The Annual Assessment of the Jewish People 2024 | 5784

Project leader: Yaakov Katz

The Annual Assessment of the Jewish People 2024 | 5784

The strength of the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora can be measured in two different ways, which, when taken together, provide a comprehensive picture of Israel-Diaspora relations. One way is through surveys that examine the views of Jews in Israel and the Diaspora. The other is by studying the actual behavior of Jews. Based on the data presented in this section, we can say that, in the aftermath of October 7, the relationship between Israel and the Diaspora has strengthened.

Views: Diaspora

An American Jewish Committee (AJC) survey conducted in March-April 2024 examined the relationship between American Jews and Israel in light of the October 7 onslaught and the war that erupted in its wake. The survey indicates that attitudes of American Jews toward Israel took a positive turn after October 7. In particular, 45% of the Jewish respondents said that they feel more connected to Israel than they had before October 7. The response distribution is shown in Figure 1.1, 2

The survey also shed light on the relationship between Israel education and the strength of attachment to Israel: more than one in five (22%) American Jews said that they had not received formal education about Israel between preschool and Grade 12. Of those who reported a lack of Israel education throughout their years of schooling, only 35% said they feel more connected to Israel in the wake of October 7. By contrast, 62% of those who characterized their education about Israel as robust said that they feel more connected to Israel since October 7.3

JPPI’s monthly Voice of the Jewish People Index also tracks the impact of October 7 on how Diaspora Jews regard Israel.4 A recent survey, published in June 2024, found that a significant percentage of Jewish respondents reported that their attachment to Israel had strengthened in the aftermath of October 7. Of the survey respondents, 38% said that the October 7 events had increased the chance that they would visit Israel, versus 15% who said that the events had reduced the likelihood of them doing so.

As Figure 2 shows, there is an increased desire to visit Israel in the wake of October 7 not only among respondents who had already visited Israel, but also among respondents who had never done so.

Furthermore, 72% of the Voice of the Jewish People survey respondents stated that October 7 and subsequent events had caused them to donate more to Israeli organizations than they had in the past. This finding, too, testifies to a strengthening relationship between Israel and the Diaspora.

Views: Israelis Regarding the Diaspora

The Diaspora Index published by the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs in April 2024 sheds light on Israeli views regarding the quality of the relationship and the connection between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. This year’s index also included questions about how Israelis’ views on Diaspora Jewry had changed in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack.5

The survey found that the connection between Israeli and Diaspora Jews strengthened following October 7. This insight can be gleaned from several questions Israelis were asked regarding their feelings about Diaspora Jews. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents strongly agreed with the statement “I feel that Diaspora Jews are my brothers.” This represents a significant 4.2% increase over the Ministry’s January 2023 survey. Additionally, 76% of respondents said that “Diaspora Jews and Israeli Jews have a common fate despite living in different countries.” This constitutes a significant rise of 6.6% compared to January 2023.

Figures 3 and 4 display the responses to the two aforementioned questions, broken down by religiosity level. One can see that, for both questions, the strengthened sense of connection with Diaspora Jews is largely attributable to a substantial increase in that sentiment among secular Israelis. On the question with respect to brotherhood, a 10% increase was observed among the secular. On the question about a common fate, a rise of 15% was observed among the secular.

Another intriguing finding from the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs survey: although 95% of respondents expect Diaspora Jews to take action on Israel’s behalf in wartime, 54% feel that the war situation does not require special attention to Diaspora Jews, while 24% say that resources should not be channeled toward Diaspora Jewry in wartime. Only 23% feel that the war situation requires greater investment in Diaspora Jewry by Israel.6

Behavior: Diaspora Jewry

In order to assess the strength of the connection between Diaspora Jews and Israel in light of October 7 and the Israel-Hamas War, we also need to examine changes in the behavior patterns of Diaspora Jews toward Israel. For this purpose, we need to choose parameters that will allow us to assess the actual behavior of Diaspora Jews toward Israel, especially in light of October 7.

One parameter that facilitates this assessment is donations to Israel from abroad. Donations from Diaspora Jewry in general, and particularly American Jewish philanthropy, have been a major source of support for Israel and its institutions since the founding of the state. Donations by Diaspora Jews, in particular, offer a tool for preserving and strengthening the connections between them and Israel; consequently, they have served as an instrument of measurement in the past as well. Accordingly, an assessment of Israel donation patterns can show us whether there has been a change in the attitudes of Diaspora Jews toward Israel, and especially in light of October 7. That is, if October 7 constitutes an inflection point in the connection between Israel and Diaspora Jewry, we would expect to see evidence of this in donation patterns.

The donation data we used allows us track small donations by private individuals; it was obtained from the digital fundraising platform JGive. This is an Israeli web-based crowdfunding platform that facilitates giving from all over the world to Israeli charities with good governance certification. The platform serves some 8,300 organizations that have raised over ILS 500 million for more than 20 thousand projects. The data we used was for the years 2016-2023. During this period, over 1.5 million donations were made via the platform, with 2023 alone accounting for over 472 thousand donations.

Access to JGive data provides a unique and detailed angle on the donation patterns of Diaspora Jews, compared with aggregate data. The data used for this investigation makes it possible to see the exact time of each donation, the donation’s destination, and an anonymous identifier for each donor.

An analysis of JGive data shows that the October 7 assault had a significant effect on patterns of Diaspora giving to Israel: there was a very steep rise in the number of donations, the number of donors, and the total sums donated in the wake of October 7. Figure 5 shows the number of donations and the sum donated from abroad, for each day from August through December 2023. It shows a large surge in both the number of daily donations from abroad to Israeli charities, and in the sums donated each day immediately after October 7. Although the number of donations and the amounts donated leveled off after a while, throughout the post-October 7 period both the number of donations and the amounts donated are substantially higher than they were in the pre-October-7 period.

Figure 6 shows the number of new donors from abroad, for each day, from August through December 2023. New donors are defined as donors who made their first donations via JGive. We can see that, following October 7, there were a great many first-time donors, and these donors cumulatively donated significant sums. One possible interpretation of the findings in Figure 6 is that October 7 caused donors who had not donated before to Israeli organizations to donate for the first time.

The findings in Figures 5 and 6 testify to increased involvement and support by Diaspora Jews for Israel in the aftermath of the attack and the subsequent war.

The insights yielded by an analysis of small donations via JGive are  consistent with findings of a report on  Diaspora Jewry’s contributions during the Israel-Hamas War, published in Diaspora Week. That survey looked at over 800 sources across the internet – organization websites, reports, and open-source statements and articles. The support distributed to, and received by, 350 Israeli organizations was examined as well. The survey shows that Diaspora Jewry provided significant assistance after October 7 on a number of levels: financial support, volunteer support and assistance, and hasbara (public messaging) support.

The survey in Figure 7 indicates that between October 7, 2023 and February 2024 Diaspora Jews donated $1.41 billion (ILS 5.11 billion) to Israeli organizations, with half coming from the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). Moreover,  the analysis indicates significant support through government bonds; by February, Israel Bonds had raised $1.7 billion. This represents a large-scale investment in a short period, at a time when interest rates on Israeli bonds were lower than in the past and where the bonds were less attractive due to financial alternatives available to investors in the U.S.8

In the volunteerism sphere, which includes volunteering in Israel, the survey shows that some 58,000 volunteers have come to Israel from the Diaspora since the start of the war as part of missions in agriculture, industry, and assistance to civilians evacuated from their homes. In terms of scope, the numbers are exceptional, indicating a large-scale mobilization of Diaspora Jewry on Israel’s behalf. For example, Sar-El, an organization that brings Diaspora Jews to volunteer for the IDF, reported that the number of volunteers that arrived from the time the war started until the end of February 2024 was six times higher than the annual average.9

Another significant area in which Diaspora Jews volunteer for Israel is in public messaging, hasbara. Since the war’s onset, Jewish communities and organizations abroad have launched thousands of activities promoting pro-Israel public awareness, denouncing Hamas, calling for the release of the hostages, and fighting antisemitism. Activities have been observed around the world, such as rallies, demonstrations, campus activities, campaigns, social-media shares, media interviews, and more. In particular, according to the survey over 110,000 students have actively participated in pro-Israel events, including the big solidarity march in Washington, and on over 200 campuses throughout the United States through Hillel and Chabad.10

The database created by Harvard University’s Ash Center includes open-source data on events and demonstrations in the U.S. – for and against Israel – since October 7.11  Figure 8 shows the distribution of these events and demonstrations. We can see that the geographic distribution of pro-Israel events and demonstrations is broad, attesting to the Jewish community’s mobilization for Israel in many different locations and reflecting a strong connection between the Diaspora and Israel.

The information we possess about the views and behavior of Jews in the wake of October 7 indicates that the connection between Diaspora Jewry and Israel has strengthened across a number of parameters. Regarding Diaspora Jews: October 7 evidently sparked a sense of  a covenant of fate and connection with Israel, and a great readiness to mobilize for Israeli organizations. This sense of connection in the aftermath of October 7 is also evident in the sentiments of Israelis in regard to the Diaspora. In particular, it appears that the sense of connection to Diaspora Jewry has significantly strengthened among secular Israelis.

Regarding how these views are expressed in the behavior of Diaspora Jews, a study of individual and organizational donations showed that the war brought about a substantial increase in Jewish donations to Israel. The defense emergency was a turning-point in terms of fundraising, with an emphasis on rapid and efficient response mobilization. Diaspora Jewry’s strong connection to Israel has also manifested in the organization of pro-Israel events and demonstrations.

Endnotes

  1. AJC’s 2024 Survey of American Jewish Opinion, https://www.ajc.org/news/survey 2024
  2. AJC Survey Shows American Jews are Deeply and Increasingly Connected to Israel, https://www.ajc.org/news/ajc-survey-shows-american-jews-are-deeply-and-increasingly-connected-to-israel
  3. Voice of the Jewish People Index, the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI), https://jppi.org.il/he/17320-2/
  4. Findings of a Follow-Up Survey on Index of Public Views on the Connection Between Israel and the Diaspora, Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, March 2024.
  5. Findings of a Follow-Up Survey on Index of Public Views on the Connection Between Israel and the Diaspora, Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, p. 61.
  6. A Mapping of the Contribution of Diaspora Jewry During the Israel-Hamas War: Open-Source-Based Informatics on Diaspora Jewry’s Contribution During the Period October 2023-February 2024, March 2024: https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/reports/sedergov280324/he/Seder_Gov_nseder280324.pdf
  7. Ibid, 8.
  8. Ibid, 20.
  9. Ibid, 24.
  10. Crowd Counting Consortium: Israel/Palestine Protest Data Dashboards, Harward Kennedy School, https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/crowd-counting-blog-israel-palestine-protest-data-dashboards/
PreviousNext