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| Friday Footnote #1 ? November 5, 2004 |
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*** Save the Date: Maryland Jewish Alliance Advocacy Day in Annapolis: March 7, 2005, 5-8 p.m.*** |
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| Dear Friends, |
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| At the risk of sounding overblown, Tuesday's election may prove to be one of the most transformative events in American and international policy in a long time - especially coupled with what appears to be the impending exit of Yasser Arafat from the leadership of the Palestinian people. |
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| Republican pollster Frank Luntz conducted an immediate post-election telephone survey of Jewish voters in Florida and Ohio. I thought you might find his results interesting (see attached). If you can't read the attached file, you'll find the survey at http://www.luntz.com/ - click on The Jewish Vote in 2004: Making a Difference in the Presidential Election (below "Recent Findings"). (You'll need an Adobe Acrobat reader, free to download at Adobe's website.) |
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| Luntz reports that 25 percent of Jewish voters chose President Bush, though other surveys have the number a bit lower. Jim Besser reports in the Baltimore Jewish Times a figure of 24 percent. Either way, that's up from 19 percent in 2000 (see attached). |
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| One word of warning: this was a poll of 484 voters with a margin of error of +/- 4.5 percent. As J.J. Goldberg, editor of The Forward newspaper (http://www.forward.com/), pointed out to an audience of Jewish leaders yesterday, some of the results could have been affected by the wording of the questions. For instance, on the subject of which foreign policy issues mattered to them most, Luntz included "bringing about peace between Arabs and Israel" as one answer. Only 25 percent cited that first, compared with 38 percent for "fighting international terrorism". But as Goldberg noted, many Jews would prefer no peace agreement with the Palestinians to what they might see as a dangerous agreement forced on the Israelis. That does not mean they place less importance on peace in the Middle East, he said. |
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| So, let the reader beware. But let us all take some lessons from the results nonetheless, and begin a discussion of not only the growing differences in opinion among the Jewish community, but the remaining areas of common ground. Those are the areas where we as a community will continue to be able to work together for progress. And that's neither a red state nor a blue state value. It's an American and a Jewish value. |
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| I hope you and your family have a pleasant and peaceful Shabbat. |
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| - David |
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| P.S. From now on - at least until the legislative session starts and my time gets a bit more constrained - I'll try to send you a note at least once a week with information about Jews, politics, Maryland and other controversial things we don't talk about in polite company. I welcome your feedback, and suggestions about items to include. Please let me know if you want to be removed from this list. I won't take it personally. |
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***************************************************
David Conn [email protected]
Baltimore Jewish Council Maryland Jewish Alliance
5750 Park Heights Avenue 191 Main Street
Baltimore MD 21215 Annapolis MD 21401
(410) 542-4850 (410) 269-1672
(410) 542-4834 - fax (410) 269-1675 - fax |
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