Why Jewish voters will choose Obama over Romney

A few weeks ago, former New York Mayor Ed Koch told me that he had been so mad at President Obama earlier this year over his stance on Israel that he engineered the loss of Anthony Weiner's Democratic congressional seat to a Republican. "I had a falling out with President Obama when he announced that Israel has to go back to the ‘67 lines when it starts its negotiations with Palestinians," he said. "I decided that Obama was taking the Jews for granted, as far as their vote...they gave 78 percent of their entire vote and I wanted to send a message."

Shortly after Republican Bob Turner won the seat (Koch’s endorsement did not hurt), to the chagrin of the Obama Administration, Koch met with the president to talk about Israel. "I said, 'Mr. President, when you said Israel has to go back to the ‘67 lines, even though I disagree with you because that’s not defensible, I wouldn’t have been angry and I wouldn’t have assailed your comment if you had, at the same time, said that Israel doesn’t have to negotiate with Hamas until it gives up its terrorist charter that every Jew who came after 1917 to Palestine must be expelled, give up violence, all the things that you would insist upon in a normal situation. But you didn’t.” He said, "I didn’t? I thought I did!" I said, "Mr. President, you did not.”  It was the same day Obama gave an eloquent speech in support of Israel’s at the UN, and Koch was convinced of Obama's good intentions to climb back aboard the Obama bus and agree to travel to Florida to talk with fellow Jewish voters.

Why the about face? Once reassured that Obama stands behind Israel, domestic policy became foremost: Koch cannot imagine an America without Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. He is afraid that Republicans, led by Mitt Romney—and VP pick Paul Ryan—will abolish those programs.

I relate this story because the 88-year-old former mayor, as sharp as ever, is not so different from most Jews. Despite quadrennial predictions that Jewish voters will abandon the Democratic Party and throw in their lot with Republicans because of Israel, the overwhelming preponderance of American Jews, remain social liberals. Although they need to know Obama is a strong supporter of Israel in order to vote for him, they are not and never have been single-issue voters. This should come as no surprise: For 5,000 years, Jews have practiced community-centered values such as taking care of orphans, widows, the sick and the poor even as they experienced discrimination and persecution. There community-centered values are at the heart of the liberal vision of society. Add into this mix, not-so-distant memories of impoverished immigration to America, and fear, real or not, about America’s commitment to Israel, is not strong enough to wash away the deep psychic gouge left by history. Our 2012 Moment Magazine political survey shows that a whopping 82 percent of the Jewish Americans who responded believe that it is the duty of a Jew to feel a responsibility to care for the poor. That same survey found Medicare to be the top concern of American Jews.

Steeped in Jewish history also makes most American Jews immune to the charms of Ayn Rand, the popular patron goddess of free markets and objectivism. Ayn Rand, born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, was a Jew who grew up in the Soviet Union, and left for America in 1925. Once transplanted to the U.S., she wrote passionate novels, among the best the semi-autobiographical We the Living, and later the phenomenal bestsellers, Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Her embrace of individual rights over all else has transcended generations, inspiring economic conservatives  from Alan Greenspan to Paul Ryan and beyond.

Ayn Rand is a fascinating person, but her ideas need to be understood for what they are: the outgrowth of a bright young Jewish woman’s despair and her hatred of communism. Her move to the U.S. allowed her ideas to take root in a painstakingly constructed hybrid American capitalist system. Like kudzu invading and replacing native plant species, her ideas spread whether they made sense in her new country or not. Although appealing to some Jews, among them some libertarian idealists and recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union, her ideas leave the vast majority of American Jews cold. In other words, the economic beliefs of Paul Ryan are unlikely to resonate with most American Jews.

So no matter how much hyperbole you hear about the Jewish vote going for the Romney/Ryan ticket, the vast majority of American Jews are not likely to stray from the Democratic Party. Most still remember when Jews were less well off and wielded less power; and whether they realize it or not, their values have been shaped by millennia of Jewish tradition. This may change in the future but for now, like Ed Koch, they just need a little reassurance from Obama and are not ready to embrace dramatic social domestic change.

Epstein is editor and publisher of Moment Magazine,

---