Posted by David Bernstein: American Jews' Attachment to Israel by Age, Ideology and Political Party: http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_09-2007_09_15.shtml#1189605272
Profs. Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman recently published [1]a study
describing American Jews' attachment to (or alienation from) Israel,
measured by various metrics. Not surprisingly, the study found that
young Jews were less attached to Israel than are older Jews. (This is
not surprising for a variety of reasons, including that young Jews are
less likely to have close relatives in Israel; have no personal
recollection of the Holocaust or the collective Jewish trauma of the
pre-Six Day War period, when many thought that Israel's existence was
in jeopardy; tend to be less involved in Jewish communal organizations
than older Jews; are more likely to have a non-Jewish parent, and thus
feel less ethnically tied to other Jews; and have grown up at a time
when Israel has been the "overdog," not the underdog.)
More surprising is that the attachment of Jews to Israel is largely
uncorrelated with political party or political ideology. The original
study didn't have much data in this regard, so I emailed Prof. Cohen
and asked him for more data, which he both produced and gave me
permission to reproduce here. One caveat is that these data are only
for non-Orthodox Jews; however Orthodox Jews constituted only 7% of
the sample.
CAPTION: Report
Attachment to Israel
Age: 4 groups Political viewpoint Political party identification Mean
N
Under 35 Liberal Democrat 57.6037 167
Independent 47.1821 22
Republican 55.0421 5
Total 56.3686 194
Moderate Democrat 59.4150 69
Independent 64.7171 50
Republican 56.7198 22
Total 60.8721 142
Conservative Democrat 72.5273 18
Independent 18.2390 8
Republican 58.1121 23
Total 57.1759 48
Total Democrat 59.1416 254
Independent 55.5140 80
Republican 57.1860 50
Total 58.1345 384
35-49 Liberal Democrat 57.8028 130
Independent 49.6224 23
Republican 73.7372 7
Total 57.2900 159
Moderate Democrat 61.6369 72
Independent 61.0135 52
Republican 65.9953 25
Total 62.1536 148
Conservative Democrat 58.3836 20
Independent 62.6087 10
Republican 69.0700 28
Total 64.2589 58
Total Democrat 59.0959 222
Independent 58.1100 85
Republican 68.3032 60
Total 60.3691 366
50-64 Liberal Democrat 66.2014 156
Independent 66.8340 19
Republican 91.5844 1
Total 66.4168 176
Moderate Democrat 69.3973 109
Independent 64.8165 58
Republican 70.8925 15
Total 68.0630 181
Conservative Democrat 66.3556 21
Independent 58.3789 14
Republican 77.9956 25
Total 69.3686 61
Total Democrat 67.4279 286
Independent 64.2194 90
Republican 75.7919 41
Total 67.5581 418
65+ Liberal Democrat 69.8238 139
Independent 71.0535 23
Republican 13.0294 1
Total 69.5106 164
Moderate Democrat 72.4111 86
Independent 70.1217 68
Republican 74.4040 19
Total 71.7293 173
Conservative Democrat 72.5415 16
Independent 76.6613 14
Republican 76.4829 22
Total 75.3312 52
Total Democrat 70.9271 241
Independent 71.1940 106
Republican 73.4419 42
Total 71.2737 389
Total Liberal Democrat 62.7847 592
Independent 58.4755 87
Republican 62.4214 14
Total 62.2382 693
Moderate Democrat 66.4597 336
Independent 65.5202 228
Republican 66.3035 81
Total 66.1081 645
Conservative Democrat 66.9808 75
Independent 58.2548 46
Republican 70.5303 98
Total 66.7440 218
Total Democrat 64.3273 1003
Independent 62.9024 360
Republican 68.1667 193
Total 64.4735 1556
Given these statistics, the prevalent notion that "right-wing Jews"
are dominating American Jewish organizations' Israel policy seems
almost farcical. Given that liberal Jews are as attached to Israel as
conservative Jews, and that there are a lot more liberal Jews than
conservative Jews, it's highly unlikely that the right-wingers are in
control almost anywhere.
Comment away below.
References
1. http://www.acbp.net/pub/BeyondDistancing.pdf
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
Volokh@lists.powerblogs.com
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
