MAY 13 • 2021 | 23

Orthodox, 17% to 3% respective-
ly. One-in-10 U.S. Jewish adults 
under 30 are ultra-Orthodox 
(11%), compared with 1% of 
Jews 65 and older.
At the same time, 40% of 
Jewish adults under 30 identify 
as Jewish culturally, but describe 
themselves religiously as atheist, 
agnostic or “nothing in particu-
lar” rather than as Jewish. This 
is compared to 27% of all Jewish 
adults who do not identify with 
the Jewish religion.
The survey also shows that 
two branches of Judaism that 
have long predominated in 
the U.S. have less of a hold on 
young Jews than on their elders. 
Roughly four-in-10 Jewish adults 
under 30 identify with either 
Reform (29%) or Conservative 
Judaism (8%), compared with 
seven-in-10 Jews older than 65.
According to the survey: 
“In other words, the youngest 
U.S. Jews count among their 
ranks both a relatively large 

share of traditionally observant, 
Orthodox Jews and an even 
larger group of people who see 
themselves as Jewish for cultural, 
ethnic or family reasons but do 
not identify with Judaism — as a 
religion — at all.
”
And even though people in 
both groups participate, at least 
sometimes, in the same cultural 
activities, such as cooking tra-
ditional Jewish foods, visiting 
Jewish historical sites and listen-
ing to Jewish or Israeli music, the 
two groups report feeling little 
in common with each other, the 
study notes.
The survey’s authors say 
these generational shifts toward 
both Orthodoxy and secular 
Jewishness have the potential, in 
time, to reshape American Jewry.

DENOMINATION TRENDS 
In the 2020 survey, 37% 
of American Jews identi-
fy as Reform and 17% as 
Conservative, essentially 

unchanged from 2013. The share 
of all Jewish adults who describe 
themselves as Orthodox is also 
about the same in 2020 (9%) as it 
was in 2013 (10%).
Other branches, such as the 
Reconstructionist movement 
and Humanistic Judaism, total 
about 4%, very similar to in 
2013 (6%). And the share of 
Jewish adults who do not identi-
fy with any particular stream or 
institutional branch of Judaism 
is now 32%, roughly on par 
with the 2013 survey (30%).
Conservative and Reform 
Jews tend to be less religiously 
observant in traditional ways, 
like keeping kosher and regular-
ly attending religious services, 
but many participate in Jewish 
cultural activities, and most are 
at least somewhat attached to 
Israel. Demographically, they 
have high levels of education, 
small families, higher rates of 
intermarriage than the Orthodox 
and skew older (median age 

of 62 for Conservative, 53 for 
Reform).
Those who consider them-
selves culturally but not reli-
giously Jewish, have low levels 
of synagogue membership and 
attendance with comparatively 
weak attachments to Israel, feel-
ings of belonging to the Jewish 
people and engagement in com-
munal Jewish life. They tend to 
be politically liberal and highly 
educated, with relatively high 
rates of intermarriage and a low 
median age (38 years).
The survey’s authors also 
conclude that although the data 
show some signs of religious 
divergence and political polar-
ization among U.S. Jews, it also 
finds large areas of consensus. 
For instance, more than 80% 
of U.S. Jews say that they feel at 
least some sense of belonging 
to the Jewish people, and 75% 
say that “being Jewish” is either 
very or somewhat important to 
them. 

