I don’t know any statistics about Republican Jews. Do you think that Lieberman will grab the votes of some Republican Jews who would have voted for Bush/Cheney, had the Democratic vp candidate not been Jewish? Is this amount of votes statistically significant?
What a sense of humor!
Is Republican Jew an oxymoron?
Not in my opinion.
To me, an oxymoron is something that has a contradictory name (typically, “military intelligence” comes to mind)–but ACTUALLY EXISTS. . . .
Huh.
Apparently, y’all must think that cmkeller and IzyR are just figments of the board’s imagination.
I know of at least one case where a Jew is switching parties because of Gore’s selection of Lieberman. My housemate Mike, every time he visits his mother, his mother’s constantly “Lieberman this” and “Lieberman that” and how he’s the great savior of the religion, and Mike is seriously considering voting for Bush because if he has to put up with this from his mother for another four years, he’ll go insane. Of course, he’s already insane from dealing with his mother. But then, who isn’t?
Oh, John, everybody knows that the Republicans are simply waiting for Bush to steamroll into office so that, approximately 45 seconds after he takes the oath of office, they can all tear off their street clothes to reveal their khaki uniforms and swastika armbands.
Gee, thanks, Phil. Now the little ones will have nightmares tonight.
While I am a registered Democrat (due to the strange nature of New York politics), I usually vote Republican.
Because I’m a registered Democrat, I get to vote against Hillary twice!! 
Zev Steinhardt
zev, you stole one of my favorite lines.
These days, there are quite a few Jews who vote Republican, especially amongst the Orthodox. The recent prominence of such social issues as abortion and homosexual rights, the support of the American left for the Israeli left (who are both virulently anti-religious as well as very amenable to compromise on Jewish religious holy sites), and the rise of philo-Semitic politicians on the right (such as Al D’Amato…I doubt anyone other than the Jewish Chuck Schumer could have gotten such a Friend of Israel out of office in New York) have caused the Orthodox Jewish community to realize that voting Democratic is not the eleventh commandment.
I think it was (at least in New York) Al D’Amato and Rudy Giuliani who first realized and utilized the Orthodox/non-Orthodox split in the Jewish community and realized that they could eat into the usual lockstep support of Jews for Democrats by appealing specifically to the Orthodox.
I know first hand that they exist. My father is a Republican Jew. 
Otherwise, he’s a very smart man! 
Joseph Lieberman has proven to be a fairly attractive candidate, and may attract a FEW additional Jewish votes. But virtually all American Jews are registered voters, and the great majority vote Democratic. So, his presence on the ticket will lead to happier, more enthusiastic Jewish Democratic voters, but not to MANY more of them.
Now, of course, there ARE prominent Jewish conservative Republicans. Milton Friedman, William Safire, William Kristol and Henry Kissinger come to mind. And every recent Republican administration has included numerous Jews in high level positions. The Reagan administration had a lot of Jewish neoconservatives working in the Defense and State departments. And despite his vile anti-semitic remarks in private, Richard Nixon had numerous Jewish advisers (his top economic adviser was Herb Stein, father of game show host Ben Stein).
So, while Jewish Republicans are certainly a minority, they’re not THAT rare.
My experience has been that more recent Jewish immigrants, especially those from the former Soviet Union, tend to be Republicans when they eventually get the right to vote.
I dated a woman whose father was a Jewish immigrant from Hungary (Class of 1956 as they refer to themselves) and he was a Republican.
Fortunately for me, his daughter was a fairly liberal Democrat.
The Republican Jewish Coalition (formerly the National Jewish Coalition) claims that 21% of Jews registered to vote are Republicans.
How could anyone forget Ben Stein, who’s made a career out of being a Jewish Republican?
I myself am Jewish, and I vote Democratic mainly because I was raised within the Reform denomination. The synagogue my family attended was very much into social justice and taking care of one’s fellow man. Consequently, I wouldn’t dream of voting Republican.
Now that I’m more or less independent of the synagogue, I vote Democratic because I find the concept of morality to be personal, and not fodder for political gain. Just a personal opinion.
Robin