Overwhelming Jewish support in New York City helped swing New York State’s 41 electoral votes to Gov. Jimmy Carter and won a Senate term for former UN Ambassador Daniel P. Moynihan who unseated Republican-Conservative incumbent James Buckley. Both Democratic candidates trailed their opponents outside the city in what was an extremely close race.
But Carter and Moynihan won handily in four of the city’s five boroughs and Moynihan also captured the fifth–Richmond–by a substantial plurality although Carter was defeated there by President Ford.
More than 80 percent of New York City’s Jewish voters cast ballots for Carter and Moynihan, according to a district-by-district survey of the returns by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. In Brooklyn, the borough with the largest Jewish population, Carter won over_Ford by 376,560-175,127 and Moynihan over Buckley by 378,719-143,375.
The districts in which the Democratic candidates received their largest pluralities were those with the heaviest concentrations of Jewish voters. In some of those districts, however, the Jewish population has declined in recent years and the Black and Hispanic populations have increased. Those minorities also voted overwhelmingly for Carter and Moynihan.
TALLY OF MAJOR JEWISH AREAS
In Canarsie-East New York, for example, Carter captured 27,368 votes to Ford’s 8602 and Moynihan swamped Buckley by 29,632-6321. In East Flatbush-Crown Heights, a district increasingly Black but with large concentrations of Hasidic Jews, Carter’s victory was by 20,771-9324 and Moynihan’s by 20,608-6888. In Midwood-Flatlands, a district heavily populated by middle class Jews, the Democratic Presidential candidate achieved a 24,307-15,771 victory. Moynihan won there by 27,162-12,774. In Flatbush-Parkville, another district of predominantly middle class Jews, it was Carter over Ford by 21,402-8457 and Moynihan over Buckley by 22,069-6878.
Borough Park, which has by far the largest Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish community in the city, went for Carter 24,612-12,808 and for Moynihan 28,614-7564. Sea Gate-Brighton Beach, also heavily Jewish, gave Carter 27,039 votes to 7946 for Ford and Moynihan 28,159 to 5851 for Buckley.
In The Bronx’s overwhelmingly Jewish Co-Op City, Carter won by a landslide of 42.029 votes to 11,689 for Ford and Moynihan did almost as well with 41,392 votes to 10,099 for Buckley. Riverdale-North Bronx, which has large numbers of middle class Jews, voted 19,262 for Carter to 12,596 for Ford, Moynihan won there by 18,790-11,252.
Moynihan did better than Carter in five key Jewish populated districts of Queens. He lost in only one while Carter lost in two. Both Demo- crats did extremely well in Jewish areas of Manhattan. Carter carried the Lower East Side by 17,659-4178 and Moynihan by 16,224-3282. Carter took the Upper West Side by an overwhelming 31,814-7550 and Moynihan did as well with 29,239 votes to 5030 for Buckley. Carter won in the West Side-Lincoln Center district by 26,700-21,342. Moynihan won there by 22,269-14,596.
THE UPSTATE VOTE
Carter lost suburban Nassau, Suffolk, Rock-land and Westchester Counties, so-called “bedroom” communities which contain large numbers of middle class and affluent Jews. Moynihan lost in Suffolk County but won by narrow margins in the other three.
Carter and Moynihan won in two upstate counties. Albany and Erie, containing cities with large Jewish populations and in Sullivan County, once known as the “borscht-belt,” where substantial Jewish communities still exist. They both lost in Orange County which is part of New York’s growing suburbia.
Most political observers attributed the heavy Jewish vote for Moynihan to his strong championship of Israel at the United Nations, and especially his denunciation of the General Assembly’s anti-Zionist resolution of last year.
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.
