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

