Forward, October 2024
American Jews think Vice President Kamala Harris would handle the Israel-Hamas war better than former President Donald Trump by a wide margin — 54% to 36% — according to a new poll, but most also see Trump as more supportive of Israelis. The national poll, conducted for the Forward by CHIP50, an academic consortium of experts in public opinion surveys, found that 65% of U.S. Jews think Trump only or mostly supports Israelis over Palestinians, while 42% believe Harris offers “equal support to both.”
The survey suggested that concerns about antisemitism and the war are weighing heavily in Jews’ choices for president this fall, though other issues — in particular, the preservation of democracy and the economy — concern them even more. And the poll suggested that Harris may be struggling to lock in what has been a reliably Democratic voting bloc for decades: 62% of Jewish adults who plan to vote in November are backing her. That would be significantly below what President Joe Biden got in 2020 (77% or 68%, depending on which exit poll you believe) and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Jewish support in 2016 (about 70% according to two exit polls).
