Eighty percent of Americans would vote for a Jew for President of the United States, according to a new Gallup poll released today. Gallup statistics showed a consistent increase in this respect in the past seven years. In 1958, the ratio of voters who would cast their ballots for a Jew as candidate for President was 62 percent, rising to 68 percent in 1961, and to 77 percent in 1963, the poll revealed.
According to the Gallup data, Negroes were found to be more likely than whites to say they would vote for a Jew for President. The South was found to be consistently less liberal on this question, while the least prejudice emerged in the East and the Far West. Democrats and Republicans were about equally likely to say they would vote for a Jewish candidate.
The question asked in the survey was: “If your party nominated a generally well qualified man for President, and he happened to be a Jew, (Negro, Catholic), would you vote for him?” The answers on the question of a Jewish candidate were: 80 percent “yes,” 15 percent “no” and five percent “no opinion.”
There were also increases in the number of persons who would vote for a Catholic or a Negro candidate. Currently, 87 percent would vote for a Catholic, 10 percent would not, and three percent had no opinion. In addition, 59 percent would choose a Negro president today, while only 38 percent would have done so in 1958.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
