In a survey released on Tuesday titled Jewish Values in 2012, conducted by the non-profit Public Religion Research Institute in Washington D.C., 73 percent of respondents said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu represents Jewish values very well or somewhat well. According to the institute, participants were asked about eight well-known Jewish political, cultural and business leaders. Percentages were calculated from information only from respondents who knew who the person was, and calculated as the percentage of people who answered either that the figure represented Jewish values either very well or somewhat well. Following Netanyahu was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagen with 66%, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg with 65%, Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman with 60%, comedian John Stewart with 63%, Israeli-born actress Natalie Portman. with 56%, Republican Congressman Eric Cantor with 38% and comedian Sarah Silverman with 37%. The survey questioned 1,004 self-identified Jewish adults aged 18 and up who are part of the Knowledge Networks Knowledge Panel, a randomly chosen group who participate in regular research two to four times a month, selected by a patented sampling system. Participants were surveyed between Feb. 23 and March 5. The survey had an error margin of 5%. The survey also explores which issues are important to American Jews. A large majority, 84%, said that pursuing justice is a top priority; 80% said caring for widows and orphans. Some 72% said tikkun olam, the Jewish concept of repairing the world, is an important value, and 72% said that welcoming strangers is a priority for them. Just over half of the respondents, 55%, said they view people as made in the image of God and that this value influences their political beliefs and activities. When asked which topics influence their Jewish identity, only 20% responded with Israel; 46% cited a commitment to social equality and 17% said religious observance. A sense of cultural heritage and tradition was only cited among 6% of respondents. Social and economic justice is an important guide for how American Jews think about civic engagement and political participation, said institute head Dr. Robert P. Jones. These values resonate with religious Jews as well as Jews who identify as culturally or ethnically Jewish. Another key question in the survey was whether Jewish Americans would vote for President Barack Obama in the upcoming election. Sixty-two percent said they would rather vote for Obama, a Democrat, than for any Republican candidate, while about a third of respondents said they would support a Republican candidate. Of those respondents who supported Obama in 2008, 85% said they wanted to see him re-elected, while 7% said they would support a Republican candidate in 2012. Of those voters who supported Republican candidate John McCain in 2008, 92% said they would prefer a Republican candidate this time as well. The survey also found that Israel is low on the list of voting priorities for American Jewish voters. Only 4% of respondents said that the issue would be at all important to their vote in the upcoming presidential election. The top voting priorities for those surveyed were the economy (51%), the growing gap between the rich and the poor (15%) and health care and the federal debt (10%).
