If this survey includes people who aren’t actually Jewish, it also excludes people who are
In many areas, the new survey’s findings show little change in the American Jewish landscape from seven years ago: The intermarriage rate for those who’ve married since 2010 is at 61% (rising to 72% in population samples excluding Orthodox Jews), although it is still the case even among Reform Jews that 84% have a Jewish mother or two Jewish parents. The breakdown of religious affiliation is: Reform, 37%; Conservative, 17%; Orthodox, 9%; and unaffiliated, 32%. All these figures are nearly identical to those of seven years ago.
But there are changes, too. The new survey estimates the Jewish population at 7.5 million, or 2.4% of the US population, compared with 6.7 million, or 2.2% of Americans in the 2013 survey. Could the number of American Jews really have increased by 800,000 in just seven years? The study’s authors caution that the precision of its population estimates “should not be exaggerated” and note that because “the 2013 study was conducted via random-digit-dial phone interviewing, while the 2020 study was conducted via mail and web,” comparisons between the two surveys are difficult to make.
It must also be borne in mind how the survey created the definition of “Jew.” They surveyed “people who say their religion is Jewish and do not profess any other religion” and “Jews of no religion… but who had at least one Jewish parent or were raised Jewish and who still consider themselves Jewish in some way….”
But if this survey includes people who aren’t actually Jewish, it also excludes people who are. It does so by creating a category for people it says are not Jews but are “of Jewish background,” i.e., who have Jewish lineage but either identify with another religion or have no religion and do not consider themselves Jewish in any way.
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