The Jewish Vote by the Numbers
Jewish turnout could play a role in deciding which candidate claims Georgia's 16 Electoral College votes.
Dave Schechter is a veteran journalist whose career includes writing and producing reports from Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
The as-yet unpublished 2024 edition of the American Jewish Year Book will estimate that 132,000 Jews live in metro Atlanta and 148,500 throughout Georgia.
The Jewish community thus would comprise about 1.33 percent of the state’s population, which the Census Bureau in 2023 listed as 11,029,227.
The Jewish population estimates were provided to the AJT by Prof. Ira Sheskin of the University of Miami, editor of the Jewish American Year Book.
Sheskin said the 2024 figures include Israelis living in Georgia. No precise figure is available, but anecdotal estimates to the AJT suggest that 10,000 or more Israelis live in metro Atlanta.
Based on Census Bureau’s breakdown of Georgia’s population, 77 percent of those 148,500 likely are of voting age.
Researchers say that Jews vote in presidential elections in the range of 80 percent, one of the highest rates of any religious or ethnic group.
For argument’s sake, if all Jewish adults in Georgia of voting age were registered and if 80 percent voted, that would yield nearly 91,500 potential Jewish votes.
Using an approximation, based on recent elections, that 70 percent of the Jewish vote nationally goes to the Democratic presidential candidate, in Georgia that could yield about 64,000 potential Democratic votes and about 27,400 Republican.
Democrat Joe Biden defeated incumbent Republican President Donald Trump in Georgia in 2020 by 11,779 votes. The potential number of Jewish voters suggests that, in a close election, Jewish turnout could play a role in deciding which candidate claims the state’s 16 Electoral College votes.
In a Jewish Electorate Institute survey of 800 self-identified Jewish American registered voters, conducted April 16-21, 47 percent described their political ideology as liberal, 35 percent moderate, and 16 percent conservative.
In terms of party identification, 57 percent were firmly leaning Democratic with another 12 percent leaning in that direction, while 14 percent were firmly Republican with 10 percent leaning in that direction.
By affiliation, 37 percent of the respondents were Reform, 17 percent Conservative, nine percent Orthodox, and 31 percent reported having no denomination.
Respondents to the JEI survey were asked to identify the two issues most important to them when voting in November.
Overall, “The future of democracy” topped the list at 46 percent; followed by abortion, 30 percent; inflation/economy, 26 percent; Israel, 25 percent; immigration, 18 percent; national security/foreign policy, 16 percent; climate change, 14 percent; health care, 10 percent; guns, eight percent; Social Security/Medicare, six percent; and other, two percent.
Broken down by denomination, Reform Jews were most concerned about democracy (55 percent), followed by abortion (34 percent). Democracy (36 percent) and abortion (32 percent) were priorities identified by those in the Conservative movement. Orthodox Jews focused on inflation/economy (54 percent) and Israel (52 percent). For those with no formal affiliation, democracy (45 percent) and abortion (26) percent were the top issue concerns.
In the survey, 52 percent of those ages 18-34 agreed that antisemitism is a serious problem, a response that increased with age; 66 percent of those ages 35-49, 69 percent of those ages 50-64, and 70 percent of those age 75 and older.
comments