The October 7 Shock Is Driving Some Jews to Trump.

Just as the upheavals of the 1960s sent led to neoconservatism among a significant number of Jews, the shock of October 7 has once again opened a path rightward—this time toward sitting President Donald Trump.

Bill Ackman, billionaire hedge fund CEO and Harvard alumnus, became the most visible example. Starting November 2023, Ackman became obsessed with campus antisemitism at his alma mater. In an open letter to then-Harvard President Claudine Gay, he wrote: “The situation at Harvard is dire and getting worse, much worse than I had realized.” He detailed how “Jewish students are being bullied, physically intimidated, spat on, and in several widely disseminated videos of one such incident, physically assaulted.” Ackman warned that failure to act could jeopardize “important sources of Harvard’s revenues.” Claudine Gay was replaced by a Jewish interim president.

In October 2024, explaining his Trump endorsement, Ackman wrote: “A number of my good friends and family have been surprised about my decision to support @realDonaldTrump for president. They have been surprised because my political giving history has been mostly to Democrats.” He emphasized: “Some have accused me of supporting Trump because doing so will somehow benefit me financially. Fortunately, I do not need any financial benefits as I and my family have well more than we need.”

Miriam Adelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, donated over $100 million to pro-Trump groups in 2024, emerging as Trump’s single largest donor. While the Adelsons had long been Republican megadonors, Miriam’s massive 2024 spending reflected intensified commitment following October 7. At the Israeli Knesset, Trump acknowledged her influence, stating she “loves Israel maybe even more than America.” Her contributions, along with those of other Jewish billionaires such as Jeffrey Yass, Paul Singer, Jan Koum, and the late Bernie Marcus have “pulled public policy on Israel away from the general public’s opinion,” noted Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, a more moderate-presenting pro-Israel lobbying organization.

Marc Rowan, billionaire CEO of Apollo Global Management, emerged after October 7 as a prominent voice pushing universities to address campus antisemitism. He lambasted the University of Pennsylvania’s response, telling CNBC show Squawk Box: “Microaggressions are condemned with extreme moral outrage and yet violence, particularly violence against Jews, antisemitism, seems to have found a place of tolerance on the campus.” Rowan has a history of donating to both parties. For example, he has donated to Democratic senators such as Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Harry Reid, and Blanche Lincoln. By late 2024, Rowan was reportedly on Trump’s shortlist for Treasury Secretary.

Political activist Shabbos Kestenbaum personified the Jewish Democratic-to-Trump convert. A Harvard Divinity School graduate and registered Democrat who voted for Bernie Sanders, Jamaal Bowman, and Joe Biden, Kestenbaum announced his Trump endorsement in September 2024. Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition convention, he explained: “I did not support Trump in 2016, I did not support Trump in 2020. Hell, I did not support Trump six months ago. Nobody’s perfect.” However, he stressed, “The Democratic party has taken the Jewish vote and Jewish voters for granted for far too long. I will be supporting, I will be endorsing, I will be voting for President Trump.”

Kestenbaum revealed that after months of attempting to cooperate with the Harris campaign, as well as with the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress, Kestenbaum ultimately concluded that although he hadn’t voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, he would back him in 2024, believing Trump to be the “only realistic and viable option for American Jewry.” He stressed: “The Trump campaign invited me and other college students to sit, front row, as President Trump not only condemned antisemitism but clearly articulated the policies he would implement to combat it. The Harris campaign delivered no such promises.” Despite supporting Trump, Kestenbaum maintained he still backs progressive policies including a $15 minimum wage, reproductive choice, and progressive taxation. He proclaimed, “I did not abandon the Democratic party. The Democratic party abandoned me.”

Polling data reveals modest but measurable rightward movement among Jewish voters post-October 7, though the majority has remained Democratic. Vice President Kamala Harris won 71% of the Jewish vote compared to 26% for Trump, according to the Jewish Electorate Institute. However, Trump’s 32% share according to Fox News exit polling marked “the highest number for a Republican presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1988.” The Republican Jewish Coalition emphasized Trump’s historic gains with Jewish voters: 38% in Arizona, 42% in Nevada, 44% in Florida, 46% in New York, and 41% in Pennsylvania.

The most remarkable shift occurred among Orthodox Jews, who voted for Trump at 74%. This contrasted sharply with Reform Jews (84% for Harris), Conservative Jews (75% for Harris), and non-denominational Jews (70% for Harris).

A 2025 UJA-Federation of New York study found that 22% of Jewish New Yorkers reported becoming more conservative since October 7, compared to 13% who became more liberal, while 65% reported no change. Among those already conservative in 2023, 46% became even more conservative by 2025. Additionally, 49% reported their attachment to Israel had become stronger since October 7, especially among moderates (70%) and conservatives (62%), compared to just 33% of liberals.

In sum, the evidence indicates an emerging trend rather than wholesale realignment, but the direction is unmistakable. What’s unfolding with American Jewry’s rightward shift isn’t a principled conversion but a strategic repositioning. Jewish political activists have mastered the art of maintaining powerful voices across the entire political spectrum, ensuring that no matter which faction gains power, Jewish interests are represented at the highest levels and their racial will to power is realized.

The neoconservatives of the 1960s perfected this playbook. They did not simply defect from the Left; they penetrated the conservative movement, refashioned it, and aligned its priorities with their own communal interests. The consequences were unmistakable. Figures on the Right who once embodied older traditions—skepticism of mass migration, hostility toward compulsory racial integration, and opposition to foreign entanglements—were steadily purged from positions of influence and denied any real livelihood within Conservatism Inc. In their place, a cadre of Jewish neoconservative operatives rose to the helm and steered the movement according to their own ethnic imperatives.

What we are witnessing is not a political anomaly but an attempt at historical recurrence. Just as in the 1960s–1990s, Jewish power brokers are trying to reorganize the Right to their advantage, and at least some in the conservative movement are knuckling under to their influence. There is a pervasive fear among conservatives opposed to this influence that the GOP will revert to its neoconservative trajectory when Trump leaves —although Trump himself has obviously made peace with the pro-Israel pro-intervention activists, many of whom, like Jennifer Rubin, Max Boot, and Bill Kristol deserted him in 2016. How else explain the U.S. joining Israel in bombing Iran? Indeed, the neocons never really left their positions of power in the foreign policy establishment.

The problem for the neocons this time around is that in the pre-internet, pre-podcast 1960s–1980s there were no popular voices representing paleoconservative ideas and the mainstream media was completely locked down with pro-Israel shills and didn’t raise a peep when paleoconservatives were pushed out of positions of power in mainstream conservativism during the Reagan administration. Now there are voices like Tucker Carlson with very large followings who have continued to be part of the mainstream Right despite being called “anti-Semites,” despite their opposition to foreign entanglements (not only in the Middle East but also in Ukraine), despite their open criticism of the Israel Lobby and advocating that pro-Israel organizations be forced to register as foreign agents, despite calling Christian Zionism a “heresy,” and despite their open hostility to figures like Ben Shapiro and Ted Cruz with their often-declared fealty to Israel despite its ethnic cleansing on the West Bank and its genocide in Gaza.

So this isn’t over. Jewish neocons have been around for a long time and anyone paying attention sees them coming and knows them for what they are: Jewish ethnic activists who see genuine American interests as a distant second to their overriding concern with Jewish interests. Or they are ambitious traitors like Cruz who believe that continuing to support neoconservative ideas on foreign policy is the key to attaining the White House. In other words, a typical sociopathic American politician for whom power is all that matters.