Buckley’s Vote Jars Many Jews into Awareness of Conservatism in Many Areas

In the cold sobering aftermath of the election campaign’s last hurrahs and with the final votes available for all the assembly districts in the city, many Jews were jarred by votes Conservative Party Senator-elect James L. Buckley received generally and in areas in particular where there is a sizeable Jewish population. This reaction was typified by several persons interviewed on television last night who expressed amazement that “there are so many conservatives in my neighborhood.” One noted: “I though I knew this neighborhood well. I didn’t realize the undercurrent of conservatism here.” While there is no way of breaking down the voting in any area on an ethnic basis, the election figures are revealing in such areas as Boro Park and Crown Heights in Brooklyn where there is a sizeable lower income Jewish population. In both areas there is racial tension between Jews and the non-white population and the scene of several incidents recently of a number of anti-Jewish incidents. In the Crown Heights-East Flatbush assembly district, Buckley received 12,253 votes compared to 16,811 for his Democratic opponent Richard L. Ottinger and 6117 for his Republican opponent Charles E. Goodell. In Boro Park, Buckley got 10,775 votes compared to 17,309 and 6192 for Ottinger and Goodell respectively. In two other assembly districts in Brooklyn with sizeable Jewish populations–Midwood-Sheepshead Bay and Flatbush-Midwood–Buckley received a total of 29,477 votes while his two opponents received a total in both districts of 48,095.

In three assembly districts in The Bronx with sizeable middle income Jewish populations–Bedford Park-Kingsbridge, Riverdale-Woodlawn, and Kingsbridge-University Heights–Buckley received a total of 46,488 and his two opponents a total in the three districts of 82,243. There was little doubt in the minds of several political analysts about the “Jewish vote” Buckley received in these areas. But, they stressed, the Jewish vote alone did not account for his high electoral pile-up. Other white ethnic groups also threw their support behind the law and order candidate. What is significant, however, in terms of the Jewish population in these areas, is that Buckley’s victory is the striking indication of the large conservative sector which could boomerang against him as a viable organized political force and, to a certain degree, the ideological polarization within the Jewish community on how to deal with a number of domestic issues that involve law and order and the social crisis in the urban cities. Shortly before Election Day, for example, advertisements were run in two large metropolitan dailies, with the headline: “A message to the Jewish community.” The ad applauded the position taken by Buckley “on the following issues of grave concern to the Jewish people.” The issues cited were Israel, Soviet Jewry and on the New Left and Black Panther anti-Semitism. This ad, sponsored by the Concerned Citizens for Buckley, was signed, among others, by Professor Joseph Dunner of Yeshiva University, Rabbi Leon B. Fink of Congregation Beth Shalom in Brooklyn, Professor Will Herberg of Drew University in New Jersey, and Professor Edward Gershfield of the Jewish Theological Seminary.