How to Find Orthoodix Judaism Again
American Jews tend to be more highly educated and politically liberal than the U.S. public as a whole, too as less religiously observant, at least by standard measures such as belief in God and self-reported rates of attendance at religious services. The U.S. Jewish population also is older than the general public and has fewer children.
Merely inside the U.S. Jewish community, 1 important subgroup clearly does not fit the picture of a relatively secular, liberal-leaning, aging population with small families. Dissimilar nearly other American Jews, Orthodox Jews tend to place every bit Republicans and take conservative positions on social issues such as homosexuality. On average, they as well are more religiously committed and much younger than other U.S. Jews, and they have bigger families.
This report uses information from the 2013 Pew Inquiry Center Survey of U.S. Jews to look closely at the Orthodox. Data about Orthodox Jews was scattered throughout the initial survey report, "A Portrait of Jewish Americans." It has been brought together here and supplemented with additional statistical assay and more detailed charts and tables.
The 2013 survey found that Orthodox Jews make up almost 10% of the estimated 5.3 meg Jewish adults (ages eighteen and older) in the U.s..one A survey is a snapshot in time that, past itself, cannot bear witness growth in the size of a population. But a variety of demographic measures in the survey propose that Orthodox Jews probably are growing, both in absolute number and every bit a percentage of the U.S. Jewish community.
To begin with, the median age of Orthodox adults (40 years old) is fully a decade younger than the median age of other Jewish adults (52). Despite beingness younger, more two-thirds of Orthodox adults are married (69%), compared with about one-half of other Jewish adults (49%), and the Orthodox are much more likely to have pocket-sized children living in their household. On boilerplate, the Orthodox get married younger and deport at to the lowest degree twice as many children every bit other Jews (4.ane vs. one.7 children ever born to adults ages xl-59).2 And they are particularly likely to accept big families: Amid those who take had children, nearly one-half (48%) of Orthodox Jews have four or more offspring, while only 9% of other Jewish parents accept families of that size.
Moreover, near all Orthodox Jewish parents (98%) say they are raising their children in the Jewish religion, compared with 78% of other Jewish parents. Orthodox Jews are much more probable than other Jews to take attended a Jewish day schoolhouse, yeshiva or Jewish summertime campsite while growing upward, and they are too more likely to ship their children to these kinds of programs.
If the Orthodox grow as a share of U.S. Jews, they gradually could shift the profile of American Jews in several areas, including religious beliefs and practices, social and political views and demographic characteristics. Generally speaking, people who draw themselves as Orthodox Jews follow traditional interpretations of Jewish law, or halakha, and 79% of the Orthodox say that observing Jewish law is essential to "what being Jewish means" to them, personally; merely 13% of other U.South. Jews say the same. On numerous measures of religious belief and practise, Orthodox Jews display higher levels of religious commitment than exercise other Jews.
Indeed, in a few ways, Orthodox Jews more than closely resemble white evangelical Protestants than they resemble other U.Due south. Jews. For example, similarly big majorities of Orthodox Jews (83%) and white evangelicals (86%) say that religion is very of import in their lives, while just near i-fifth of other Jewish Americans (20%) say the same. Roughly iii-quarters of both Orthodox Jews (74%) and white evangelicals (75%) report that they attend religious services at least once a calendar month. And 8-in-ten or more Orthodox Jews (84%) and white evangelicals (82%) say that Israel was given to the Jewish people by God – more than than twice the share of other American Jews (35%) who express this belief.
Other U.Southward. Jews lean heavily toward the Democratic Political party, just the opposite is true of the Orthodox. Equally of mid-2013, 57% of Orthodox Jews identified with the Republican Party or said they leaned toward the GOP. Orthodox Jews also tend to express more conservative views on bug such equally homosexuality and the size of government; that is, they are more than probable than other Jews to say that homosexuality should be discouraged and that they prefer a smaller government with fewer services to a bigger government with more services.
But only equally not all Jews are alike, non all Orthodox Jews are the same. The Pew Inquiry Eye survey was designed to look at differences within the Jewish community, including between subgroups inside Orthodox Judaism. About six-in-ten U.Due south. Orthodox Jews (62%) are Haredi (sometimes called Ultra-Orthodox) Jews, who tend to view their strict adherence to the Torah's commandments every bit largely incompatible with secular society.3 Roughly three-in-x Orthodox Jews (31%) identify with the Modernistic Orthodox move, which follows traditional Jewish law while simultaneously integrating into modern society.four
The balance of this report details some of the key differences both between Orthodox Jewish groups and amidst Orthodox Jews overall and other American Jews.
Who is a Jew?
The 2013 Pew Research Center survey of U.S. Jews focused primarily on those who cruel into two main categories.5 They are:
• Jews by organized religion – people who say their religion is Jewish (and who practice not profess whatever other religion)
• Jews of no religion – people who describe themselves (religiously) as atheist, agnostic or nothing in item, just who have a Jewish parent or were raised Jewish and who nonetheless consider themselves Jewish in some fashion
These two groups constitute, for the purposes of this assay, the "net" Jewish population. Virtually all Orthodox Jews (99%) are Jews by religion.
To identify Orthodox Jews, the survey relied on two main questions. The first asked, "Thinking about Jewish religious denominations, do you consider yourself to be Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, something else or no particular denomination?" Those who self-identified every bit Orthodox were then asked a follow-up question: "Do you consider yourself to exist Modern Orthodox, Hasidic, Yeshivish or some other type of Orthodox?" The Haredi (or Ultra-Orthodox) category includes Jews who come from at least two singled-out traditions – the Hasidic tradition and the Yeshivish (or "Lithuanian") tradition.
How Were Today's Orthodox Jewish Adults Raised?
The initial Pew Research Heart report on Jewish Americans included a detailed wait at religious switching among U.S. Jews, showing that nigh one-half (52%) of Americans who were raised as Orthodox Jews take left Orthodoxy, though nearly all the same identify every bit Jewish.half-dozen
This written report flips the lens: Amid adults who currently place every bit Orthodox Jews, how many were raised in the Orthodox tradition? And how many became Orthodox subsequently having been raised as Conservative or Reform Jews, or even every bit non-Jews?
Seven-in-ten adults who currently identify as Orthodox Jews (70%) were raised as Orthodox. Up of 1-in-ten Orthodox Jews (12%) say they were brought up in the Conservative motion, and 5% were raised equally Reform Jews. An additional eight% say they were raised in the Jewish organized religion simply in some other stream of American Judaism (such equally Reconstructionist) or gave other answers, such every bit saying they were raised in a Sephardic Jewish tradition.
By comparison, the other major streams or denominations of American Judaism accept smaller shares of adults who were raised in those movements: 57% of adults who identify as Conservative Jews say they were raised in the Conservative movement, and 55% of Jews who place as Reform were raised in the Reform move.
Family Structure and Age
Compared with other Jews, Orthodox Jews are much more probable to exist married. About seven-in-ten Orthodox Jews ages 18 and older (69%) are married, compared with 49% of other adult Jews. Haredi Jews are largely responsible for this gap; 79% of Haredi adults are married. Most half of adults in the Modern Orthodox tradition (52%) are currently married, comparable to the shares of adults in the Conservative (55%) and Reform (52%) traditions.
Nearly all Orthodox Jews who are married take Jewish spouses (98%), while fewer married Conservative and Reform Jews (73% and fifty%, respectively) have Jewish spouses.
Orthodox Jews not merely are more likely to be married, but too are more likely to have gotten married before the age of 25.vii Roughly vii-in-ten currently married Orthodox Jews (68%) in the survey were married by age 24, compared with only 27% of other Jews. And while a quarter of currently married non-Orthodox Jews (24%) got married at age 35 or afterward, the vast majority of Orthodox Jews were married before age 35.
With a median age of 40 (among adults), Orthodox Jews are younger than other Jews. Roughly a quarter of Orthodox Jewish adults (24%) are between the ages of 18 and 29, compared with 17% of Reform Jews and thirteen% of Conservative Jews. Moreover, merely 12% of Orthodox Jews are 65 or older, while among other Jews, nigh twice as many (22%) have reached the traditional retirement age.
Over again, Haredi Jews stand up out; 32% of Haredi adults are between the ages of 18 and 29, compared with nine% of the Modernistic Orthodox. Nearly half of Haredi adults (46%) are in the thirty-49 cohort, while simply half dozen% are 65 or older.
Child Rearing
Orthodox Jews tend to accept more children than other Jews. The 2013 Pew Enquiry report noted that Orthodox Jewish respondents ages 40-59 accept had an boilerplate of four.i children in their lifetime, compared with an average of 1.seven born to all other U.South. Jews in that age group (a measure out known as "completed fertility").
Perhaps equally a consequence of their higher rates of marriage, lower median ages and bigger families, Orthodox Jews also are far more likely to take pocket-size children currently living in their household. Virtually half of Orthodox adults accept at least i kid at abode, and xix% have four children or more in the house. Haredi Jews are much more likely than the Modern Orthodox to have at least four children currently living at home (27% vs. iv%). By contrast, most Conservative and Reform Jews exercise not currently accept any children living in their household (78% and 75%, respectively).
Nearly all Orthodox Jewish parents who have at least 1 child under the historic period of 18 living in their household (98%) are raising those children Jewish. And an overwhelming majority of Conservative Jewish parents (93%) and Reform Jewish parents (90%) with at least one child at habitation say they are raising those children Jewish.
Nigh Orthodox Jewish parents (81%) have a child enrolled in a Jewish day school or yeshiva, compared with 11% of other Jews. And Orthodox Jews are more than twice every bit likely as other Jews to enroll their children in another organized Jewish youth program, such as Jewish mean solar day care, plant nursery school, youth grouping, day camp or sleepaway camp (69% vs 27%).
While most Orthodox Jews who are raising minor children transport those children to full-time Jewish schools or yeshivot, other Jews are more likely than Orthodox Jews to enroll their children in other part-time formal Jewish didactics programs that typically supplement a largely secular instruction, such as Hebrew school, congregational school or Sun school (24% vs. sixteen%).
Childhood Interest in Jewish Activities
Among adults, far more Orthodox Jews attended a yeshiva or Jewish day school when they were children than did other Jews. Roughly three-quarters of Orthodox Jews (73%) say they attended a full-fourth dimension Jewish school when they were growing up, compared with 17% of other Jews.
Past contrast, Orthodox Jews are significantly less likely to have participated in the kind of part-time Jewish programs that typically supplement a largely secular education, such as Hebrew school or Sun school, when they were children.
Up of seven-in-10 Orthodox Jewish adults (72%) say that they became a bar or bat mitzvah when they were young, compared with 48% of other Jews.8 And 74% of Orthodox Jews attended an overnight Jewish summer camp while growing up; among other Jews, 34% went to such a camp.
Haredi Jews are significantly more likely than Modern Orthodox Jews to study attending Jewish day school, becoming a bar/bat mitzvah or attending overnight Jewish summertime camp, although majorities of adults in both groups say they had these experiences when they were children.
Socioeconomic Status
Orthodox Jews – especially Haredi Jews – tend to receive less formal, secular didactics than do other Jews. A third of Orthodox Jewish adults have a high schoolhouse education or less, compared with just 15% of other Jews. And xxx% of both Conservative and Reform Jews have post-graduate university degrees, compared with 17% of Orthodox Jews.
All the same, in terms of secular education, Mod Orthodox Jews are more similar to Conservative and Reform Jews than they are to Haredi Jews. Three-in-ten Mod Orthodox Jews (29%) take post-graduate degrees, and an additional 36% have bachelor'due south degrees; amid Haredi Jews, just x% have mail service-graduate degrees, and an boosted 15% accept available'southward degrees.
There are simply modest differences among Jewish denominations when information technology comes to almanac incomes. Haredi Jews are merely as likely as Jews overall to report having household incomes of $150,000 or more per twelvemonth, and an especially big share of Modern Orthodox Jews make $150,000 or more (37%).ix
Geographic Distribution
An overwhelming majority of American Haredi Jews (89%) alive in the Northeast region of the state, including New York and New Jersey. About Modern Orthodox Jews (61%) also live in the Northeast, although roughly a third live in either the South (twenty%) or the Westward (12%).
Other Jews, while yet more heavily concentrated in the Northeast than the U.S. general public, are more evenly distributed beyond the country than Orthodox Jews. The Northeast is home to the biggest shares of Bourgeois (43%) and Reform (36%) Jews, only roughly iii-in-ten members of each grouping live in the South (including Florida), and about i-in-five Conservative and Reform Jews live in the W.
Jewish Friendship Networks
Orthodox Jews, especially Haredi Jews, tend to have close circles of friends consisting mostly or entirely of other Jews. This is less common among Conservative and Reform Jews.
About eight-in-ten Orthodox Jews (84%) say that all or most of their friends are Jewish. Past comparison, among other Jews, most a quarter (27%) say the aforementioned.
A majority of non-Orthodox Jews in the U.S. say that at least some of their friends are Jewish, but 23% say that hardly any or none of their friends are Jewish. That is in stark dissimilarity with the one% of Haredi Jews and 4% of Modern Orthodox Jews who study that inappreciably any or none of their friends are Jewish.
Sense of Belonging and Importance of Religion
Nearly all Orthodox Jews in the survey say they have a potent sense of belonging to the Jewish people, while 73% of other Jews say the same. Similarly, more Orthodox Jews than other Jews say that being Jewish is very important to them and that they have a special responsibility to care for Jews in need.
Followers of the major streams or denominations inside U.South. Judaism are more similar when it comes to Jewish pride. Overwhelming majorities of both Orthodox Jews (98%) and other Jews (94%) say they are proud to exist Jewish.
In that location are, at most, but modest differences between Modern Orthodox Jews and Haredi Jews on these measures of Jewish identity and belonging. Among members of both groups, big majorities say that they have a potent sense of belonging to the Jewish people, that being Jewish is very important to them, that they accept a special responsibility to care for Jews in need and that they are proud to be Jewish.
The 2013 survey finds that faith plays a far greater function in the lives of Orthodox Jews than it does for other Jews. Near eight-in-10 Orthodox Jews (83%) say religion is very of import to them, compared with 20% of other Jews. Around the same time menses, 56% of Americans overall said religion is very important in their life.
On this question, Orthodox Jews look more like white evangelical Protestants – one of the most religiously committed major U.Due south. Christian groups – than like other Jews. Fully 86% of white evangelicals say religion is very of import in their life.10
Most Orthodox Jews say that being Jewish is either mainly a matter of organized religion (46%) or a matter of religion besides as of ancestry and/or culture (38%). A bulk of other Jews say that beingness Jewish is mainly a matter of ancestry and/or culture (67%); only 11% say it is mainly a matter of religion.
Beliefs and Practices
Orthodox Jews are more likely than other Jews to believe in God with absolute certainty and participate in various Jewish religious practices. For case, 89% of Orthodox Jews (including 96% of the Haredi) say they are certain in their belief in God, compared with 41% of Conservative Jews and 29% of Reform Jews. (Many Bourgeois and Reform Jews believe in God, simply with less certainty.) And virtually Orthodox Jews (62%) report that they attend religious services at to the lowest degree weekly, compared with but half-dozen% of other Jews.eleven
Over again, by these measures, Orthodox Jews are similar to white evangelical Protestants. For case, 93% of white evangelical Protestants believe in God with absolute certainty and 61% attend religious services weekly or more than often.12
Orthodox Jews are most twice as likely as other Jewish adults to say they fasted for all or function of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, in 2012 (95% vs 49%). And they are more than four times as probable as other Jews to participate in such religious practices as regularly lighting Sabbath candles, keeping a kosher home and avoiding handling coin on the Sabbath.thirteen The gap between Orthodox Jews and other Jews narrows somewhat when it comes to Passover – virtually all Orthodox Jews (99%) attended a seder during the Passover previous to when the survey was conducted in 2013, compared with 66% of other Jews.14
While Modern Orthodox and Haredi Jews are largely similar in their high levels of observance, lighting Sabbath candles and keeping kosher are more universal practices in Haredi homes.
Connection With and Attitudes Toward Israel
The survey finds that 61% of Orthodox Jews say they are very emotionally attached to Israel, whereas 27% of other Jews say the aforementioned. And there are pregnant differences between Modern Orthodox Jews and Haredi Jews on views toward Israel. Broadly speaking, Modern Orthodox Jews brandish stronger attachment to Israel; they are more probable than Haredi Jews to say that they are very emotionally attached to Israel (77% vs. 55%), that caring nigh Israel is essential to existence Jewish (79% vs. 45%) and that the U.S. is not supportive enough of Israel (64% vs. 48%).15
The 2013 survey too asked several questions nigh the Middle East peace process. It is of import to bear in mind that opinions on this topic may have shifted since the survey was conducted due to events in the region (including the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict and recent Israeli elections). Every bit of 2013, however, there were significant differences between Orthodox Jews and other Jews in attitudes toward the prospects for peace. For example, Orthodox Jews were less than half every bit probable as other Jews to say that Israel and an contained Palestinian state can coexist peacefully. Non-Orthodox Jews too were much more likely than Orthodox Jews to say that building Jewish settlements in the West Bank hurts Israel's security (47% vs. sixteen%).
Again, the survey found differing viewpoints within Orthodox Judaism. Roughly three-quarters of Modern Orthodox Jews (73%) said in 2013 that the Israeli authorities was making a sincere effort to reach a peace settlement, compared with 53% of Haredi Jews who said the same.
Social and Political Attitudes
Compared with other U.S. Jews, Orthodox Jews are far more socially and politically bourgeois. When the survey was conducted in 2013, 57% of Orthodox Jews said they identified with or leaned toward the Republican Party. Past contrast, but 18% of other Jews identified with or leaned toward the GOP. Orthodox Jews were also much more likely than other Jews to cocky-identify as politically conservative (54% vs. sixteen%).
As on some measures of religious belief and observance, when it comes to political attitudes, Orthodox Jews resemble U.Due south. white evangelical Protestants. For example, 66% of white evangelical Protestants identified as or leaned Republican as of 2013, and 62% are politically conservative.16
Nigh vi-in-ten Orthodox Jews (58%) say they would adopt a smaller regime that provides fewer services over a bigger government providing more services, compared with 36% of other Jews who accept the same position. Orthodox Jews also are far more likely than other Jews to say that homosexuality should be discouraged by lodge, with more Haredi Jews (70%) than Mod Orthodox Jews (38%) proverb this.
Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/08/26/a-portrait-of-american-orthodox-jews/
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