A new global study from the Pew Research Center is painting a nuanced picture of religious identity in the Jewish world—and the results are more complex than they first appear.
The report, released Wednesday, dives deep into patterns of “religious switching”—the phenomenon of individuals changing or shedding religious identities altogether. Among Americans raised as Jewish, roughly 17% now identify as religiously unaffiliated, while a small but notable percentage—2%—have adopted Christianity, and 1% identify as Muslim. An additional 4% either align with another religion or declined to answer.
That leaves 76% of U.S. adults raised Jewish who still identify as such, a retention rate nearly identical to that of American Muslims (77%) and Christians (73%). Buddhists, however, fared far worse, with only 45% of those raised Buddhist still identifying with the faith.
Compare that to Israel, where religious identity is far stickier. According to the same Pew data, virtually all Israeli Jews remain Jewish into adulthood, and just 1% of the overall Jewish population in Israel has converted to another faith. The same trend holds true for Israeli Muslims, whose religious identity remains exceptionally stable across generations.
But here’s where it gets interesting: identity within Judaism in Israel isn’t static. Over 20% of Israeli Jews have shifted religious sectors, such as moving from secular Zionist to religious Zionist, or from traditional to Haredi. While secular groups have seen a net gain due to this internal switching, religious Zionist communities have experienced a net loss. The Haredi and traditional communities remain demographically stable—but those numbers don’t yet factor in differing fertility rates, which heavily influence long-term trends.
The findings also highlight a key methodological distinction between Pew’s latest research and its 2020 survey of American Jews, which found an 88% retention rate. The difference lies in the definition: the 2020 study counted both religious Jews and those identifying as “non-religious Jews,” while the 2024 report focuses only on religious affiliation. That distinction matters. It suggests a significant portion of Jewish identity in the U.S. is increasingly cultural or ethnic, rather than faith-based—a trend seen across many religions in secularizing societies.
The U.S. data comes from Pew’s 2024 Religious Landscape Survey, which included 850 self-identified American Jews and carries a margin of error of 5%. The Israeli data is based on 591 Jewish adults, with a 4% margin of error.
While the numbers show religious identity is fluid in America and more rigid in Israel, they also point to an evolving concept of what it means to be Jewish—one that increasingly transcends traditional religious boundaries.
