An attendee of a Jewish election party told JNS that “without Trump in power, I think Israel is dead in the water.”
Vita Fellig
(JNS)
Many of the neary 100 Jewish students and young professionals who attended two election viewing parties in Manhattan that JNS attended on Tuesday night expressed strong support for President elect Donald Trump. But even those who opposed the former president told JNS that they are relieved that the election is over.
Izzy Karten, of Brooklyn, spoke with JNS at an Upper East Side Jewish young professional event at Park East Synagogue, which drew about 50 people and was hosted by the Miami Sephardic Club, and on Wednesday after the race was called.
He told JNS that he is “ecstatic” about Trump’s victory, due to the former president’s avowed support for Israel.
“The Jewish community needs him,” Karten said. “Without Trump in power, I think Israel is dead in the water. Israel is such a small, tiny country in a sea of Arab countries, who want to see her destroyed.”
“Now that Trump has won, I think we are going to be able to target Iran in a more direct way and dismantle their terrorist proxies in the region,” he added. “We can slowly see the world change for the better.”
As attendees of the Park East event sipped beer and wine and ate snacks, with Fox News results playing on televisions in the background, David Behar, a founder of the Miami Sephardic Club, told JNS that he voted for Trump and believes many members of the club tend to lean right. But the watch party was specifically created to be “open” to the whole community, regardless of political affiliation.
“A lot of us live alone in the city, so we wanted to gather our community together for such an important election,” he told JNS.
Earlier in the evening, at Yeshiva University’s midtown campus, there seemed to be more political diversity in the room, where some 40 students ate pizza and watched the election results in a large conference room, which had multiple televisions streaming Fox News, CNN, ABC and a live stream event from the Free Press.
During the event, and subsequently on Wednesday, JNS spoke with Ariel Aza, a Yeshiva sophomore from Great Neck, N.J., and member of the Dunner Political Society, and Talia Isaacs, a Yeshiva sophomore from Teaneck, N.J., who is also part of the bipartisan campus group.
Aza said he feels “optimistic” about the future now that the election has officially ended. “Trump will be a good president for all Americans,” he told JNS. “I think Trump’s first administration had a positive effect for Americans both domestically and abroad.”
“You can even tell a Trump-led economy will do well, because the Dow Jones went up 1,400 points since the election results have been determined,” he noted.
Isaacs told JNS that she isn’t “overly emotional” about the results, because she expected Trump to win. “After four years of the Biden administration, considering a lot of national and global events that have happened recently, it makes sense the American people wanted a change,” she said.
“People blame Biden for rising inflation and housing costs, as well as the war in Israel, so they think Trump will do better,” she said.
Sruli Friedman, a Yeshiva junior from Brooklyn, and co-president of the student group told JNS that the event aimed to bring students together with diverse political views.
“It was important to host this event for the wider student community, whether or not they have been interested in politics before,” he said. “This is obviously an election where people are taking notice of politics for the first time, and if they don’t have friends who are going to be having a party of their own, we wanted to provide one for them.”
“This election campaign has been going on for two years—which is about 10% of my life,” he said. “It’s always an exciting event when the most powerful country in the world is going to choose who its leader will be for the next few years.”
The rapid clip at which the election was determined was “surprising,” according to Freidman.
“Most of us were expecting a more drawn out, contested result, perhaps over several days,” he said. “I’m thankful that it seems there will be no significant fight over the results in the courts, which was a potential outcome that could have seriously harmed our country.”
Nissim Farhy, a junior from Detroit and co-president of the YU College Democrats, told JNS that it was important for the university community to display “unity” during a divisive election year.
Although he was invited to an election party with people who share his political views, he decided it was “a good opportunity for the student body to come together,” he said.
“Instead of having two separate parties, one hosted by YU Democrats and one by YU Republicans, it was better for our student community to host a non-partisan gathering,” he said.
According to an Oct. 30 survey conducted by the YU Observer, a student paper, 87% of the university’s undergraduate student body intend to vote for Trump. Just 13% intended to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, per the survey.
Image: An election night young professionals viewing party at Park East Synagogue hosted by the Miami Sephardic Club in New York City on Nov. 5, 2024. Photo by Vita Fellig.
