Jewish Democratic Group Mocks ‘Jew-ish Republicans’

In an apparent swipe at notorious fibster George Santos, the freshman GOP House member from New York, the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) began selling novelty bumper stickers that read “Jewish Dems > Jew-ish Republicans” yesterday. As amusing as it may be to lampoon Santos, the implication that Jews who vote Republican or hold conservative views are somehow less than is deeply ironic.

Polling indicates that the vast majority of Orthodox Jews in the U.S. — 75 percent — affiliate with the Republican Party or lean Republican. It’s worth noting that, as compared with other subsections of American Jewry, Orthodox Jews are more likely to say that being Jewish is very important to them and is central to their lives. Granted, among all American Jewish adults, only 17 percent identify as Republicans, with 22 percent saying they are more conservative in their political outlook; but these percentages are expected to grow as the percentage of American Jews who identify as Orthodox swells from 12 percent today to an estimated 29 percent in 2063. So the notion that the more politically conservative you are, the less Jewish you are, is absurd; there’s a case to be made that the inverse is true. The JDCA’s bumper sticker misses the connection between Jewish observance and political affiliation by a mile.