delray beach, fla. <u+2014> some pro-clinton videos circulating in this part of south florida do not feature barack obama, bernie sanders or elizabeth warren. instead, the praise comes from shimon peres, henry kissinger and the son of yitzhak rabin. republicans are sending around cards showing a glowering hillary clinton , an iranian flag and missiles, and saying: <u+201c>the obama/clinton iran deal puts israel at risk and makes us less safe.<u+201d> then there is the facebook ad and robocall campaign puckishly titled <u+201c>wwjd.<u+201d> it answered the question many jews here were wondering: what would joe (as in lieberman) do? both campaigns see a path to victory in florida, the largest swing state, if they can engage the right demographic groups, from the cuban refugees in miami to the rural whites in the panhandle. but one of the most prized groups of voters in the sunshine state is its hundreds of thousands of jews, whose interest in the race often goes beyond the usual questions of hillary clinton<u+2019>s judgment or donald j. trump <u+2019>s temperament. in interviews, jewish voters here have said their votes were motivated by the same issues that matter to much of the rest of the electorate, such as immigration, the makeup of the supreme court and, perhaps more so this year, the character of the candidates. but layered on top of that are specific concerns over support for israel; the nuclear arms agreement with iran, which is unpopular with jewish conservatives; and unease over anti-semitism that has surfaced among segments of mr. trump<u+2019>s supporters. <u+201c>trump has become their champion,<u+201d> said rabbi mark winer, the president of the florida democratic party caucus of american jews. <u+201c>to me, that<u+2019>s disqualifying in itself.<u+201d> at an early-voting site on friday in delray beach, where an almost hourlong line had formed on a sidewalk, al drelich showed up in his red <u+201c>make america great again<u+201d> cap. he gave his spare hat to a trump volunteer, and stayed around to talk up mr. trump and to debate the many clinton supporters. he bristled at the criticism he had heard about trump supporters, saying they were wrongly maligned as racist. plus, he seemed to be saying, jews should know better than to blame anti-semitism on mr. trump. <u+201c>that will be there forever. it will never change,<u+201d> mr. drelich, a retired mortgage underwriter in his 80s, said. <u+201c>we survived, and we will survive. but trump is better for israel than hillary.<u+201d> clinton supporters argued that her support for israel was clear. beyond that, they said, she is simply more qualified to be president. <u+201c>she<u+2019>s a decent, educated, well-prepared human being, who respects people<u+2019>s rights and who conducts herself like a lady,<u+201d> said ken sommers, 73, a retired dentist from long island. benna golub, 69, a retired special education teacher, conceded that she had to think hard before picking mrs. clinton over mr. sanders in the primary. but there was no wavering, she said, when she voted for mrs. clinton again in the general election: <u+201c>she<u+2019>s more stable, more experienced, more capable.<u+201d> early-voting turnout in south florida has been higher than it was in 2012, and democrats are hoping that jewish support can counterbalance the republicans who have been flooding voting sites elsewhere in the state. more than six million floridians had voted as of sunday morning, according to state statistics, with democrats holding a slight edge. (whom these voters chose will not be known until tuesday.) the three large south florida counties have more than 500,000 jews, or roughly 7 percent of the population, a percentage higher than anywhere in the country outside the new york metropolitan area, according to a 2015 study by researchers working under the auspices of the jewish federations of north america . for decades, jews brought their politics with them from the northeast as they filled up south florida<u+2019>s many condominiums and subdivisions for middle-class retirees. mrs. clinton is widely expected to carry a majority of the jewish voters in florida, just as president obama and other democratic nominees have done. the democrats had once counted on the assistance of so-called condo commandos, who imported the machine-style politics from back home and were considered very effective at drumming up support from their neighbors. though their influence has faded , as many of those political organizers have died and the area has become more diverse, the contingent of jewish voters has remained significant enough that both parties court them religiously. republicans have tried repeatedly to siphon jewish voters, making appeals based on promises of lower taxes and being a stronger ally of israel. many here recall a crush of direct mail and television ads in 2012, as well as the billboards placed by the republican jewish coalition along interstate 95 lamenting, <u+201c>obama <u+2026> oy vey!!<u+201d> republican jewish activists believe they have a good chance of helping senator marco rubio win his race for re-election against patrick murphy, a democratic congressman from south florida. but mr. trump<u+2019>s candidacy, which has been divisive even among jewish republicans, has tempered those ambitions for the presidential campaign. <u+201c>there was hope that the iran arms deal would provide an avenue, but that<u+2019>s frankly drowned out by the concern about trump,<u+201d> said kenneth d. wald, a political scientist at the university of florida, who studies jewish political behavior. <u+201c>the level of alarm about trump is very high.<u+201d> while palm beach county is one of the centers of jewish life in the united states, it is also notorious in the history of american, and american jewish, politics. its confusing <u+201c>butterfly<u+201d> presidential ballot in 2000 helped lead to the defeat of senator joseph i. lieberman, who would have been the country<u+2019>s first jewish vice president. thousands of voters in the area mistakenly voted for pat buchanan, the ultraconservative candidate deeply disliked by many jews. the supreme court ultimately ended a statewide recount of votes, giving the election to george w. bush. mr. lieberman later became an independent and a free agent of sorts, endorsing senator john mccain, a republican, over mr. obama in 2008 and speaking at that year<u+2019>s republican national convention. that, jewish democratic leaders believe, made it all the more potent when he announced this summer that he was backing mrs. clinton, citing their years in the senate together and saying she would be good for bipartisanship. whether mr. lieberman<u+2019>s endorsement, and the numerous facebook ads and robocalls touting it, has influenced anyone is not clear. it certainly has not moved eddie rosianu, 88, who said he had been a steadfast supporter of the republican party since he arrived in the united states from romania by way of israel. <u+201c>eisenhower brought me here, and gave me a good future, a good family,<u+201d> said mr. rosianu, a jewelry manufacturer whose business was on 47th street in manhattan for nearly 40 years. his vote for mr. trump was based on more than party loyalty. <u+201c>he has charisma,<u+201d> he said. he also recalled a yearslong process to get him into the country, but now, echoing mr. trump, he said immigrants were entering more easily and with less scrutiny today. <u+201c>we don<u+2019>t know who they are,<u+201d> he said. and as it is november, jeff goldings, a 50-year-old freelance writer and editor who had come to the palm beach county democratic party<u+2019>s office to volunteer with his mother, expressed a simple feeling many floridians, jewish or gentile, have been feeling of late. he complained about the commercials on television and radio that <u+201c>bombard you every day,<u+201d> the constant phone calls and canvassers knocking on doors, trying to eke out every swing state voter they can. <u+201c>you can<u+2019>t escape it <u+2014> it<u+2019>s everywhere, on every medium,<u+201d> mr. goldings said. <u+201c>i think people need a break.<u+201d> jonathan mahler contributed reporting from new york. find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via facebook , twitter and the morning briefing newsletter . a version of this article appears in print on november 7, 2016, on page a17 of the new york edition with the headline: jewish voters, prized in swing state florida, tell what drives them. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
jewish voters, prized in swing state florida, tell what drives them
rick rojas