All politics are local, goes the famous axiom. What affects us most personally closely shapes how we vote. While American Jews live in every state in the nation, the tragedy in Pittsburgh, in which 11 worshippers were killed in the Tree of Life Synagogue by an anti-Semite just days before the midterm elections, was surely close to our hearts.

Jewish-American voters are by no means monolithic in partisanship or orthodoxy. But we spoke in a clear, loud voice that a change in direction was needed. As a matter of fact, exit polls show that the violence in America and the growing divisions and intolerance that spawn it was on the minds of most voters — Jewish and non-Jewish — as they entered their polling places this past Tuesday.