While Republicans have made a particular effort this year to seek support from blacks and other racial minorities, they have been given little chance of making much of a dent. The risk from the current questioning about Mr. Lieberman, analysts say, was not of a defection to the Republican Party but of widespread black abstention on election day. Blacks took pains Monday to say their questions about Mr. Lieberman had nothing to do with his religion. But black-Jewish tensions have bubbled to the surface repeatedly in recent years. Even Mr. Jackson, a mainstream leader, was quoted in 1984 as having privately made a slur against Jews, for which he later apologized.
Many black leaders insist that too much has been made of such comments.
Democrats have been troubled by the recent tensions between blacks and Jews. Jewish liberals were prominent in the early civil rights movement.