Become a Member
Geoffrey Alderman

By

Geoffrey Alderman,

Geoffrey Alderman

Opinion

So, there really is a Jewish vote

As political pundits focus on the margins, it is clear that it is no longer illegitimate to speak of ethnic voting patterns

April 15, 2010 10:33
2 min read

Even before Gordon Brown had journeyed to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen for a dissolution of parliament, I had found myself on the receiving end of inquiries from the media as to the existence and likely impact of "the Jewish vote".

The fact that we can now ask these questions in public - "Is there a Jewish vote and, if so, what effect might it have?"- shows how far we have come during my own lifetime as an academic interested in such matters.

As recently as 30 years ago, such questions could not be asked - or, if they were asked, the asker would be speedily rebuffed, probably taken to one side and told that even to make such inquiries was tantamount to a shameful display of anti-Jewish prejudice.

On the eve of the February 1974 general election, the Board of Deputies actually advised communal leaders to tell inquirers that, "to all intents and purposes", a Jewish vote "does not exist in this country".