The PRRI Survey of American Jews
The following are some results from the Public Religion Research Institute Jewish Values Survey. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that American Jews are very liberal politically, not very religious, and when it comes to theology, the largest number believe in Mordechai Kaplan’s impersonal deity.
April 17th, 2012 at 11:04 pm
The first two choices on the question about God is misleading, especially asking if God is a “person”. That is a big theological problem. No montheistic religion belives God is a person. That would be a form of Paganism. Surely Maimonides would be horrified. The question can be formed for example ” can you have a personal relationship with God?
April 20th, 2012 at 9:22 am
What a sad study. But, although it is undeniably true that most Jews are left wing, I dont beleive these percentages. There is enough infomal data among the orthodox publications and wesbites to know that their opinions are very rarely asked by pollsters. Possibly it is the strange dress, or possibly even the language barrier in places like Williamsburg, Boro Park, and Monsey and surrounding areas (where there are near or upwards of 100,000 religous and/or chassidim)that prevent pollsters from seeking them out. In places where these barriers dont exist, the studies show much more orthodox Jews than thought, Everyone was surprised to see in Baltimore, 32% live in Jewish households, and 74% said being Jewish was very important to them.
Bottom line: Most Jews are not very spiritual, which is a shame, but the numbers are not as bad as shown here.
April 23rd, 2012 at 12:10 pm
“In Baltimore 32% live in orthodox households” – should be.