More American Households Have at Least One Person Who is Jewish or of Jewish Background; Fewer People Identify With the Jewish Religion

NEW YORK, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Although 550,000 more households report having someone who is either Jewish by religion or of Jewish family background than in 1990, fewer adults identify themselves as Jewish by religion than a decade earlier, according to the American Jewish Identity Survey, 2001 just released by the Center for Jewish Studies at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Another important finding is that overall, nearly half the adult population that described itself as either Jewish by religion or by parentage and/or upbringing also described itself as secular or somewhat secular.

More than 3.7 million households of the 105 million total U.S. households report having at least one person who is Jewish or of Jewish parentage or upbringing. That figure is up from 3.2 million households found in the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, which is the predecessor of the current study.

The total population living in those 3.7 million households is 9.8 million persons, consisting of 7.6 million adults and 2.2 million children under age 18.

AJIS 2001, using the same survey methods as those of NJPS 1990, found the U.S. population to have 5.5 million adults who report themselves as either Jewish by religion or of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing. Of that number, 2.8 million adults, or 51%, indicated their religion as Jewish when asked, "What is your religion, if any?" The 1990 survey also found 5.5 million adults who reported themselves as either Jewish by religion or parentage and/or upbringing. In that survey 3.2 million, or 58%, indicated their religion as Jewish. The data suggest a 12% decline in the number of adults who identify with Judaism as a religion since 1990.

In addition to the population that identifies itself as Jewish by religion, AJIS 2001 also found more than 2.4 million adults who acknowledged Jewish parentage or Jewish upbringing, and a small number of people who considered themselves Jewish though they were neither of Jewish parentage nor of Jewish upbringing and did not profess to identify with Judaism as a religion.

Perhaps, most striking in the current survey is the finding that among adults of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing nearly 1.4 million self-identify religion with a non-Jewish religious group or profess a religion other than Judaism. That number is more than double the 625,000 persons reported by NJPS 1990 who were of Jewish background but professed another religion. This increase is undoubtedly a reflection of the coming of age of the children of intermarried families and the unfolding religious decisions of interfaith couples.

AJIS 2001 found that 33% of married persons who were of Jewish parentage and said they are Jewish by religion or said they were raised Jewish were married to someone who was neither Jewish by religion nor of Jewish background. The parallel figure reported by NJPS 1990 was 28%, suggesting an overall increase in the incidence of intermarriage in the decade since that survey was completed.

Though modeled on NJPS 1990, the new survey went further than its predecessor asking respondents specifically about their religious beliefs. For example, respondents were asked whether they agreed or disagreed (strongly or somewhat) with the statement: "God exists." The majority of all American adults agree with that statement, but there is considerable variation among different segments of the population. Fourteen percent of adults who identify themselves as Jewish by religion disagreed with the faith proposition and 25% of those who said they have no religion but were of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing disagreed. By contrast, just four percent of adults nationally disagreed.

Similarly, when asked: "Do you regard your outlook as secular, somewhat secular, religious or somewhat religious?," 42% of respondents who identified themselves as Jewish by religion described their outlook as secular or somewhat secular. Of those who said they have no religion but were of Jewish parentage and/or upbringing, 72% considered their outlook secular or somewhat secular. These figures contrast sharply with just 15% of adults nationally who regard their outlook as secular or somewhat secular. Most Americans describe their outlook as religious or somewhat religious according to the American Religious Identification Survey, 2001 released earlier by The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

The pervasiveness of secularism among America's Jews is reflected in patterns of Jewish affiliation as well. About half of all adults who are Jewish by religion and/or parentage or upbringing do not belong to either a synagogue or any other Jewish community organization. While the majority do identify with one or another branch of Judaism: 30% as Reform, 24% as Conservative, 8% as Orthodox, 1% as Reconstructionist and 1% as Secular Humanist -- 6% use other self-generated labels to describe their Jewishness such as "liberal," "progressive," "Zionist," "non-Orthodox," "non-denominational," "atheist" and the like -- and 20% declined to identify with any label or branch of Judaism.

"The findings of this survey suggest that the time is long overdue when those Jews who do not identify with the main religious streams of Judaism can be dismissed as if their numbers were insignificant or vestigial with the label 'just Jewish'," said Felix Posen, of the Posen Foundation, which underwrote the survey.

The new survey (AJIS, 2001), as its predecessor (NJPS, 1990), is based on a scientifically selected national sample of American households. It is part of a larger survey, the American Religious Identification Survey, 2001 (ARIS), which has a sample of over 50,000 randomly selected respondents aged 18 or over. Those who mentioned a Jewish connection were asked a special set of follow-up questions. The findings, weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population, include national and state-by-state examinations of religious identification in relation to racial/ethnic identification, education, age, marital status, voter registration status and political party preference. The complete report is available on The Graduate Center's web site at <http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/studies_index.htm>.

As in 1990, the data were gathered on behalf of The Graduate Center by ICR in Media, PA.