Jews Are Moving From Blue States to Red Ones

So I have a natural affinity for Jews, although most of them whom I met through her were Bernie Sanders-types who I considered mostly charming but more than a bit nuts. They seemed crazy but mostly harmless, and most were wicked smart. 

Jews who came of age in the 30s and 40s naturally associated antisemitism with the Right because...antisemitism had its home in the Right of the time, although more than a few radical left wingers in places like Minnesota and Wisconsin were rabid antisemites as well. They ignored the connection between communism and antisemitism that was a feature mainly in Europe and the Soviet Union. New York Jews saw the WASPs, Southerners, and Midwestern antisemites as the real danger. 

How times have changed. They always do. 

Michigan Democratic primary winner Abdul El-Sayed is yet another virulent ‘anti-Zionist’. He joins a growing cast of so-called progressives in the Democratic Party who are driven by their hatred of Israel. They are a menace to America’s Jews, says Joel Kotkin…

— spiked (@spikedonline) August 5, 2026

The Right today is largely characterized by philosemitism, despite the fact that the affection is largely not reciprocated. Perhaps the biggest reason for that is, ironically, a growing appreciation of and affection for Israel, which grew dramatically after Israel dropped its socialist-leaning Kibbutz culture, which failed miserably. Israel today is a thriving capitalist country, fierce in its self-defense in a way that appeals to American conservatives, and is largely seen as very culturally compatible with Western values. 

Which of course explains why progressives hate them, and are increasingly willing to make that clear, despite the fact that Jews have been a key part of the Democrat base. Being anti-Israel, and appearing antisemitic, is now almost a requirement to get elected in the Democrat Party. 

The latest evidence that being Jewish is liability in the 2026 Democratic Party 👇

Dana Nessel is a solidly progressive Democrat. She is the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in Michigan. Fought for marriage equality all the way to the Supreme Court, defended… pic.twitter.com/Y4NtniQNTX

— Trisha Posner (@trishaposner) July 31, 2026

The latest evidence that being Jewish is liability in the 2026 Democratic Party 👇

Dana Nessel is a solidly progressive Democrat. She is the first openly gay person elected to statewide office in Michigan. Fought for marriage equality all the way to the Supreme Court, defended expanded abortion access, LGBTQ civil rights, environmental protections, and gun control.

None of that matters now. 

Since antisemitism in her state has gotten "worse and worse" since the October 7 terror attack on Israel, she is skipping her own Democratic Party convention. 

“I feel like my presence is not going to be welcomed. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. And I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying. And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen."  

The threats she gets are almost exclusively about her Judaism — not her sexuality, not her politics.

The Democratic party claims to champion the marginalized…until the marginalized person is Jewish.

Why don't the party's leaders, Chuck Schumer, himself Jewish, and Hakeem Jeffries, condemn this hate?

We all know that Kamala Harris chose Walz because he was the non-Jew alternative to the far superior Josh Shapiro, and that it is now OK to discuss whether John Ossoff can get elected because he doesn't SEEM Jewish, as Shapiro does. 

👀 CNN anchor Elex Michaelson at end of politics panel discussion re: Ossoff 2028:

“As a Jew, some people read a little more Jewish than other people. And Jon Ossoff may not read as Jewish as Josh Shapiro does, for whatever that’s worth.” pic.twitter.com/uUmn3jo35a

— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) July 2, 2026

All this translates into an unanticipated problem for Jews: they are highly concentrated in deep Blue areas, precisely where they are least welcome to live. The more liberal the place, the less welcoming the environment is likely to be. University towns, New York City, which has the largest Jewish population in a single city in the world, and just about any place you are likely to find concentrations of Jews outside Miami. 

Ah, Miami, which is situated in one of the most Red states in the nation, is still Jew-friendly, as are places like Atlanta, Nashville, and other places where there are plenty of Republicans. 

In America, the once-potent Jewish establishment no longer provides an adequate shield. It was unable to prevent New York, arguably the most Jewish-dominated global city in history, from electing as mayor Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken anti-Zionist with little empathy for Jews, who has surrounded himself with people, including his wife, who traffic in anti-Israel memes.

Remarkably, a defeated far-left candidate in Texas still won 36 per cent of the primary vote with a platform that suggested setting up concentration camps for ‘American Zionists’. In New Jersey, the Democrats have nominated Adam Hamawy, someone with links to an alleged al-Qaeda front, in a safe blue seat. Another New Jersey district followed a similarly anti-Israel course. This is in addition to three more Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) clones elected as congressional candidates for New York.

More worrying still, we are seeing mob violence reminiscent of the Brownshirts in 1920s Germany. DSA-affiliated radicals go to Democratic conventions, like the one in Michigan, heckling those deemed not sufficiently anti-Zionist. The state’s attorney general, who is Jewish, refused to attend, to avoid being ‘chased around’, ‘harassed’, ‘yelled and screamed at’ and ‘booed off stage’. Washington State’s party gathering was little better, where Israel was denounced for its supposed ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’, and the rise in anti-Semitism was blamed – you guessed it – on the Jews.

That sort of thing just doesn't happen around Republicans, and even the Democrats in those areas are not steeped in the cultural hatred of Jews that is now standard fare where Democrats dominate. 

Half of American Jews report that they now try to hide their Jewishness in some way, and 33 percent feel at least somewhat unsafe in their communities. Thirteen percent have considered leaving the United States, which is shocking. But many others are moving South, which is almost funny to me. 

So Jews are starting to move there. In numbers. 

The New York Jews I grew up knowing through my grandmother thought Southerners were racist hicks who might lynch them, as actually happened with some Jewish civil rights activists in the 1960s. 

How times have changed. 

One clear response to the rise of anti-Semitism is to move. Increasingly, deep-blue states, particularly the big blue metros, may no longer be safe. One California judge handed out only a year’s sentence to an academic radical who killed a Jewish counter-protester. Jewish life is getting cheap again.

Many are headed to the South which, once seen as inhospitable, is emerging as the new place of refuge for Jews. Today, the key Jewish growth states, notes one study, include South Carolina, West Virginia and Florida, while those declining are New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Connecticut and California.

The numbers are impressive: Florida’s Jewish population, just over 175,000 in 1960, now stands at nearly 700,000. The Jewish community in Houston grew by 50 per cent between 1986 and 2016, while 1,800 more Jews a year move into the Dallas region. There were 9,000 Jews in Atlanta at the end of the Second World War but 60,000 in 1984 and near 100,000 today.

At the same time, Jewish university students are ditching the coastal schools for the South and the middle of the country. Of the schools ranked safest for Jewish students by the ADL, most are in the South, while eastern and western schools generally – particularly the Ivies and the top UC campuses – are bastions of anti-Semitism.

There is a faction of the online "Right" that is caught up in the Jew hate, but for all intents and purposes they have become enemies of the MAGA movement. Tucker Carlson has speculated that Trump is the antiChrist, Candace Owens believes that a Jewish conspiracy is tied up in the murder of Charlie Kirk, and Marjorie "Jewish Space Laser" Taylor Green spouts her anti-MAGA nonsense. 

But to call them outliers is understating things. They have rejected the Republican Party because it is too Jew-friendly. 

Jews are unlikely to become Republicans in numbers any time soon, but even a loosening of the connection between Jews and the Democrat Party would be a great thing to see. 

I have my own theory as to why Jews are so attached to liberal ideology, and since I seem to be nearly alone in it I am probably wrong about it. I went to my first Seder as an adult in my early 30s, and was struck by how central the experience of slavery was to the Jewish identity. 

Passover celebrates the Jews' escape from Egypt, which happened more than 3,300 years ago. But it remains the core of the Jewish identity and informs every aspect of Jewishness. The story of escape from oppression is the essence of Jewishness, and the subsequent history of the Jews reinforces that, up to the present day. 

I believe that makes many Jews identify with people they see as oppressed, and less likely to identify with Republicans' natural optimism about self-reliance. 

So I expect no mass movement toward Republicans, unfortunately, although some have made the jump. 

Perhaps they will discover the wonders of freedom in Red states, where they will be welcomed with open arms. 

We can always hope.