New York Jewish Voters Split Between Carter and Reagan

Jewish voters in New York City, home of the largest concentration of Jews in the United States, split yesterday in Republican Ronald Reagan’s stunning victory over President Carter.

While the largest number of Jewish voters apparently stuck with the Democratic candidate, in many Jewish areas of the city the vote was split between Carter and Reagan, with independent candidate John Anderson picking up only a small fraction of the vote. In several Brooklyn areas with a large concentration of Orthodox Jews, Reagan carried the districts.

This was in contrast to four years ago when the Jewish Telegraphic Agency found that Jews went more than 80 percent for Carter in New York City and played a part in Carter winning New York State against President Ford.

This year the desertion of Jewish voters from the Democratic slate probably contributed to Reagan’s victory in New York by a narrow 200,000-vote majority. The Jewish vote for Anderson did not appear to be as large as had been expected and in no case did it make a difference in who carried a particular district.

BREAKDOWN OF JEWISH VOTES

One area where Jews strongly backed Carter was on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where Carter received 8550 votes to Reagan’s 2131. In the West Side district just south of this area, Carter won by a 2-1 majority, 13,974 to 6124. On the Upper East Side, Carter won by a small percentage, 14,075 to 9505. Elsewhere where Jews live in Manhattan, Carter won easily by 18,192 to Reagan’s 6885 in the Greenwich Village-Chelsea district but by a narrower 12,873 to 10,715 in Stuyvesant Town-Murray Hill.

Carter also won in the heavily Jewish districts of The Bronx like Pelham Parkway-Co-op City where he received 21,861 to Reagan’s 12,111, and in the Riverdale-Kingsbridge district where the President received 15,152 votes to 8229 for Reagan. In all these areas, Democrat Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman was the overwhelming favorite for the Senate with Sen. Jacob Javits, especially in Manhattan, sometimes receiving almost as many votes as Republican Alfonse D’Amato. That race is still undecided.

In the Borough Pork-Flatbush area of Brooklyn, which has the heaviest concentration of Orthodox. Jews in the U.S., Reagan swept the district by a 15,779 to 8773 margin. The some was true in the Bensonhurst area where Reagan won by a narrow 11,777 to 10,213 margin. This area, which also includes a large concentration of Italian Americans, was one of the few in the city which D’Amato won.

In other Brooklyn areas with large Jewish concentrations, the vote was more along traditional lines, although the Democratic candidate again had a shrunken majority. In the Flatbush-Midwood area, Carter won with 11,093 votes to Reagan’s 5845. In Williamsburg-Fort Greene, the home of the Satmar Hasidim, the President won 12,802 to 3112.

The cut in the additional Democratic majority was also seen in Queens. For example, in Bayside-Whitestone, Carter’s margin was two votes while in Kew Gardens-Forest Hills, the President received only 46 votes more than Reagan. In the Flushing Jamaica area, Carter’s margin was larger, with 12,693 votes to Reagan’s 8533.