A new, detailed survey of American Jews from the Pew Research Center shows a deepening divide between the Orthodox and the less observant, a rising number of Black, Hispanic and Asian Jews, more intermarriage, and a growing concern about antisemitism.

  • The study found that 17% of Jews 18 to 29 identify as Orthodox, compared to just 3% of those over 65. Roughly 30% of young Jews identify as Reform and another 41% with no particular branch of Judaism.
  • Jews are also growing father apart along political lines. The number of Orthodox Jews who identify as Republican increased from 57% in 2013 to 75% in this year’s survey, while 70-80% of Reform, Conservative and nondenominational Jews lean Democratic.
  • Only 1 in 5 Jews surveyed told Pew that religion is very important to them. That compares to 2 in 5 Americans overall.
  • The latest Pew survey also shows that the rate of intermarriage continues to grow: 72% of non-Orthodox American Jews who married since 2010 have a non-Jewish spouse. Among the Orthodox, however, 98% marry other Jews. Nevertheless, nearly 70% of interfaith couples are raising children to be either religiously, culturally or partly Jewish.
  • Among attributes most American Jews consider essential to being Jewish, 82% say caring about Israel, with 58% saying they feel attached to the nation; 76% say remembering the Holocaust; 72% say leading an ethical life; and 59% say working for justice and equality.
  • This year’s survey examined racial diversity among American Jews. Eight percent of the Jewish population identify as Hispanic, Black or Asian — or anything other than non-Hispanic white — a share that nearly doubles to 15% among Jews between ages 18 and 29. Some of those surveyed identified with more than one race. The report also found that 13% of those who responded to the survey said they live in multiracial households. Overall 17% of those surveyed said they lived in a house were at least one person is multiracial, Hispanic, Black, Asian, or of another non-white racial group. Two-thirds of Jews identified as Ashkenazi, others as Sephardic or Mizrahi.
  • American Jews are increasingly concerned about antisemitism, with 75% saying there is more antisemitism than there was five years ago, and more than half reporting feeling less safe, including 61% of “visible Jews,” most notably the Orthodox, whose attire more easily identifies them as Jewish.
  • Roughly half of American Jews who rarely or never attend religious services said they express their Jewishness in other ways, including 74% who share culture and holidays with non-Jews, 63% who host or attend a Passover Seder, and 46% who fast on Yom Kippur.
  • The survey asked about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which targets Israel for what BDS supporters describe as its human rights abuses and occupation of Palestinian land. BDS has been aggressively fought by the Jewish establishment, but only a slim majority of Jews surveyed had heard of the movement; 34% oppose it, and 10% are in favor.

The Pew survey was based on interviews by mail with 4,718 Jewish adults between November 2019 and June 2020. The margin of error for the overall report is 3%, although individual questions may have a higher or lower margin. Those who agreed to take the survey cold complete it in English, Spanish or Russian.