Pew: Young US Jews detaching from their heritage
Young American Jews are increasingly likely to say they do not identify with the Jewish religion, participate less in Jewish customs, and have less attachment to the Jewish people, according to a new landmark study of US Jews by the Pew Research Center.
The study showed that intermarriage is rising rapidly, with Jews who married in the last decade significantly more likely to be married to a non-Jew.
Not surprisingly, the US Orthodox community suffers from virtually no intermarriage, has double the birthrate of non-Orthodox Jews, and demonstrates much higher levels of attachment to the Jewish religion and the Jewish people than the rest of American Jews.
The last Pew survey on US Jews was conducted in 2013, although the organization said that due to a different methodology in conducting interviews, a direct comparison between the results of 2020 and 2013 are not possible.
According to the new study, the Jewish population of America numbers some 5.8 million people, including 4.2 million who identify simply as being of the Jewish religion, and another 1.5 million who are classified as Jews of no religion – those who consider themselves Jewish ethnically, culturally or by family background, and have a Jewish parent or were raised Jewish, but who define their religion as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.
Of the total Jewish population, 37% are Reform, 17% are Conservative, 9% are Orthodox, 32% say they have no denominational affiliation, and 4% identify with smaller branches such as Reconstructionist or Humanistic Judaism, or say they are connected with multiple streams of US Judaism.
But the numbers among younger Jews are significantly different.
Among 18-29-year-olds, 17% of US Jews are Orthodox, a far higher share than the overall Orthodox population.
Just 8% of 18-29-year-olds are Conservative, and only 29% are Reform Jews, both significantly lower than the overall share these denominations have in the overall Jewish population.
Some 41% say they have no denominational affiliation, significantly higher than the 32% of the total Jewish population.
These figures suggest that the demographic direction of the US Jewish community will be increasingly Orthodox, although it will be some time before such a demographic shift will take hold.
One main takeaway from the study is that American Jews 18-29 are displaying less and less attachment to the Jewish people and Jewish life.
According to the data, 40% of Jews of this cohort say they are not Jewish by religion, while denominational affiliation is also lower among young Jews, with 29% saying they are Reform and 8% saying they are Conservative.
In 2013, 32% of Jews in the youngest age group measured said they were not Jewish by religion, meaning that there has been a 25% increase in this identification over seven years, if the data is comparable.
Those who say they are unaffiliated account for 41% of the 18-29 age group.
Two indicators of participation in Jewish customs and rituals are also on the wane among younger Jews, with 59% of 18-29-year-olds saying they had participated in a Passover Seder in 2020, compared with 73% in 2013, while 51% of this cohort said that they fast at least part of the day on Yom Kippur, compared with 55% in 2013.
Connection to the Jewish people is also lower among 18-29-year-olds.
Whereas 48% of US Jews overall say they feel a great deal of connection to the Jewish people, and 37% say they have some connection, among 18-29-yearolds, those figures fall to 39% and 34% respectively.
Jews of no religion had particularly low levels of connection to the Jewish people, with just 13% saying they feel very connected to the Jewish people, another 50% said they have some connection, and 9% said they have no connection at all.
Only 4% of Jews of no religion think it is important that their grandchildren be Jewish, just 30% of Jews of no religion attended a seder, only 20% fasted in any way on Yom Kippur, and less than 1% went to synagogue once a month.
Among Jews identified as Jews, 74% attended a Seder, 56% fasted in some manner on Yom Kippur, and 27% went to synagogue once a month.
The 2020 survey found that 58% of all married Jews said they have a Jewish spouse, while 42% said they were married to a non-Jew, demonstrating a very slight, although statistically insignificant decrease in the overall number of intermarried from 2013.
Nevertheless, intermarriage is rampant among the non-Orthodox and Jews of no religion, especially among those marrying in the last decade.
Intermarriage rate among all US Jews who married between 2010 and 2020 is 61%, compared with an intermarriage rate of 45% among those who married between 2000 and 2009.
This demonstrates a 35% increase in the intermarriage rate in the last decade over the 2000 to 2009 period.
And looking at just non-Orthodox and non-affiliated Jews who have married since 2010, fully 72% are intermarried, compared with 98% of Orthodox Jews who said they were married to a Jew.
Only one-third (34%) of US Jews say it is very important that their grandchildren are Jewish, including 29% of Reform Jews, 62% of Conservative Jews and 91% of Orthodox Jews.
The level of connection of US
Jews with Israel remains robust, but is on the decline among younger Jews.
Among all US Jews, 58% say they feel very or somewhat of an emotional attachment to Israel, including 82% of Orthodox Jews, 78% of Conservative Jews and 58% of Reform Jews, while 41% of all Jews said they had little or no attachment to Israel.
Orthodox Jews are the only subgroup with a majority (60%) saying they are very attached to the Jewish state, while 59% of Jews with no particular denominational affiliation say they are either “not too” or “not at all” emotionally attached to Israel.
In 2013, 69% of US Jews said they felt very or somewhat of an emotional attachment to Israel, with 31% saying they had little or no such attachment.
The level of connection to Israel in 2020 is significantly lower for the younger generation, with only 48% of those aged 18-29 saying they have an emotional attachment to Israel, and 51% saying they have little or no such connection.
In the 2013 survey, 60% of US Jews age 18-29 said they felt very or somewhat attached to Israel, demonstrating that there has been a significant decrease in emotional attachment to Israel among the younger generation, if the surveys are comparable.
For the first time, the Pew report asked respondents about their views on the international campaign to boycott Israel due to its treatment of the Palestinians.
Only 10% of US Jews said they support the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement, while 43% oppose it and 43% haven’t heard much about it.
Some 56% of US Jews said they have heard some or a lot about BDS, while 43% have heard little or nothing about it.
And support across the denominations for BDS was very slight, with just 6% of Orthodox, 5% of Conservatives, and 7% of Reform Jews supporting it, with higher rates among unaffiliated Jews (17%) and Jews of no religion (18%).
The Pew Research Center’s survey was conducted from November 19, 2019, to June 3, 2020, among 4,718 Jews across the country who were identified through 68,398 screening interviews conducted by mail and online.