Survey: Jews with no religion growing

AUSTIN, Texas - A new survey shows that American Jews are proud of their heritage, but have widely different views on what makes a person Jewish.

“The heart of the survey is about Jewish identity. Who is a Jew? Who qualifies?” said Alan Cooperman, deputy director of the Pew Research Center Religion and Life Project, which conducted the survey.

Information from the survey of 3,475 Jews was released at a gathering of the Religion Newswriters Association in Austin. The survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent, shows there are 5.3 million Jews in America, making up about 2.2 percent of the population.

According to the report, “A Portrait of Jewish Americans,” 78 percent of Jews surveyed claim Judaism as their religion, while 22 percent of those who identify themselves as Jews say they have no religion. That’s a drop of about 50 percent since the late 1950s when 3.2 percent of American adults identified their religion as Jewish. Today, 1.8 percent identify themselves this way, Cooperman said.

The percentage of Jews who say they have no religion is comparable to the number of so-called “nones” in the general public as revealed in a 2012 survey also done by the Pew Research Center. “Nones” refers to those who self-identify as having no religious affiliation.

“This is evidence that the percentage of Jews of no religion is growing,” Cooperman said. “One of the biggest single findings is the high number of Jews of no religion. If you look at the survey by generation, it’s really stunning.”

Cooperman said the number of Jews of no religion is markedly different when comparing the “Greatest Generation” born 1914-1927 with the “Millennial Generation” born after 1980. Of those Jews in the Greatest Generation, 93 percent identify as Jewish based on religion and 7 percent claim no religion, while 68 percent of millennials say they are Jewish by religion and 32 percent say they have no religion but still say they are Jewish.

When asked what makes a person Jewish, the answers reveal mixed views. For example, of both Jews by religion and Jews of no religion, 62 percent said being Jewish is more about culture and ancestry than religion, while only 15 percent said it was mainly a matter of religion.

Rabbi Jacob Adler of Temple Shalom in Fayetteville said religion, culture, ancestry and ethnicity are all factors in what it means to be Jewish.

“You can be Jewish in any of the four ways,” he said, noting that a nonreligious person can very well be Jewish.

Some of those surveyed identify themselves as Jewish based on ancestry or upbringing, but also say they are atheist, agnostic or have no particular religion.

Cooperman said those numbers are a part of the long tradition of secularism in the Jewish tradition, where culture and upbringing influence how a person identifies himself.

Differences between secular Jews and religious Jews also showed in questions about child rearing. Of religious Jews, 71 percent said they were raising their children as religious Jews while only 8 percent of secular Jews said the same. The majority of secular Jews, 67 percent, said they weren’t raising their children as Jewish in any way.

“They are not raising their children Jewish at all, not even aside from religion,” Cooperman said.

Jews married to non-Jews also show differences. Those with Jewish spouses were overwhelmingly more likely to be raising their children as Jewish.

Cooperman said rates of intermarriage among Jews have risen in recent decades. Before 1970, he said, 17 percent of Jews had a non-Jewish spouse. From the period of 2005-2013, 58 percent have mixed marriages. The exception can be found among Orthodox Jews, who tend to marry within their tradition.

Adler said he found statistics on child-rearing troubling in light of the challenge of “Jewish continuity” or the survival of Jews as Jews.

“The survey shows an intermarriage rate of 71 percent for non-Orthodox Jews. It’s hard to break down figures, but intermarried couples mostly do not raise their kids in an exclusively Jewish way,” he said. “Children of intermarried couples have an 83 percent rate of marrying non-Jews and one can only guess as to whether those couples will raise their children with any sense of Jewishness.”

As for denominational affiliation, the Reform movement remains the largest, followed by nondenominational Jews, Conservative Jews and the Orthodox, which make up 10 percent of the Jewish population. Cooperman said the survey also reveals switching among the various denominations. Of Jews who grew up in the Orthodox tradition, 48 percent remain Orthodox. Retention rates for Conservative Jews are slightly lower, with 36 percent of those raised in the tradition remaining with it, while 55 percent of those raised in the Reform tradition remain.

The survey also showed:

Jews are less likely to attend religious services than other religious groups. Sixty-two percent of Christians say they attend services at least monthly compared to 29 percent of those who identify their religion as Jewish.

73 percent said remembering the Holocaust is essential to being Jewish. Other essentials include leading an ethical and moral life and working for justice and equality. Cooperman said a “fun fact” in the survey is that more Jews - 42 percent - say having a good sense of humor is more essential than observing Jewish law (19 percent).

40 percent of Jews believe God gave Israel to the Jewish people and 69 percent have an emotional attachment to Israel, but only 17 percent say the building of settlements in the West Bank helps the country’s security.

Jews think other minority groups face more discrimination than they do. Seventy-two percent say homosexuals as well as Muslims face more discrimination than Jews.

While most of those surveyed said a person could work on the Sabbath, be critical of Israel or even not believe in God and still be Jewish, the subject of Jesus is different. Sixty percent of Jews said belief in Jesus as the Messiah is incompatible with what it means to be Jewish.

Survey results are online at pewforum.org.

Religion, Pages 14 on 10/05/2013

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