CHICAGO – One out of five Americans who consider themselves culturally or ethnically Jewish say they do not believe in God or they do not follow any particular faith, in a sign of the changing nature of American Jewish identity, according to a study released on Tuesday.
The Pew Research Center survey found vast differences among generations – with 93 percent of Jewish Americans born between 1914 and 1927 saying they identified as religiously Jewish, compared with just 68 percent of Jews born after 1980.
A total of 22 percent of US Jews said they were atheist, agnostic or simply did not follow any particular religion – numbers similar to the portion of the general public that is without religious affiliation.
“The numbers are interesting, but I am not surprised by the news that a significant number of the emerging generation of Jewish adults are what the survey calls ‘Jews of no religion,'” said Rabbi B. Elka Abrahamson, president of the Wexner Foundation, a Jewish philanthropy group.
“They are not connected to Jewish life the way their parents or grandparents were,” said Abrahamson, who was given an advance copy of the report. “I don’t think this means we count them out.”
The US Jewish population, including those who are non-religious but who identify as Jewish based on ethnicity, ancestry or culture, counts about 5.3 million people or 2.2 percent of American adults, the Pew study said.
But the percentage of US adults who say they follow the Jewish faith has dropped by about half since the 1950s, the survey found.
The Jerusalem Post has the full article
