For much of their political history, particularly since the Enlightenment, Jews have identified with the progressive Left. Israel itself, although funded by oligarchs, was launched largely as a socialist experiment, epitomized in the kibbutzim.

Today the political Left has betrayed that loyalty, becoming prime movers against Israel and Jews on the ground. In America, as many as 19 Democratic senators voted with Bernie Sanders to block America from sending several types of weaponry to Israel. Even though most still identify as Democrats, many American Jews are finding that their former “safe spaces”—leftist parties, big cities, universities, the media—have morphed into places where anti-Semitic incidents regularly occur, even though they often are vigorously downplayed. 

Until recently, this shift in allegiance was largely ignored by groups like the ADL, which continued to insist that the greater threat to Jewish safety came from the rubes of the far Right. But after October 7 and its aftermath, the days of Jews embracing groups like Black Lives Matter (which openly celebrated the October 7 attacks) have ended. The long-standing alliance between Jews and the Left is now clearly creaking under the enormous strain of this historic shift. 

This is surely one reason why Donald Trump managed to increase his support among Jews by historic margins. According to some exit polls, Trump received roughly 36% of the Jewish vote, and 40% in critical Pennsylvania—well ahead of his low 20s in 2016 and 2020. But once Trump takes his divisive personality offstage, the opportunities for the Right may be even better.

The canary in the coal mine is Europe. In Amsterdam, a recent “Jew-hunt” broke out on the watch of the city’s anti-Israel green partly leadership. The mayor was somehow clueless about the intentions of people who shouted “death to the Jews” or the downsides of becoming what some now call “the capital of Jew hatred.” The great city that once welcomed Jews from Spain, Portugal, and later Germany now has failed in assimilating immigrants from Muslim countries, despite widespread public opposition.

Here’s the bottom line: Muslim immigrants, legal and illegal, drive domestic violence and terrorism. This does not occur nearly as much in eastern Europe which, though historically anti-Semitic, never threw its arms open to Muslim arrivals. One poll of European Jews found that the majority of incidents of anti-Semitism came from either Muslims or from the Left; barely 13% were traced to right-wingers. Nor can Jews count on the generally leftist city governments: Amsterdam’s police were remarkably lax in enforcement; some were allegedly even allowed to opt out of protecting Jews and Jewish institutions. 

The biggest Dutch supporter of the embattled Jews is Geert Wilders, widely seen as far-right. Wilders fears his country being transformed into “the Gaza of Europe.” Much the same pattern can be seen elsewhere. For much of the past century, most politically active Jews backed Labour in Britain, Socialists in France, and Liberals in Canada. Now France’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon not only openly supports Hamas but has emphasized the role of Jews in the killing of Christ. 

In contrast, Israel’s defenders tend to be on the Right, like Wilders, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, or Britain’s Nigel Farage. Not surprisingly, more Jewish voters are backing Marine Le Pen, Canada’s Tories, and America’s Republicans.

Much of the Left’s decision to abandon the Jews can be explained on grounds of political expediency. This is particularly true in Europe, where Muslims now outnumber Jews by ten to 15 times in places like France or the UK. Given the far greater voting power of the Islamists, center-left figures like France’s Emmanuel Macron or Britain’s Keir Starmer have turned on the Jewish state, banning arm sales to Israel and generally blaming it for the extended conflict.

Yet the roots of the great betrayal lie far deeper than the current tragedies in Gaza and Lebanon. The intellectual poison originates with the canon of left-wing literature. It was amplified by the anti-Western writings of intellectuals like Michel Foucault, Frantz Fanon, and Edward Saïd; support for Hamas comes naturally to those who have embraced such writings.

Today Jews find themselves on the wrong side of a Kulturkampf against Western civilization in which the Left blames them for being too influential and too successful. In America these attitudes are driven by minority activists and white progressives, who see the world as a Manichean conflict between BIPOC (“Black, Indigenous, and People of Color”) and the hegemonic representatives of “white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism.” In this context, Israel is seen as an ultra-white colonialist outpost, even though close to half its citizens originally came as refugees from other Mideast countries. 

The epicenter of this new anti-Semitism is the universities. Often egged on by radical professors, students have become the least friendly population to both Israel and Jews. This is particularly true among gay, progressive, and minority students, according to research from Tufts’s Eitan Hersh. Overall the majority of young Democrats, according to another survey, favor the Palestinians, and only 5% favor Israel. This suggests the long-term safety of Jews on some campuses could become ever more endangered. 

Hamas apologists like to stress their alliance with progressive Jews, who make up at most roughly 10-15% of the campus Jewish population. These activists are funded by a largely hidden web of progressive nonprofits backed by George Soros and the Rockefellers, among others. Most anti-Zionist Jews come from highly secular backgrounds and identify only marginally with the community. Roughly half of those defending the ultra-homophobic Hamas identify as LGBTQ, leading Israeli analyst David Mendelson to refer to the movement as “chickens for KFC.” 

Anti-Jewish agitation has even reached the grade schools. The California education establishment has adopted an ethnic studies program, shaped by Critical Race Theory. Its ideology is openly anti-Zionist and largely dismisses Jews as white oppressors. San Francisco has seen anti-Israel walkouts in ten high schools, organized by an advocacy group with access to student addresses. In Toronto, children as young as eight were “compelled” to attend anti-Israel rallies at the behest of their progressive teachers. 

Not surprisingly, many younger Americans deny the Holocaust and favor eliminating Israel by giving it to Islamist and authoritarian Hamas. Particularly troubling is the influence of social media; according to Pew, one third of Latino teenagers are “constantly” on TikTok, where pro-Palestinian videos initially outweighed pro-Israel ones by better than four to one. Overall, in the U.S., a country where most still support Israel and express positive views of Jews, young Blacks, Latinos, and even Asians express the most negative sentiments.

These realities have weighed heavily on Jewish students in particular. At the University of Rochester, Jewish professors were featured on “wanted” posters. At other schools, Jewish faculty emails were released by Palestinian supporters. Even the most resolute progressives have been taken aback by the assault. Erwin Chemerinsky, Berkeley’s Law School dean and a well-known progressive, wrote in The LA Times that “nothing has prepared me for the antisemitism” rife at Berkeley and other campuses.

Anti-Semitism also has become rife across the culture industry. Jewish authors and Israelis are being banned from literary events, much as occurred in the early days of Nazi Germany. For a group often accused of “controlling” the media, Jews seem to be powerless to stop the barrage of anti-Semitic and biased coverage in places like The New York Times, the BBC, and The Washington Post. Similar bias has become embedded in the internet, as seen by Wikipedia’s new negative description of Zionism. 

Even in Hollywood, a creation of largely Jewish entrepreneurs, organizations like the Writers Guild, long a bastion of fashionable progressivism, have decided to stay neutral in the current struggle. Two thousand actors signed a statement outlining Israel’s “war crimes,” with no mention of Hamas’ atrocities. To be sure, a handful of influential celebrities, notably Jerry Seinfeld, have expressed solidarity with Israel. Yet as record executive Scooter Braun suggests, most have kept to the sidelines. Braun, who has helped produce Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, laments that “people with 100 million followers” have chosen not to exercise their influence.

In Exile Once Again

Increasingly, Jews are being forced to choose between their historic roots and their long-standing political orientation. The days when the Anti-Defamation League served essentially as a subsidiary of the Democratic Party are likely over. 

 Democrats, after all, dominate the ranks of anti-Israel politicians. All nine congresspeople who voted against supporting Israel in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 pogrom were Democrats. In contrast, the strongest support for Israel now comes from Republicans. Hamas supporters, in a show of power, even succeeded in shutting down California’s state Party convention this year. 

In the long and even medium term, progressive Jews seem destined to melt into the broad Left, while being marginalized among their fellow Jews. After all, 85% of Jews support Israel. To condone its destruction is not popular within the tribe. In contrast, the ascendant group seems to be the orthodox, now roughly 10% of the total Jewish population. But as their higher fertility contrasts with the below-replacement birthrates  among non-orthodox American Jews, one study suggests that the orthodox will triple their share by 2060. Already, almost two-thirds of all Jewish children in New York City are orthodox.

Some 75% of orthodox Jews identify as Republicans, up from 57% in 2013. They are pioneers of the kind of “self-segregation” that, notes Joseph Epstein, makes sense in a hostile environment. Trump did very well in some heavily Jewish sections of Brooklyn, the Catskills and New Jersey, where observant Jews congregate.

Another strong sign for orthodoxy: On campuses, the most active and effective organization is frequently Chabad, which encourages heterodox Jews to participate. At times when Jews are increasingly concerned about their safety, Chabad’s inward-looking approach has marked appeal.

Still, in the short term, the bulk of Jews will stay inside the Democratic Party. Although only 2.4% of the population, Jews have long been critical for financial support and political acumen, as William Domhoff pointed out in his 1972 book Fat Cats and Democrats. Jews from Wall Street, for example, tended be far more favorable to Roosevelt and the New Deal than their WASP counterparts, while Hollywood has been a consistent backer of Democratic and progressive causes. 

But where Jews were once prominent on the left side of the party, now they tend to operate mostly from the center. Jewish Democrats have won some significant victories, helping to remove two members of the Squad and battling local resolutions attacking Israel. There is a case to be made that pro-Israel politicians like Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman, as well as New York’s Representative Ritchie Torres, could yet win control of the now-tormented party. 

For the GOP, divisions among Democrats offer a tremendous opportunity. But there remain many barriers, amplified by Trump’s reluctance to openly denounce prominent Jew-haters such as the Proud Boys, or distance himself from Tucker Carlson’s flirtation with pro-Hamas figures as well holocaust deniers. The historically clueless right-wing influencer Candace Owens has stated that Hitler would have been “fine if confined to Germany.” 

If the GOP can curb these voices, they should be able to build on their current, albeit modest momentum—as demonstrated by this year by Donald Trump. Jews are already heading to red or purple suburbs from deep blue cities like New York, where anti-Semitism is often rife; roughly two-thirds of Jews are suburbanites. At the same time, more Jews are now headed to the south. Since 1960, the percentage of Jews living there has risen from 9% in 1960 to 22%. 

This slow Jewish rightward shift was foreshadowed by a growing presence of Jewish intellectuals on the right, a trend that started in the 1980s with the likes of Milton Friedman, Norman Podhoretz, and Nathan Glazer. Now we see the rise of figures like Florida-based Ben Shapiro and aggressive new magazines like Tablet. This seems natural at a time when the further left you go—for example, to the most liberal Christian sects—the more openly pro-Hamas sentiment you will hear. Meanwhile, more conservative congregations stand among Jews’ firmest allies. 

Overall, today Jews have little choice but head to the Center or Right. As has been the case throughout their history, they need to prioritize pragmatic alliances with friendly groups, including those who espouse beliefs—on abortion, say—that most Jews reject. After the betrayal of the progressives, the Jewish political landscape in the West will never be quite the same.