It was almost a decade ago — in 2013 — when the Institute for Jewish Policy Research conducted the last major national survey of Jewish identity in the UK. At that time the UK was still in the EU, Donald Trump was just a real-estate guy, a global pandemic sounded like a Hollywood movie storyline, and Benjamin Netanyahu (remember him?) was Prime Minister of Israel. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
That survey revealed several interesting insights about who we are. It demonstrated that we were becoming more polarised — the most Orthodox and most secular parts of the community were growing, at the expense of the centrist Orthodox middle ground. It proved that the intermarriage rate was stabilising, and posited that it may even have peaked. It showed how remarkably charitable British Jews were, and that we tended to give to general charities more than to Jewish ones. And contrary to common perception, it demonstrated that a higher proportion of younger Jews were religiously observant than older Jews — indeed, the younger we were, the more religiously observant we were likely to be.
The results helped community leaders to understand more about these trends, and the secondary analysis of the data that has been done subsequently has been used to quietly inform the policy choices of numerous community charities. But the extraordinary social and political volatility since that time — the pandemic, the economic crisis, the energy crisis, climate change, the war in Ukraine, political populism, Brexit, Israel’s military conflicts with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, increased anxiety about antisemitism — demands that we take a new look at how we understand our Jewish identities today.
Have these factors changed how we live our Jewish lives or is our Jewishness more stable than that? Is it altered by the unpredictability surrounding us or do we carry on regardless, along the same Jewish trajectories we would otherwise have done?
Well, with your help, we are about to find out. JPR will shortly launch a new, once-in-a-decade study of Jewish identity in the UK and you can share your views.
The survey poses some interesting questions. Has your level of Jewish practice changed over time and, if so, how?
Why do, or don’t, you go to synagogue? Has the pandemic affected how you engage in Jewish life? How accepted do you feel by the Jewish community?
What place does Israel play in your Jewish identity, and are you becoming more or less attached to it over time?
How concerned are you about antisemitism and how does it affect your sense of security in the UK? How British do you feel and do you think Jews have a long-term future in this country?
These questions are not mere curiosities to be used in search of a quick headline. Combined with sociodemographic questions — for example, about your age, gender, denominational affiliation, geographical location, financial circumstances, political leaning and the Jewish educational experiences you had growing up — researchers can use the results to help inform numerous vital communal questions. What forms of Jewish education have the greatest impact? How will the economic crisis affect our Jewish choices? How should Jewish representative bodies best reflect the views of the community they serve? Do men and women experience Jewish communal life differently and, if so, how?
The best community leaders engage with these policy questions by drawing on the evidence that emerges from these types of studies.
And we should expect nothing less. Jews in the UK have diverse views and will be served well only if our leaders listen carefully to us and respond accordingly. This survey is the perfect opportunity to make your voice heard: it takes only about thirty minutes to complete, but your answers will impact British Jewish life for years to come.
So look out for an email if you’re already registered to participate in JPR surveys; if not, sign up to take part here.
