President Barack Obama
Photo: EPA
Poll: Obama still enjoys high approval rate among US Jews
Gallup says US president's Mideast speech not as detrimental to his presidential campaign as believed
WASHINGTON – A Gallup poll released Tuesday revealed that the majority of American Jews are staying true to US President Barack Obama.
The survey found that contrary to recent reports suggesting the Jewish community's support in the American president may be slipping since his Mideast policy speech in May, the majority of Jewish American will not transfer their support from the Democrats to the Republicans during the 2012 presidential campaign.
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Gallup derived that in June, 60% of the Jewish community in the US still supported Obama – down from 68% in May, but statistically unchanged from 64% in April.
Thirty-two percent of US Jews said they disapproved of the job Obama is doing.
Gallup's monthly trend in the Jewish community's approval of Obama continues to roughly follow the path of all Americans' approval of the president, as it has since Obama took office in January 2009.
According to Gallup, "The 14-percentage-point difference in the two groups' approval ratings in June – 60% among US Jews vs. 46% among all US adults – is identical to the average gap seen over the past two and a half years."
Gallup could not say whether Obama's controversial speech had an immediate impact on the views of Jewish Americans toward the president; however, Gallup Daily tracking interviews for the six weeks period prior to the speech and those conducted six weeks after it, showed no significant shift in Jewish Americans' views toward Obama, with approval rates averaging at 65%.
The survey found no change in the views of the more than 300 Jewish Democrats interviewed in each period, with 86% approving of Obama prior to the speech and 85% after.
The numbers have led Gallup to conclude that contrary to a recent Ben Smith article in Politico, which suggested Jewish Democrats lost faith Obama following his speech, the general Jewish American public still supported the president.
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