israel has to keep working with people through these changes. Waiting for frustrated Jewish Democrats to become Republicans assumes they will resolve their disagreements in the way most convenient to us. Some will, and others will reach a different conclusion.

The same JEI survey found that 86% of Jewish voters described themselves as pro-Israel, including 65% who criticized some or many Israeli government policies. There is considerable attachment to Israel among people who object to the way it is governed. That distinction should be familiar to anyone who follows Israeli politics.

Natan Sharansky has argued for years that a connection to Israel helps Jews remain Jewish. In The Jerusalem Post in 2022, he identified “only two factors that can slow down the assimilation: tradition and Zionism.” He warned that the grandchildren of Jews connected to neither would probably no longer be Jewish.

I take Sharansky seriously because, for families with little religious practice, Israel can account for much of their involvement in Jewish life. It might be the place where relatives live, where someone studied or volunteered, or where a family’s history becomes easier to understand. A relationship like that takes years to develop. Children learn its importance partly from the attention their parents give it.

The link between religion and Israel also appears in the wider American polling. Gallup has long found that people who attend religious services frequently are more likely to sympathize with Israelis. Its historical research found that association within both major parties.

Pew’s April 2026 survey found favorable views of Israel among 65% of white evangelical Protestants, 64% of Jewish Americans and 35% of Catholics, compared with 22% of the religiously unaffiliated. The pattern varies by religion: Only 4% of Muslim Americans viewed Israel favorably.

For Christian Zionists, support for Israel can be a religious obligation. Christians United for Israel grounds its mission in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you.” Its supporters understand that commitment as part of their own faith.

Religion has become less important in many Americans’ lives. Gallup’s March 2026 report found that 47% considered it very important in 2025, down from 58% in 2012, although the figure had stabilized in recent years. Gallup’s Frank Newport argued in a 2024 analysis that declining religious involvement was weakening a longstanding source of support for Israel.

We should account for that when deciding where Israel puts its effort. The religious and family connections that made Israel important to many Americans will carry different weight for their children. A sympathetic older generation gives us an opportunity to reach younger people; it provides little assurance that they will share their parents’ views.

Israel’s own politics matter as well. We need a broad unity government to help repair the country internally and improve our standing abroad. I would want Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, to build it with Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar, former prime minister Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Liberman, Yoaz Hendel, and Ofer Winter. Ben-Gvir, left-wing leader Yair Golan – and the haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, parties would remain outside.

Its ministers should hear Jewish Democrats explain why Trump troubles them with the seriousness they expect when explaining Israel’s security concerns. Work inside the Democratic Party should be a priority. Our diplomats and political leaders need regular contact with Democrats who care about Israel, including when those Democrats have difficult questions.

American supporters of Israel should stand behind leaders prepared to defend the relationship within their own party. Israel has an interest in their success, whatever happens to the Jewish vote in November.

Israel should help families afford Jewish education and give young Jews more opportunities to study, volunteer, and spend time here. They need time outside an organized itinerary to meet Israelis, hear the arguments we have among ourselves, and form their own opinions.

When the parties negotiate Israel’s next government, I want this work to have ministers responsible for it and money assigned in the budget. Ministers should be able to explain which Democratic relationships they are working to repair, which Jewish education programs they are supporting, and how they are helping more young Jews spend time here. We will soon be electing the Israelis responsible for those decisions. Their plans deserve at least some of the scrutiny we devote to the voting intentions of Jews in America.