The Democratic Party is slowly losing Jewish support in New York as the divide over Israel’s war with Hamas grows. Longtime voters now feel frustrated with party leaders. Bonnie Lautenberg said, "I was disgusted that Hochul endorsed Mamdani." Many Jewish New Yorkers are now looking for other political options instead.
An ironclad alliance between Jewish New Yorkers and the Democratic Party has been shaken by the divide over Israel's war with Hamas.
Like most members of her Upper West Side congregation, Rabbi Emily Cohen is a lifelong Democrat. But in recent years, she admits to feeling a creeping disappointment with elected members of her preferred party.
She has felt frustrated by the unwillingness of Democratic politicians to more aggressively expand the social safety net and by what she calls their "continued advocacy for particularly offensive weaponry for Israel," when she would rather have them focus on "how antisemitism affects Jews in their districts."
Bonnie Lautenberg, the widow of Frank Lautenberg, the longtime Democratic senator from New Jersey, is another disaffected Jewish voter. Ms. Lautenberg, who splits her time between Long Island and Florida, has been a faithful Democrat since she was in her 20s. But this year, she hosted a fund-raiser for Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York.
"I was disgusted that Hochul endorsed Mamdani," Ms. Lautenberg said, referring to Ms. Hochul's alliance with Mayor Zohran Mamdani, whose long-held view that Israel should not be a Jewish state has caused some to accuse him of antisemitism.
For much of the last century, the Democratic Party has enjoyed ironclad support from Jewish Americans, especially in New York. As recently as 2006, exit polls from the New York governor's race showed 87 percent of the Jewish population voting Democratic.
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