How to help the Jewish community in this election
I am often asked by Christian friends and colleagues how they can support the Jewish community or the Jewish state. I deeply appreciate their allyship, which is sadly all too rare from non-Jewish communities in a post-Oct. 7th world. Normally, I can offer them many different answers, like fact-checking the information they share on social media to ensure that it isn’t uninformed propaganda or simply checking in on your Jewish friends.
But this historic election, after one of the worst years for the American Jewish community on record, is not normal. Right now, the advice I can offer Christians who want to support Jews is simple — go out and vote this year, and vote for the Republican Party.
Politicians have long courted the support of Christian voters, and for good reason — they are an influential and civically engaged bloc in America. Demographic studies show that about two-thirds of adult Americans identify as Christian, and that about 55% of this group considers themselves practicing Christians. Moreover, research shows that this group of practicing Christians are significantly more likely to vote than the general voting-eligible public, and that this holds true across racial groups in America. In other words, since practicing Christians comprise a large part of the American electorate and vote at a much higher rate, they can have an outsized influence on the outcome of elections.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Christians are also more likely to hold conservative political views and therefore to ally with the Republican Party, a trend that also continues across most racial groups in America. Even in 2016, when the Christian vote was moderately divided by the “Never Trump” movement, practicing Christians still turned out for Trump in significantly greater numbers than the general public and were undoubtedly part of his eventual victory.
Unfortunately, a study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University estimates that as many as 41 million Christians — 32 million of whom attend church regularly — will not be voting this year. This is an enormous missed opportunity. Even if the choices aren’t perfect, voting is still the best way to champion deeply held values and do your part to shape an American future you believe in. This sometimes entails making approximations or compromises, because our two-party system makes it nearly inevitable that the viable options won’t be a total reflection of all our opinions, but settling on the closest candidate and casting a vote for him is a responsibility that comes with faith — Christian, Jewish, or anything else.
I understand the objections some Christians may have about Donald Trump — he is not a perfect candidate. But the reality is that the Trump-Vance ticket offers a significantly better version of America than the Harris-Walz platform, and that failing to exercise your sizable political influence may well lead to a Democratic victory that will be a disaster and threat to your closely held beliefs.
The Democrats have been waging an assault on religious liberty for years, trying to chip away at the First Amendment right to practice one’s religion in any way we see fit through decisions like forcing Christian business owners to pay for employee’s abortions. They have touted ideas about gender and trans ideology that directly contradict Christian beliefs about male-female relations. They espouse rhetoric at every turn that diminishes the role of American Christians at the expense of religious minorities, including subsets like the radical Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan who openly profess to hate America and its values.
And this is to say nothing of the Democratic positions on Israel and antisemitism. Anyone who has watched the news with horror over the past year has seen how the left has embraced an ugly, vitriolic form of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate. Rather than expunging terror apologists, jihadist cheerleaders, and anti-American radicals from their ranks, the Democrats have created space for them in their party and in the elite institutions they control.
Democrats have gone out of their way to curtail Israel’s war effort by withholding weapons, issuing ultimatums, platforming virulent anti-Zionists, and condemning the Jewish state at every turn — thereby making it easier for violent terrorists to wage a war that threatens not only Israel but also the west and its civilizational values. Forget their lip service — these people are not Jewish allies, and they do not have our best interests at heart. Handing them a resounding loss this November is the best way to force a course correction for the party, which has had an outsized role in creating the antisemitic climate in America today.
This is why I tell Christian allies that the best way to support the Jewish people is by casting the right vote this November, and standing alongside us in our battle against discrimination, double standards, and radical Islamist values. Despite our differing religions, our interests are aligned — a version of America rooted in our love for faith, family, and country, which opposes the radical ideologies on the left and firmly casts out anyone who rejects the American values that we hold dear.
This election, there is only one party that offers this vision, and it is incumbent on us to throw our support behind it — or risk facing the steep consequences of a victory for the other side.
Dr. Sheila Nazarian is a Los Angeles physician and star of the Emmy-nominated Netflix series “Skin Decision: Before and After.” Her family escaped to the United States from Iran.
