HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) 69制片厂制作传媒 For Rona Kaufman, the signs are everywhere that more Jews feel abandoned by the Democratic Party and may vote for Republican .
It's in her Facebook feed. It's in the discomfort she observed during a question-and-answer at a recent Democratic Party campaign event in Pittsburgh. It's in her own family.
69制片厂制作传媒淭he family that is my generation and older generations, I don69制片厂制作传媒檛 think anybody is voting for Harris, and we69制片厂制作传媒檝e never voted Republican, ever," Kaufman, 49, said, referring to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. 69制片厂制作传媒淢y sister has a Trump sign outside her house, and that is a huge shift.69制片厂制作传媒
How big a shift? Surveys continue to find that most Jewish voters still support the Democratic ticket, and Kaufman acknowledges that she's an exception.
Still, any shift could have enormous implications in , where tens of thousands of votes decided the past two presidential elections. Many Jewish voters say the 2024 presidential election is like no other in memory, coming amid the growing fallout from Hamas69制片厂制作传媒 on Israelis last year.
Jews represent a sliver of the voting-age population in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the so-called blue wall of states that Democrats have come to rely on in recent presidential elections. In a close election, they are a big enough constituency that the campaigns of and see the potential for any slippage to swing a close contest.
That has forced Harris to walk a line between traditional Democratic constituencies with strong feelings about the war in Gaza, both Jews and Arab Americans 69制片厂制作传媒 balancing support for Israel with outrage over the deaths of Israeli and and destruction in the region. Israel to end its attacks, which continued last week with the killing of Hamas leader by Israeli troops.
Trump has looked to exploit the opening among Jewish voters especially, saying Harris 69制片厂制作传媒 69制片厂制作传媒 Jewish people, Jews who don't vote for him 69制片厂制作传媒渘eed their 69制片厂制作传媒 and that he69制片厂制作传媒檒l be the 69制片厂制作传媒 Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.69制片厂制作传媒
In the past, surveys have shown that Jews overwhelmingly vote Democratic. A Pew Research Center poll released last month found that about two-thirds of Jewish voters back Harris. In 2020, about 7 in 10 Jewish voters supported President Joe Biden, according to AP VoteCast.
The question is whether that has changed, as Jews now see Israel's survival in a new light as its widens to Hezbollah and possibly Iran.
That has put a new focus on the relationship between Israel and the U.S., which continues to provide military aid. And many Jews say rising acts of antisemitism in the United States and anti-Israel protests sweeping across cities and college campuses 69制片厂制作传媒 including in Philadelphia 69制片厂制作传媒 have made them feel unsafe.
In Pennsylvania, still fresh in many minds is a gunman absorbed by ideology murdering 11 worshippers at the synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history.
As Pennsylvania plays a central role in the election, many say they've never seen such outreach from campaigns as they have now.
From Trump on down, Republicans are attempting to win over Jewish voters by highlighting a Democratic Party torn between its traditional and unconditional support for Israel and a growing faction that has accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza, called for Israel to unconditionally stop attacking Hamas, and demanded that the U.S. end its military support for Israel.
For some Jews who typically vote Democratic, that has resonated.
69制片厂制作传媒淚 think that there are folks who are reluctant Trump voters who feel scared as Jews in this country,69制片厂制作传媒 said Jeremy Kazzaz, a Pittsburgh resident and Harris supporter.
Kazzaz, however, said Harris has a long record of fighting antisemitism that is relatively unknown to many voters.
He pointed out that the Biden administration tapped her husband, Doug Emhoff, who is Jewish, to lead a task force to develop a strategy to fight antisemitism well before Hamas attacked Israel. Emhoff has been a key surrogate, campaigning in front of Jewish audiences in the Philadelphia suburbs and at the groundbreaking of a new complex replacing Pittsburgh69制片厂制作传媒檚 Tree of Life synagogue.
Still, where Harris' supporters see strong support of Israel 69制片厂制作传媒 for instance, the Biden administration sent a to Israel, along with the troops needed to operate it 69制片厂制作传媒 others see conditional support.
That includes Biden urging Israel not to hit or oil fields. At the same time, Biden has stressed his and, in her remarks on the anniversary of Hamas' attack, Harris said she'll 69制片厂制作传媒渁lways ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and that I will always work to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish people here and around the world.69制片厂制作传媒
Steve Rosenberg, of Philadelphia, who voted for Trump in 2016 and then Biden in 2020, will vote for Trump in 2024. In part, Rosenberg criticized Biden69制片厂制作传媒檚 extending to Iran, contending that it provided the Islamic Republic with the cash to finance a war against Israel.
69制片厂制作传媒淭he question is, 69制片厂制作传媒榃ho is better off today than four years ago?69制片厂制作传媒69制片厂制作传媒 Rosenberg said. 69制片厂制作传媒淎nd the answer is Iran and the mullahs and their proxies, and it's because Biden and Kamala Harris have capitulated to Iran.69制片厂制作传媒
Biden administration officials have said they were extending Trump-era waivers that gave Iran access to money restricted for humanitarian supplies and that was vetted to ensure the cash could only be used for food, medicine, medical equipment and agricultural goods. Iran hawks contend that the waivers can allow Iran to free up domestic revenue it would have otherwise spent on humanitarian goods to fund proxies like Hamas.
The U.S., meanwhile, has other on Iran this year.
Kaufman, a self-described progressive who lives in Pittsburgh's heavily Jewish Squirrel Hill neighborhood, never thought she would vote for Trump.
But now, she expects Trump will continue a hardline stance against Iran 69制片厂制作传媒 which she calls an imminent threat to democracy, human rights and western civilization 69制片厂制作传媒 and worries that Harris will appease Iran and pander to the party's left wing.
Jews with very strong connections to Israel 69制片厂制作传媒 her parents were born there and her daughter just finished a two-year eight-month mandatory service with the Israeli army 69制片厂制作传媒 are similarly conflicted over supporting Harris, Kaufman said. 69制片厂制作传媒淚69制片厂制作传媒檓 saying it out loud everywhere, but most people aren't saying it out loud.69制片厂制作传媒
Many Jews who support Harris, however, say they see Trump as a threat to democracy.
That's important, they say, because minorities 69制片厂制作传媒 including Jews 69制片厂制作传媒 have reason to fear persecution under dictators.
They can unfurl a list of comments by Trump that they see as threatening: using the military against domestic , dual-loyalty tropes about Jews, setting up Jews as if he loses and, in the days after Hamas' attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while praising Hezbollah as 69制片厂制作传媒渧ery smart.69制片厂制作传媒
Emhoff called Trump a 69制片厂制作传媒渒nown antisemite.69制片厂制作传媒
Some see Trump's efforts on , to stay in power as a threat. Many are wary of his affinity for , and bring up his far-right activist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, two men known for spewing antisemitic rhetoric.
"That69制片厂制作传媒檚 the conversation that I69制片厂制作传媒檓 having with Jews," said Rabbi Beth Janus of Philadelphia.
Janus said Jews she knows are excited that a woman could be president and that she's married to a Jewish man. Conversely, Trump's support for Israel is transactional, she said.
69制片厂制作传媒淲hen it serves his needs, his objectives, he supports Israel,69制片厂制作传媒 Janus said. 69制片厂制作传媒淏ut if it didn69制片厂制作传媒檛, then he wouldn't support Israel.69制片厂制作传媒
This story has been corrected to delete an erroneous reference to lifting Trump-era sanctions on Iran and replaces it with the Biden administration extending Trump-era sanctions waivers.
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