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A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Overview

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A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Overview OCT. 1, 2013 A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Overview Findings from a Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews This is the overview section of a FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: longer report that details the Luis Lugo, Director, Religion & Public Life Project survey’s findings. For the full Alan Cooperman, Deputy Director report, including survey Gregory A. Smith, Director of U.S. Religion Surveys methodology and topline Erin O’Connell, Associate Director, Communications questionnaire, visit Sandra Stencel, Associate Director, Editorial http://pewrsr.ch/16IN5U4. 1615 L St, N.W., Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20036 Tel (202) 419-4562 Fax (202) 419-4559 www.pewresearch.org/religion THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY BLANK About the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project This report was produced by the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. Launched in 2001 as the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the Religion & Public Life Project seeks to promote a deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs. The project conducts surveys, demographic studies and other social science research to examine a wide range of issues concerning religion and society in the United States and around the world – from shifting religious composition to the influence of religion on politics to the extent of government and social restrictions on religion. The project also covers a range of issues that often have a religious component – from abortion and same-sex marriage to stem cell research and church-state controversies. The Religion & Public Life Project is directed by Luis Lugo and is part of the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. The center conducts public opinion polling, demographic studies, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research does not take positions on any of the issues it covers or on policy debates. This report is a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals: Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project Luis Lugo, Director Alan Cooperman, Deputy Director Research Gregory A. Smith, Director of U.S. Religion Surveys Conrad Hackett, Demographer Cary Funk and Neha Sahgal, Senior Researchers Phillip Connor, Jessica Hamar Martinez, Besheer Mohamed and Michael Robbins, Research Associates Noble Kuriakose and Elizabeth Sciupac, Research Analysts Fatima Ghani, Research Assistant Editorial Sandra Stencel, Associate Director, Editorial Tracy Miller, Copy Editor Michael Lipka, Assistant Editor Bill Webster, Information Graphics Designer Communications and Web Publishing Erin O’Connell, Associate Director, Communications Stacy Rosenberg, Digital Project Manager Liga Plaveniece, Communications Associate Joseph Liu, Web Producer Pew Research Center Alan Murray, President Paul Taylor, Executive Vice President – Special Projects Elizabeth Mueller Gross, Vice President Jon Cohen, Vice President – Research Andrew Kohut, Founding Director Scott Keeter, Director of Survey Research Michael Piccorossi, Director of Digital Strategy Diana Yoo, Art Director Jeffrey Passel, Senior Demographer, Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Senior Researcher, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Adam Nekola, Web Developer Visit http://pewrsr.ch/16IN5U4 to see the online version of the report. Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project 1615 L St., NW, Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20036-5610 Phone (202) 419-4550 Fax (202) 419-4559 www.pewresearch.org/religion © 2013 Pew Research Center Cover image © Bombzilla/Image Source/Corbis; photo illustration by Pew Research Center. 7 PEW RESEARCH CENTER SURVEY OF U.S. JEWS OVERVIEW American Jews overwhelmingly say they are proud to be Jewish and have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people, according to a major new survey by the Pew Research Center. But the survey also suggests that Jewish identity is changing in America, where one-in-five Jews (22%) now describe themselves as having no religion. The percentage of U.S. adults who say they are Jewish when asked about their religion has declined by about half since the late 1950s and U.S. Adult Jewish Population, 2013 currently is a little less than 2%. Meanwhile, the number of Americans with direct Jewish ancestry or upbringing who consider themselves Jewish, yet describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or having no particular religion, appears to be rising and is now about 0.5% of the U.S. adult population.1 The changing nature of Jewish identity stands out sharply when the survey’s results are analyzed by generation. Fully 93% of Jews in the aging Greatest Generation identify as Jewish on the basis of religion (called “Jews by religion” in this report); just 7% describe themselves as having no religion (“Jews of no religion”). By contrast, among Jews in the Source: Pew Research Center 2013 Survey of U.S. Jews, Feb. 20-June 13, 2013. Figures may not sum to 100% due to youngest generation of U.S. adults – the rounding. Millennials – 68% identify as Jews by religion, PEW RESEARCH CENTER while 32% describe themselves as having no religion and identify as Jewish on the basis of ancestry, ethnicity or culture. This shift in Jewish self-identification reflects broader changes in the U.S. public. Americans as a whole – not just Jews – increasingly eschew any religious affiliation. Indeed, the share of U.S. Jews who say they have no religion (22%) is similar to the share of religious “nones” in the 1 Estimating the size of the Jewish population is complicated and depends heavily on the definition of who is a Jew. Chapter 1 of this report provides more details on the estimated number of U.S. Jews using a variety of possible definitions and including children as well as adults. For an explanation of the main categories used throughout this report, see the sidebar on page 18. www.pewresearch.org/religion 8 PEW RESEARCH CENTER SURVEY OF U.S. JEWS general public (20%), and religious Being Jewish More About Culture and disaffiliation is as common among all U.S. Ancestry than Religion adults ages 18-29 as among Jewish % saying being Jewish is mainly a matter of … Millennials (32% of each).2 Secularism has a long tradition in Jewish life in America, and most U.S. Jews seem to recognize this: 62% say being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, while just 15% say it is mainly a matter of religion. Even among Jews by religion, Note: “Ancestry/culture” is the net percentage saying that being Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry, mainly a matter of culture more than half (55%) say being Jewish is or volunteering that it is both ancestry and culture. “Religion, ancestry/culture” is the percentage volunteering that being mainly a matter of ancestry and culture, Jewish is a matter of both religion and either ancestry or culture, or all three of these. and two-thirds say it is not necessary to Source: Pew Research Center 2013 Survey of U.S. Jews, Feb. 20- believe in God to be Jewish. June 13, 2013. Figures may not sum to 100% due to rounding. Other responses and those who did not give an answer are not shown. Compared with Jews by religion, however, PEW RESEARCH CENTER Jews of no religion (also commonly called secular or cultural Jews) are not only less religious but Jewish Child Rearing also much less connected to Among those who are parents/guardians of minor Jewish organizations and children in their household, % raising their children … Partly Jewish much less likely to be raising Jewish Jewish not by by by religion NOT their children Jewish. More religion religion or mix^ Jewish Other N than 90% of Jews by religion % % % % % who are currently raising NET Jewish 59 14 8 18 1=100 907 minor children in their home Jews by religion 71 15 7 7 *=100 764 say they are raising those Jews of no religion 8 11 11 67 2=100 143 children Jewish or partially Among Jews married to … Jewish. In stark contrast, the Jewish spouse 96 2 1 1 0=100 551 survey finds that two-thirds Non-Jewish spouse 20 25 16 37 1=100 257 of Jews of no religion say Source: Pew Research Center 2013 Survey of U.S. Jews, Feb. 20-June 13, 2013. they are not raising their Figures may not sum to 100% due to rounding. ^Includes those who are raising their children Jewish but not by religion as well as children Jewish or partially those who are raising multiple children Jewish but in different ways (Jewish by religion, partly Jewish by religion and/or Jewish but not by religion). Jewish – either by religion or PEW RESEARCH CENTER aside from religion. 2 For more information, see the Pew Research Center’s October 2012 report “ ‘Nones’ on the Rise,” http://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/. www.pewresearch.org/religion 9 PEW RESEARCH CENTER SURVEY OF U.S. JEWS Intermarriage is a related phenomenon. It is much more common among secular Jews in the survey than among Jews by religion: 79% of married Jews of no religion have a spouse who is not Jewish, compared with 36% among Jews by religion. And intermarried Jews, like Jews of no religion, are much less likely to be raising their children in the Jewish faith. Nearly all Jews who have a Jewish spouse say they are raising their children as Jewish by religion (96%). Among Jews with a non-Jewish spouse, however, 20% say they are raising their children Jewish by religion, and 25% are raising their children partly Jewish by religion. Roughly one- third (37%) of intermarried Jews who are raising children say they are not raising those children Jewish at all.
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