September 20, 2011
Gallup: Jewish backing for Obama is down, but not disproportionately
Follow JewishJournal.com on 
U.S. President Barack Obama, right, and Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan shake hands in New York on Sept. 20. Photo by REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Jewish support for President Obama continues to drop, but maintains its traditional lead over general American support for the president, a Gallup poll showed.
Daily tracking polls in August and September show support for Obama among Jewish voters at 54 percent, 13 points ahead of the national figure.
“Although Obama’s approval rating among Jewish Americans has been declining, it has generally declined no more than it has among all Americans,” Gallup said in its Sept. 16 release. “This calls into question attempts to link a decline in Obama’s approval among Jews to his statements or policies on matters important to Jewish policymakers and lobbyists.”
Some analyses after last week’s special election in New York, in which a Democrat lost a strongly Democratic and heavily Jewish seat to a Republican, was the result in part of tensions between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gallup said this was likely not the case.
“All in all, Obama continues to do better among Jews than among all Americans, and there has been little change in that pattern so far throughout the first 2 1/2 years of his administration,” the polling firm said.
Gallup reached 514 Jewish respondents; the survey had a margin of error of 6 percentage points.
