22 | MAY 13 • 2021
OUR COMMUNITY
T
he new survey from the Pew Research
Center released May 11 paints a por-
trait of Jewish Americans in 2020 that
is not dramatically different from 2013, when
the survey was last taken.
For the survey, a total sampling of 4,718
people were counted as Jewish Americans,
defined as having at least one Jewish parent or
having been raised Jewish.
Counting all Jewish adults — young and
old, combined — the percentages who iden-
tify as Orthodox, Conservative and Reform
are little changed. The size of the adult Jewish
population is also stable, rising roughly in line
with the total U.S. population.
According to the data, as of 2020, 2.4% of
U.S. adults are Jewish, compared to 2.2% in
2013. In absolute numbers, the 2020 Jewish
population estimate is approximately 7.5 mil-
lion, including 5.8 million adults and 1.8 mil-
lion children (rounded to the closest 100,000).
The 2013 estimate was 6.7 million, including
5.3 million adults and 1.3 million children.
DEMOGRAPHIC/POLITICAL TRENDS
Jewish Americans, on average, are older,
have higher levels of education, earn higher
incomes and are more geographically concen-
trated in the Northeast than Americans over-
all. The U.S. Jewish population is becoming
more racially and ethnically diverse. Overall,
92% of Jewish adults identify as White
(non-Hispanic), and 8% identify with all other
categories combined. Among Jews ages 18-29,
that figure rises to 15%. Already, 17% of U.S.
Jews surveyed live in households in which
at least one child or adult is Black, Hispanic,
Asian or multiracial.
Some 42% of all currently married Jewish
respondents said they have a non-Jewish
spouse. Among those who have gotten
married since 2010, 61% are intermarried.
However, intermarriage is very rare among
Orthodox Jews: 98% of Orthodox Jews who
are married say their spouse is Jewish.
According to the survey, 72% of non-Or-
thodox Jews who have gotten married since
2010 are intermarried, and “it appears that
the offspring of intermarriages have become
increasingly likely to identify as Jewish in
adulthood,
” the survey says.
Politically, U.S. Jews on the whole tilt
strongly liberal and tend to support the
Democratic Party. When the new survey was
fielded during a highly contentious political
period, from late fall 2019 through late spring
2020, 71% said they were Democrats or leaned
Democratic. Among Jews of no religion,
roughly three-quarters were Democrats or
leaned that way. But Orthodox Jews have been
trending in the opposite direction, becoming
as solidly Republican as non-Orthodox Jews
are solidly Democratic. In the run-up to the
2020 presidential election, 75% of Orthodox
Jews said they were Republicans or leaned
Republican, compared with 57% in 2013.
Concerns about antisemitism among
American Jews are on the rise. Three-quarters
say there is more antisemitism in the United
States than there was five years ago, and just
over half (53%) say that “as a Jewish person in
the United States” they feel less safe than they
did five years ago. Yet, even among those who
feel less safe, only 5% of all U.S. Jews report
that they have stayed away from a Jewish event
or observance as a result.
The survey also finds that many Jewish
Americans participate, at least occasionally,
both in some traditional religious practices —
like going to a synagogue or fasting on Yom
Kippur — and in some Jewish cultural activi-
ties, like making potato latkes, watching Israeli
movies or reading Jewish news online.
RELIGIOUS GENERATIONAL TRENDS
Among young Jewish adults, however, the
survey finds that “two sharply divergent
expressions of Jewishness appear to be gain-
ing ground — one involving religion deeply
enmeshed in every aspect of life, and the other
involving little or no religion at all.
”
Jewish adults ages 18-29 are much more
likely than Jews older than 65 to identify as
Pew study paints a picture of generational shifts in Judaism.
Pew study paints a picture of generational shifts in Judaism.
U.S. Jews Under a Microscope
JACKIE HEADAPOHL DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL