Emeritus Professor Steven Windmueller the Go-To Analyst on Jewish Communal and Voting Changes

“My interest continues to be the trends,” says Steven Windmueller, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Jewish Communal Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. And when he says “trends,” the longtime Director of the Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management (1995-2005) and former Dean of HUC-JIR’s Skirball Campus in Los Angeles (2006-2010) is talking about the evolving role of Jewish community organizations, as well as changes in American Jewish voting behavior.

That latter focus has made Windmueller a go-to analyst during this year’s elections, with news outlets eager to get his take on the shift toward Donald Trump among segments of the Jewish electorate. It’s not the first time the professor has examined this topic. Back in 2021, Windmueller edited a volume for the University of Southern California’s Casden Institute examining Trump’s Impact on American Jews. “Now the material has all come back again this fall,” he says.

At the same time, Windmueller emphasizes that new dynamics have led to “patterns we have not seen in prior times.” The first election results since the October 7 attacks, he says, amount to “a statement about the impact of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment in terms of how Jews have responded and voted somewhat differently this cycle, compared to what we saw in 2016 or 2020. We’re also living with a disillusioned community of Jewish liberals who are deeply invested in so many domestic issues, who have felt that their agenda has been either repudiated, or that they have lost a place within the spectrum of politics to play out their concerns,” he adds.

While Jewish support for Democrats remained strong nationwide, Windmueller has, in his Times of Israel blog and elsewhere, noted “an increase in support for Trump” in places like Metropolitan New York, South Florida, and Southern California – and in areas with a high density of Orthodox Jewish voters. “So part of this is a type of religious construct, and part of it is ideological, meaning more Jews have fled their traditional liberalism in these areas,” he concludes.

Windmueller, who holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and has written four books and numerous articles, says it’s important to consider these shifts in voter behavior against the backdrop of a communal landscape that has also seen significant change in recent decades. He says that’s been the focus of his attention both during his time at the Zschool, and in an earlier phase of his career.

“Before coming to HUC, I was on the staff of the American Jewish Committee, I was a federation executive in upstate New York for 12 years, and for 10 years I was director of the Jewish Community Relations Committee here in Los Angeles. So I come out of the actual field of Jewish communal work.” Windmueller says by the time he joined the faculty at HUC-JIR’s School of Jewish Communal Service (prior to its renaming as the Zelikow School of Jewish Nonprofit Management) in 1995, “some major shifts in Jewish communal life” were already underway.

“Beginning in 1985, there was a fundamental shift in the in the American Jewish community. As the World War II generation passed from the scene, their children inherited the wealth of that generation and begin to make different choices,” funding new organizations like American Jewish World Service, the Republican Jewish Coalition, the National Jewish Democratic Council, and J Street. “And in every discipline of Jewish and communal life, we see these new models.”

“And then October 7 comes along,” Windmueller says, “with the largest amount of philanthropic dollars raised at any given time in Jewish history. But it’s not centralized giving. Instead of the Jewish Agency, the JDC, and the Jewish Federations of North America raising that money, it is now very splintered.”

Since October 7, Windmueller says, he and other researchers have observed a dynamic they refer to as “The Return,” marked by rising synagogue affiliation and day school enrollment figures. “Families and individuals who were disconnected from formal Jewish life are, at this moment – whether it’s because of the anti-Semitism they’re experiencing or because of the threat to Israel – asking the question: ‘How do I reconnect, and where do I fit?’”

Windmueller says some analysts are responding to this latest shift by introducing some ominous questions into the national discourse: “Is this the end of the Jewish century? And is it time to rethink how we as a community are organized? Has the blossom, in a sense, gone out of the American Jewish experience? And are we repositioning ourselves for something less safe, less secure, less hopeful?”

Another question that analysts like Windmueller are raising is how Jewish communal life should respond to the steady increase in “religious nones,” the non-observant Americans who he says make up a third of the emerging generation under 35. He says the question for Jewish institutions – and for leaders from other faith groups facing a similar dynamic – will be, “How do we find ways to appeal to them, and figure out why there is this rejectionism of American religion across the board?”

“If there’s anything that’s intriguing to me, it’s these kinds of questions,” Windmueller says.

Zelikow School Director Rabbi Shirley Idelson, Ph.D., ’91 says the Zschool is well positioned to be a key player in shaping the Jewish communal future. “The tools we provide early- and mid-career professionals are more critical than ever when it comes to leading effectively and with relevance in the current context. And we’re finding that people in all parts of the Jewish world understand the need for this.”

As a result, the Zelikow School is now training students from across the globe who seek the tools they need to help their organizations and communities flourish, while remaining resilient in the process – thanks, in part, to the Zschool’s new Virtual+In-Person modality. Similarly, the Zschool now attracts world-class faculty and scholars-in-residence based across the United States. Senior leadership of major Jewish foundations, professional organizations, consulting firms, federations, synagogues and other impactful Jewish organizations teach alongside preeminent HUC-JIR scholars.

Additionally, the Windmueller Israel Seminar gives Zschool masters students a chance to learn from Israeli nonprofits that have developed effective and innovative solutions to the major social challenges they face – strengthening Jewish communal bonds between North America and Israel.

Windmueller agrees the Zschool’s recent changes are deepening the school’s impact during this critical time. “The increasingly global character of our student body, along with the extraordinary expansion of what was already a world-class faculty, have made our graduate program even more influential. The changes have led to an even more significant presence of Jewish professionals to rise to challenges in the field of communal and religious service.”