American Jews are paying less attention to the March 28 Israeli election than in past votes, even as Israel faces a hostile Hamas-led Palestinian government and threats from Iran.

The absence of Ariel Sharon, 78, who dominated Israeli politics as prime minister until a January 4 stroke left him comatose, removed from the race the figure best known to American Jews. Also reducing the sense of urgency is the fact that Israeli public-opinion polls have consistently shown the party Mr. Sharon created, Kadima, leading in the race, said Steve Rabinowitz, a strategist for Jewish groups in America.

“There’s less fund-raising going on in North America,” said Marvin Lender, former president of Lender’s Bagel Bakery Incorporated and now chairman of the Israel Policy Forum, an American-based group that advocates a two-state solution. In previous elections, Lender said he gave contributions to multiple candidates; this time, he’s only given $1,950 to the Labor Party’s Yitzhak Herzog.

A survey by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper published March 16 showed Kadima winning 37 of 120 seats in the parliament. Labor, led by trade unionist Amir Peretz, 54, will get 20 seats, and Likud, run by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will take 15 seats, the survey forecast.

In 1999, both Messrs. Barak and Netanyahu traveled to America to court Jewish funds, and Sharon did the same in his subsequent elections, the past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group of American-based pro-Israel groups, Seymour Reich, said. By contrast, he said, none of the major candidates have come this year, robbing them of the most effective way of raising money in America.

The diminished enthusiasm for the Israeli campaign is reflected in reduced money flows, said experts such as Menachem Hofnung, who teaches political science at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and specializes in campaign finance.

“This is the first time you’ve had an interesting Israel race taking place in several years, but that doesn’t mean that people are participating financially,” an assistant executive director of Americans for Peace Now, a Washington-based Jewish group that advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lewis Roth, said.

Fund-raising scandals also have made some donors skittish, Roth and Rabinowitz said. Sharon’s son Omri was sentenced in February to nine months in prison for violating campaign-finance laws involving money raised overseas for his father’s 1999 primary campaign.

Among prominent American Jewish contributors to this year’s primary campaign are former New York hedge-fund manager Michael Steinhardt – who gave $2,000 to Labor candidate Herzog, according to a report by Israel’s state comptroller’s office – and New York based Lehman Brothers Vice Chairman Harvey Krueger, who contributed to Colette Avital, another Labor candidate. Billionaire steel investor Ira Leon Rennert donated to Danny Naveh, a Likud candidate and former health minister.

All of the contributions were within the legal limits, which allow contributions during the primary campaign of up to 10,000 shekels ($2,145) per candidate.

Some members of Labor came to America to raise money during the primary season, “but nothing like what you’ve seen in the past in terms of scale,” Mr. Roth said. Kadima hasn’t had the time to build the network of support that Likud and Labor have had over decades in the America, Mr. Roth said.