Monday, June 03, 2024
- Monday, June 03, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
There was a very depressing poll of American Jews released by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs last week.
The most concerning finding was that about 30% of American Jews either strongly agree or somewhat agree that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
Are 30% of American Jews that ignorant?
The answer is, unfortunately, yes.
The percentage of Jews who identify as being of “no religion” was 27% in 2020, according to Pew surveys. Enrollment in even the cursory Jewish education from after-school Hebrew school programs has been plummeting. 42% cannot read Hebrew even phonetically. 28% do not consider Israeli Jews to be metaphorically part of their extended family. 55% never visited Israel. More than half could not identify Israel's first prime minister in a multiple choice question.
In other words, between one third and half of American Jews have no Jewish or Israel education to speak of. And most of the ones who think they do, don't.
If they don't know the first thing about Israel, and they get all of their news from news outlets that are hostile to Israel, what do you expect?