Poll Finds U.S. Jews Split by Religious Ties on Israel and Gaza Operations

A new AP-NORC poll conducted June 11-17 shows clear differences in how U.S. Jews view Israel and its military operations in Gaza depending on religious affiliation. The survey of 3,040 U.S. adults, including 1,022 Jewish adults, found that about 7 in 10 Jewish adults identify as Jewish when asked about religious affiliation.

The remaining 3 in 10 identify as atheists, agnostics or having no particular religious affiliation but still consider themselves Jewish in other ways. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points for all adults and plus or minus 5.

Religiously unaffiliated Jews are slightly more likely than Jewish adults overall to identify as Democrats and less likely to identify as Republicans. About 3 in 10 religiously affiliated Jewish adults say the term Zionist describes them extremely or very well.

That share falls to 6 percent among religiously unaffiliated Jews, while 45 percent of the unaffiliated group say the term describes them not very well or not well at all.

About half of religiously affiliated Jewish adults say supporting Israel is extremely or very important to their Jewish identity. The share drops to about 1 in 10 among religiously unaffiliated Jewish adults. Only about half of religiously affiliated Jews say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified, compared with about 2 in 10 religiously unaffiliated Jews.

About one-quarter of religiously affiliated Jews believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. That figure rises to about 4 in 10 among religiously unaffiliated Jews. Seventy-four percent of religiously unaffiliated Jews say they are not too or not at all emotionally attached to Israel.