(JTA) — Nearly one in 4 US adults raised Jewish don’t determine as religiously Jewish anymore, in line with a current examine by the Pew Analysis Heart.
The examine, revealed Wednesday, surveyed “spiritual switching” all over the world, and located that important percentages of individuals raised in spiritual properties in the US and internationally at the moment are religiously unaffiliated. Smaller numbers have transformed to a different faith.
Amongst Individuals raised Jewish, 17% now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated. An extra 2% now determine as Christian whereas 1% now determine as Muslim. An extra 4% determine with one other faith or didn’t reply.
The survey additionally discovered that 14% of Jewish adults within the US had transformed into the faith. Of that inhabitants, half have been raised as Christians whereas most others grew up religiously unaffiliated.
In distinction to the US findings, survey information from Israel discovered that 100% of these raised Jewish remained Jewish as adults, and just one% of the grownup Jewish inhabitants had transformed. Just about all Israelis raised Muslim additionally nonetheless determine as Muslim in maturity.
One in 5 Israeli Jews had switched between Jewish spiritual secctors
However Pew additionally present in a separate survey that a couple of in 5 Israeli Jews had switched between Jewish spiritual sectors — going from secular to non secular Zionist, for instance, or conventional to haredi Orthodox.
That survey discovered that the secular inhabitants had gained extra members than it misplaced as a consequence of spiritual switching, whereas the reverse was true for the spiritual Zionist group. Spiritual switching didn’t affect the numbers of conventional or haredi Israeli Jews. (These numbers don’t account for differing beginning charges among the many teams.)
Wednesday’s survey discovered that retention charges have been related amongst Individuals raised Jewish, Muslim and Christian.
Amongst these raised Jewish, 76% are nonetheless Jewish, whereas the corresponding determine is 77% for American Muslims, and 73% for American Christians. Different spiritual teams in the US have increased charges of attrition: Simply 45% of these raised Buddhist, for instance, are nonetheless Buddhist.
The speed of non secular switching amongst Jews has remained fixed: The information mirrored only a slight rise because the final survey of its form in 2014, the place 75% of US adults raised Jewish stated they now not recognized as such.
One other Pew survey of American Jews in 2020 sought to reply the identical query, and located that 88% of individuals raised Jewish continued to determine as Jewish in maturity.
The important thing distinction? The 2020 survey measured each religiously affiliated Jews and people recognized as “Jews of no faith” — individuals who might determine as culturally or ethnically Jewish however not spiritual. In that survey, if somebody stopped affiliating religiously as Jewish, however nonetheless recognized as a Jew of no faith, they nonetheless counted as Jewish — resulting in the next retention charge.
US information was taken from the 2024 Spiritual Panorama Examine which surveyed 850 American Jews and had a margin of error of 5%. The Israeli information was taken from a pattern of 591 Jewish adults and had a margin of error of 4%.