Have Israeli Jews grown more religious in recent years? Data suggests not
Pew survey shows proportions believing in God and considering religion important are similar to a previous study from 2016
Rossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.
The proportion of Israeli Jews who believe in God or consider religion important in their life has stayed largely unchanged in the past ten years, data collected by the DC-based Pew Research Center has shown.
In 2023 and 2024, Pew researchers surveyed some 50,000 adults in 36 countries, including the US, Israel (the only two nations with a sample of Jewish respondents large enough to analyze), Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Ghana and Nigeria.
In Israel, some 591 who identify as Jews were polled face-to-face in the spring of 2024 (in addition to 338 individuals who identified as Muslims and 72 whose religious affiliation was not specified).
Data from the US was collected in three different surveys in the summer of 2023 (11,201 respondents, 222 of whom Jewish), February 2024 (12,693 respondents, 1,941 of whom Jewish), and July 2023-February 2024 (36,908 respondents, 850 of whom Jewish).
According to the study, which was released on Tuesday, 71 percent of Israeli Jews believe in God, and 20% don’t.
A previous study released by Pew in 2016 focusing on Israel had found that 73% of respondents believed in God with absolute or fair certainty, and 20% did not.
The report was based on data collected between July 2014 and May 2015 among a significantly larger sample, 3,789 Israeli Jews. It also included responses to the same questions given by US Jews in a 2013 study.
The proportion of Israeli Jews who consider religion important in their life has also not significantly changed: In 2016, religion was very important for 30% of Israeli Jews, and somewhat important for 26%. In 2024, the numbers stood at 34% and 22%, respectively. In 2016, 43% of the people surveyed said religion was not important for them, while in 2024, that figure stood at 44%.
The proportion of US Jews who consider religion important or not important was also almost identical in both reports (55% compared to 44% in 2016 and 57% compared to 43% in 2024).
Another traditional indicator of religious practice among Jews also remained similar in the few years between the surveys: fasting for religious reasons.
The 2016 report explicitly asked respondents whether they fasted on Yom Kippur. Back then, 60% said they fasted all day, 8% said part of the day, 27% did not fast and 4% did not fast for health reasons.
In the 2025 report, all respondents were asked if they fasted during holy times: 62% said they did, and 38% didn’t.
A survey of the Israel Democracy Institute conducted ahead of Yom Kippur in 2019 found similar rates: 60% planned to fast and 27% said they would not (of the remaining 12%, some planned to only drink liquids while abstaining from food – 5% – and others had not decided yet – 7%).
However, in the past ten years, prayer as an individual spiritual practice has become more prevalent among Jews in Israel.
The proportion of those who pray daily registered an increase, from 21% in 2016 to 29% in 2025, while that of Israeli Jews who never pray declined from 50% to 41%.
Israel was the only country among the 36 where men are more likely than women to pray at least once a day (40% compared to 28%).
At the same time, synagogue attendance did not increase. Both in 2016 and in 2025, 33% of the respondents said they never go to synagogue, and 27% said they go at least once a week.
The 2024 survey also explored a wide range of spiritual beliefs, often not connected to organized religion.
In Israel, 58% of Jews believe in an afterlife and 42% in reincarnation. In the US, the numbers stand at 38% and 25%, respectively.
At the same time, 67% of the respondents in the Jewish state and 60% of US Jews think there is something spiritual beyond the natural world.
Two out of three Israeli Jews (64%) also stated that animals can have a spiritual essence, while less than one in three (28%) said other parts of nature, such as mountains or rivers, could. Among US Jews, the proportions were, respectively, 53% and 43%.
Almost 30% of Jews in Israel also think magic, spells or curses can influence their lives, and 25% believe that objects, like crystals, jewels or stones, could hold spiritual energies. In the US, only 15% of the Jews believe in magic and 23% in the potential spiritual dimension of objects.
A previous report released by the Pew Center in March found that, in Israel, Jews virtually never convert or cease to consider themselves Jewish, with 100% of respondents saying that they were raised and still identified as Jewish. In the US, almost one in four people (24%) who grew up Jewish no longer identify as such.
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