An analysis of the Orthodox subgroup in a survey of U.S. Jewish opinion suggests more hawkish views than the mainstream.
A majority of Orthodox respondents, 57 percent, in the American Jewish Committee poll published this week still favored the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, while 67 percent of all respondents are opposed. The same percentage of Orthodox back military action against Iran to keep it from manufacturing nuclear weapons while 57 percent of all Jews surveyed oppose such an attack.
Asked whether they favor a Palestinian state in the current conditions, 46 percent of all respondents said they did, while 43 percent were opposed. Among the Orthodox the percentages were 74 opposed and 20 in favor.
The poll showed most Orthodox – 56 percent – consider themselves politically conservative, while only 25 percent of all Jews surveyed defined themselves as conservative in any way. However, it also showed that a plurality of Orthodox Jews – 42 percent – define themselves as Democrats, as opposed to 30 percent who say they are Republican. Among all respondents, that broke down as 58 percent Democrat and 15 percent Republican.
The poll, taken in November, canvassed 1,000 U.S. Jews and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. Just 8 percent identified as Orthodox; samples that small are usually considered too small to assess for a margin of error.
