American Jews buck the US trend and turn away from religion

Jews are less likely than other Americans to gravitate toward increased religious observance or spirituality. Twenty eight per cent of all American adults have become more religious, while 29 per cent have “grown less religious”. Among Jews, though, 18 per cent have “become more religious,” while 29 per cent have become less so. Forty-three per cent of all Americans have grown “more spiritual”, while only 34 per cent of Jews say likewise.

Compared to other religious groups, American Jews have the lowest rate of in-marriage. Just 65 per cent of American Jews report having the same religion as their spouse, in contrast to 87 per cent of Mormons, 81 per cent of Protestants and 75 per cent of Catholics.

Nearly a third of in-married Jews “are highly religious” but only 4 per cent of those with non-Jewish spouses are. A mere 22 per cent of Jews are raising minor children, and Jews aged 40 to 59 years old have an average family of two children.

Rabbi Avi Shafran, director of public affairs for the Orthodox group Agudath Israel of America, told me: “The Pew report is saddening. It documents a true tragedy, the drifting of so many American Jews from their religious roots.”

So, where is American Jewry headed? Jewish Americans in 2020, Pew’s 2021 deep-dive on American Jewry, found 27 per cent of American Jews were “Jews of no religion” but that figure jumped to 40 per cent among 18 to 29 year olds.

Pew simultaneously found 17 per cent of 18 to 29 year olds were Orthodox; that was Orthodox Jewry’s largest showing across age groups, from young adults to retirees.

Here, Rabbi Shafran sees cause for optimism. “There is hope… in the fact that… within two generations, the Orthodox fraction of the American Jewish population has more than quintupled, and more than a quarter of American Jews 17 years of age or younger are Orthodox.

“That bodes well for the future of Jewish practice and life in coming years.”

Shafran continued: “What’s more, the intensified outreach by Orthodox Jews to their less- or non-observant fellow Jews that has come about in recent years is further reason to hope that the trend documented by Pew can be attenuated.”

At the other end of the religious spectrum, Reform Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch has his own concerns.

Addressing young adults in his Yom Kippur sermon at Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, Hirsch reflected on the divergence between the Reform movement’s intended lessons (eg criticising Israel and American Jewry is fine, but embrace both) and lessons learnt (anti-Zionism). Hirsch subsequently wrote in The Times of Israel: “The weakening of these bonds [of Jewish peoplehood] is my central concern regarding the future of the American Jewish community. I worry about our young people.”

Since most American Jews aren’t Orthodox, the trajectory of non-Orthodox Jews very much matters. In 2021, Pew reported: “Among Jewish respondents who got married in the past decade, six in ten say they have a non-Jewish spouse.” And among intermarried couples raising minor children, only 28 per cent were raising Jews by religion.

The new X factor in this population portrait remains open discrimination against “Zionists” on dating platforms since October 7.

Clearly, Jewish parents and American Jewry more broadly must offer positive reasons to affirmatively choose Jewish adulthood.

However, time will tell if resurgent antisemitism forcefully reshapes American Jewish dating, marriage, families and religious affiliation.

Perhaps Pew’s next study will uncover whether American Jews continue on the pre-existing, split path or collectively take a fork in the road.