The Changing Jewish Political Profile (Part Two: Recent American Jewish History, 1954-2004‪)‬

The tendency of Jews to support Democratic candidates and liberal ideas is well known. This "liberalism shows no signs of flagging," Seymour Martin Lipset and Earl Raab wrote in 1995, "because Jewish defensive needs, domestic and foreign, have been so congruent with the nature and program of the more liberal party." (1) Among the most recent books to discuss the origins and nature of this subject are Marc Dollinger's Quest for Inclusion: Jews and Liberalism in Modern America (2000) and L. Sandy Maisel's and Ira N. Forman's Jews in American Politics (2001). (2) Jewish political behavior, however, has been and is becoming more complex than the conventional wisdom suggests. There has been little examination of the Jewish conservative political tradition. More recently, however, a number of political scientists and historians, including Jonathan D. Sarna, David G. Dalin, Jerald S. Auerbach, and the late Charles Liebman have begun to explore this dimension of American Jewish life. Among other origins, these writers trace it to biblical roots and medieval commentators, most especially Maimonides. (3)