A wide-ranging survey released this week by a Jewish Democratic group revealed that education, Israel, and health care were among issues ranked highly by Jewish Democrats.
Education topped the list, with 86 percent of respondents calling it “very important.” Israel and health tied for second, with 81 percent ranking them “very important.”
Only 26 percent of respondents ranked freeing Jonathan Pollard, convicted of spying for Israel, as “very important.”
The survey, conducted by the National Jewish Democratic Council, a group promoting grass-roots Jewish Democratic political activity, consisted of responses from 886 of the group’s members.
“It is a good and accurate reflection of how active members feel,” said Hyman Bookbinder, a longtime Jewish community leader who serves on the executive committee of the council.
But Bookbinder added that he could not “insist that this was a true sample of all Jews in America.” He said the breakdown of respondents by denomination was fairly reflective of the Jewish community as a whole.
Forty-three percent of respondents identified themselves as Reform, 38 percent as Conservative, 6 percent as Orthodox, 3 percent as Reconstructionist and 6 percent other.
But Bookbinder also said that the responses tended to be “somewhat skewed to the elderly.” Only 39 percent of respondents were 50 years old or younger.
The survey, the results of which were released Wednesday, was mailed in December to the homes of 3,900 members of the Jewish Democratic group, and 23 percent responded, most of them during the first two weeks of January. The group has a total of about 5,000 members in 43 states.
On the Middle East peace process, 86 percent of respondents said they either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement, “I support the recent Israel-PLO agreement.”
HEBRON KILLINGS MAY HAVE HAD EFFECT
“We are quite gratified the membership indicated a very, very high approval for the Middle East peace process,” Bookbinder said.
He added, though, that the fallout from the killings of Arab worshipers by a Jewish settler in Hebron “might have affected some issues.”
But “overall, it was a confirmation of where progressive Jewish Democrats are on the issues of the day,” Bookbinder said.
On other issues relating to the peace process, 84 percent of respondents agreed that the United States should recognize a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Only 21 percent supported the idea of an internationalized Jerusalem.
On Syria, 85 percent said they agreed that Syrian participation in the peace process was essential to the success of the process.
Fifty-seven percent agreed that Israel should be willing to withdraw partially from the Golan Heights to ensure peace. But only 22 percent said Israel should entirely withdraw from the Golan.
Among statements in the survey dealing with Israel, the one receiving the most approval was for the continuation of Israel’s annual $3 billion in U.S. aid. Ninety-one percent of respondents agreed with that goal.
Much of the survey dealt with domestic issues.
Other issues at the top of the respondents’ agenda included crime and anti-Semitism, both ranked “very important” by 78 percent of respondents; economic policies, 69 percent; human rights, 67 percent; opposing the “religious right,” 67 percent; civil rights, 65 percent; and foreign policy, 63 percent.
Scoring lower were church-state issues, 57 percent; abortion, 55 percent; women’s rights, 53 percent; environment, 47 percent; black-Jewish relations, 37 percent; foreign aid, 36 percent; gay rights, 31 percent; freeing Pollard, 26 percent; and the North American Free Trade Agreement, 24 percent.
Respondents were presented with the topics and asked how important they considered them.
The Pollard figure was “consistent with the attitude our advisory board and executive committee had,” Bookbinder said. “We wouldn’t object to good treatment, release or reduction” of Pollard’s life sentence, “but there was no strong support for this, identified as a Jewish or a Democratic issue.”
When identified by gender, the survey showed significant differences on some key issues. Sixty-two percent of the respondents were men.
Seventy-seven percent of women ranked abortion as “very important,” compared to only 41 percent of the male respondents.
Sixty-seven percent of women called church-state issues “very important,” as opposed to 50 percent of the men.
And 78 percent of the women termed human rights “very important,” compared to 59 percent of the men.
56 PERCENT SUPPORT DEATH PENALTY
The study also surveyed people on specific issues concerning crime, health care, church-state matters and education.
On the issue of crime, a whopping 95 percent of respondents said they agreed that sales and possession of handguns should be restricted.
Fifty-six percent said they supported the death penalty.
On health care, almost the entire sample, 98 percent, said that health care reform was necessary in the United States. Seventy-eight percent said they supported the Clinton plan.
The survey revealed that 92 percent of respondents opposed the teaching of religion in public schools and 84 percent opposed prayer in public schools.
But 76 percent of respondents agreed that public schools should teach about religion.
Eighty-nine percent of respondents said that parents should not be allowed to use tax dollars to send children to religious schools, and 86 percent felt the same way about private schools.
But 54 percent agreed that parents should be allowed to choose the public school to which they send their child, even a school in another district.
“A year after Clinton took office, the issues he’s dealing with continue to hit home with this core group of active Democrats,” Monte Friedkin, chair of the group, said in a statement.
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