PHILADELPHIA (JTA) – Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, a major leader of the U.S. haredi Orthodox community, said his followers should vote for Donald Trump in November.
The reason? Gratitude.
“Yes, I think people should vote for him. He’s done a good job. It’s ‘hakaras hatov,’” he told Mishpacha, a weekly magazine aimed at an Orthodox Jewish audience, using the Hebrew words for gratitude. The 95-year-old rabbi said it would be “worrisome” if the president loses.
While the majority of American Jews vote for Democrats, the Orthodox community has increasingly favored Republican candidates in recent years. The Pew Research Center’s 2013 survey of American Jews found that 64% of ultra-Orthodox Jews considered themselves to be politically conservative.