News Brief06:59 AM

(IsraelNN.com) The results in Tuesday's primaries showed that Sen. Barack Obama won more Jewish votes than expected, except in New York where Sen. Hillary Clinton was backed by almost two-thirds of Jewish voters. California Jews narrowly gave her more support than for Sen. Obama. Former California Congressman Mel Levine said, "He has drastically closed the gap just in the past few weeks."

Exit polls showed that Sen. Obama won slightly more Jewish voters than Sen. Clinton in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where he won the general vote by a small margin but received 61 percent of the Jewish vote.

The exit polls did not register the Jewish vote in the Republican primaries, but reactions indicated that Jews heavily backed Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam war veteran.