More than half of US Jews feel less safe than five years ago, major study reveals
OVER HALF of American Jews feel less safe than they did five years ago amid rising concern about antisemitism, according to a major survey of the diaspora’s largest community, published on Tuesday.
Three-quarters of Jews in the country felt that they were facing more antisemitism than five years ago, the 2020 Pew Survey found.
However, of the 53 per cent who felt less safe as “a Jewish person”, only one in 10 said that this had stopped them from attending a Jewish event or observing a Jewish practice.
The new report has identified widening divergence among Jews under the age of 30, with a rising proportion of religiously and politically conservative Orthodox Jews at one end and a growing segment of those who said they were Jews with no religion at the other.
Whereas the 2013 Pew Survey had calculated the American Jewish population to be 6.7 million, the new survey now puts it at 7.5 million – at 2.4 per cent, a “remarkably stable” percentage of the overall American population.
Reform is the largest stream at 37 per cent, followed by those with no religion, 32 percent; Conservative, 17 per cent; Orthodox, nine per cent: and ‘other’, four per cent.
But among under-30s, 17 per cent are Orthodox while those who are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” amounted to 41 per cent.
“Among young Jewish adults, two sharply divergent expressions of Jewishness appear to be gaining ground — one involving religion deeply enmeshed in every aspect of life, and the other involving little or no religion at all,” the report says. Younger Jews appear more ethnically diverse, with 15 per cent identifying as other than white, compared with eight per cent of American Jewry overall.
There were also sharp political divisions along religious lines. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections, 71 per cent of Jews leant towards the Democrats and 26 per cent to the Republicans.
But while 75 per cent of the Orthodox backed the Republicans and only 20 per cent the Democratics, the opposite was true of Reform Jews, 80 per cent of whom were pro-Democrat compared to just 18 per cent in favour of the Republicans.
American Jews are “far less religious than American adults as a whole,” the report said.
While most Americans believe in the God of the Bible — 56 per cent — only a quarter of US Jews do — 26 per cent — although a further 50 per cent believe in a “higher power”.
Only 12 per cent of Jews attend religious services weekly, compared with 27 per cent of Americans overall. And Jews are almost half as likely to say that religion is “very important” in their lives as Americans overall — 21 per cent compared to 41 per cent.
Younger Jews are split between very Orthodox and very secular’