> Surveys are expensive. Every once in a while, we do a project
> based on a survey but it depends on big outside funding. Roughly
> $100K just to get the data.
>
> If they don't belong to a synagogue, how would you find them?
> Canvas Asian restaurants? Foreign film showings? Zabar's on a
> Saturday morning?
Hang out at Zabar's on a Saturday morning, and you'll be able to include John Mage's opinion in the sample. :->
Getting a representative sample of Jewish opinions that don't undercount secular Jews' opinions would be tough -- except on campuses. On campuses, secular Jews are well represented, I think. On many campuses, 10-25% of students and professors would have to be Jewish (e.g., the University of Michigan's student body is roughly 20% Jewish [cf. <http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i05/05a01501.htm>, Syracuse Univesity's is about 25% Jewish [cf. <http:// www.dailyorange.com/media/paper522/news/2004/10/28/News/The- Chosen.School.Growing.Jewish.Presence.On.Campus.A.Plus.For.Many.Faithful .Stu-784416.shtml>], etc.; and Martin Lipset and Earl Raab claim that "20 percent of professors at the leading universities" are Jewish [cf. <http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i14/14b00701.htm>]). Since a majority of Jewish Americans get college degrees, and the rest may still attend college though without completing degree requirements, getting a good sample on campuses and comparing that with a sample of non-Jewish white opinions on the same campuses would be a good start, since the main point is to see if there are more Likudniks among non- Jewish whites than among Jews adjusted for income.
I have no idea how to catch poorer secular Jews who don't attend college at all (there would have to be some in America), though.
$100,000 for a survey is a big price tag. With that much money, you could produce a 60-minutes documentary film.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org> * Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud- ahmadinejads-face.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez- congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/ 2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>