By Aaron Bandler
A new poll released by the Jewish Electoral Institute (JEI) on April 13 found that 63% of American Jews approve of President Joe Biden.
The recent JEI poll surveyed 800 American Jewish voters from March 28-April 3. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they approved of Biden’s presidency, while 37% said they did not. Sixty-one percent also said they would vote for a generic congressional Democrat, while only 26% said they would vote for a generic congressional Republican.
On the issue of inflation, 32% blamed it on “profiteering” by corporations, 31% said inflation was the result of supply chain disruptions and 23% said “increased government spending” was to blame. Regarding Critical Race Theory, 68% said they agree with the Democratic Party’s view that “we should not allow politicians to censor teachers from teaching the complete facts about historical topics like slavery and racism” while 27% said that they agreed with the Republican Party view that “we should ban critical race theory in our schools because it divides our country, teaches kids to be ashamed of America, and tells white kids they should feel guilty.”
Other issues about which respondents were asked included the Iran nuclear deal and antisemitism. Sixty-eight percent said they supported re-entering the deal while 32% are opposed. On antisemitism, 45% said they trust Democrats more to fight antisemitism, while 20% said they trusted Republicans more on the issue.
Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) President Halie Soifer hailed the poll results as a victory for Democrats, writing in an email to supporters that “President Biden’s approval rating (63%) is 21% higher with Jewish Americans than the American electorate generally (42%), and his approval is 9% higher among Jewish Americans than President Obama’s was in 2015, when it was 54%.” She added Jewish support for Republicans “remains abysmal, with 73% viewing the GOP unfavorably.” “Donald Trump’s unfavorability rating is even higher, at 77%, and 79% of Jewish voters hold Trump responsible for January 6th. On foreign policy, 72% approve of Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine, and 68% support the U.S. re-entering the Iran nuclear deal.”
Soifer then declared that “the Democratic Party continues to be the political home of Jewish American voters because the Democratic Party’s policies and values reflect those of Jewish Americans. Jewish voters not only continue to strongly identify with the Democratic Party but are also driven by their intense and growing opposition to the Republican Party and its leadership. While some may twist the results of this poll to attack Democrats, the numbers tell a different story.”
Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) President Matt Brooks argued in a statement that the poll actually showed that “thoughtful Jewish voters are coming to realize that “the Biden presidency has been a disaster for this country,” pointing to a 12% decline in support for a generic congressional Democrat among Jewish voters from a JEI poll the year before. That previous JEI poll from May 2021 found that 68% of American Jews would support a congressional Democrat, and that 80% of American Jews approve of the Biden presidency.
“These results are especially striking considering that the questions and question order in JEI’s poll are skewed to produce pro-Democrat results,” Brooks said. “When a reliably Democratic outfit publishes a poll showing such an embarrassing drop in Jewish support for Democrats, you can just imagine what an unbiased poll of the Jewish community would show.”
