Seems clear who lost the vote

Aside from John Kerry that is. From Haaretz:

The Jews lost

Both sides claim victory. The Republicans note that the level of Jewish support rose from 19 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2004 (some peg this support at 24 percent), showing a significant political shift in the Jewish community. This increase is negligible, say the Democrats, noting that Republican hopes of winning 40 percent of the Jewish vote were groundless from the beginning.

But one fact is clear: The Jews of the United States who voted en masse for John Kerry, assigning top priority to issues of social justice, the separation of church and state, and protecting civil rights, woke up on November 3 and discovered that they had lost on all levels.

AND NOW THE DEBATE BEGINS:

We come out of this campaign very nervous," says Hannah Rosenthal, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), one of the Jewish communities' strongest organizations. Rosenthal, a Democrat who served in Bill Clinton's administration, anticipates a gloomy future for the Jewish community during the coming four years, especially when it comes to social issues.

She becomes enraged when people talk about the "moral values" that decided the recent elections, and heatedly explains that the moral values of Judaism, as she knows them, call on people to help the weak and needy. "Turning the gay marriage issue into the definition of morality and values is narrow and divisive," Rosenthal says. "We need to look at the real values and say out loud that the budget cuts that Bush is planning for the poor and the needy are impossible," she adds.

This attitude has broad support among the Jewish activists at the big convention center in Cleveland, but it is certainly not the only approach. A considerable number of Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Jews voted for Bush and agree with the president on the question of "values." They are not worried by the fact that "morality" grabbed a central place on the election stage.

One such Bush supporter is Nathan Diament, the head of the Orthodox Union's Institute for Public Affairs, who appears to be very satisfied with the election results.

"We should be comfortable with the fact that religious values are taking center stage in the public arena," he says. "This is not a danger for the Jewish community." He dismisses the concerns of Jewish Democrats about mixing religion and values with politics, saying these fears are groundless.

"It is true that Jewish history was marked by religious persecution, but America is a different place," says Diament.

Rosenthal could not agree less with this statement. "It would be foolish if the Jewish community were to forget that its success and its security were achieved largely thanks to the strong separation of church and state. It is never good news for the Jews when a country tries to define itself as a Christian state instead of putting the emphasis on religious freedom and freedom from religion," she says.