JPPI President, Yedidia Stern, commented on the findings, “This survey provides a valuable snapshot of the evolving attitudes within the American Jewish community regarding the Gaza war and its broader implications. Understanding these perspectives is crucial for shaping policies and fostering stronger ties between US Jews and Israel.
Jerusalem, Israel, 4 June 2024 – The Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) today, Tuesday, announced the publication of the latest Kol Haam: Voice of the Jewish People Survey, focusing on the Gaza War and the trends in attitudes of US Jews. This survey, conducted in May 2024, provides crucial insights into the perspectives and attitudes of American Jews regarding the ongoing conflict and its implications.
The survey noted that American Jewish reported being more optimistic about Israel’s future than they are about the future of the United States or US Jewry. In addition, they exhibited a higher level of optimism about the future of Israel compared to Israeli Jews.
Correlating, and likely contributing factors were the overall sense of security and concern over the campus protests. Compared to the January Voice of the Jewish People survey, respondents from all Jewish denominations report feeling less secure because of the war. There is a widespread consensus that both the Biden administration and university authorities have not effectively addressed the challenge of campus protests. Additionally, the majority of respondents believe Jewish institutions have fallen short in meeting this challenge, but that the students in general faced the challenge better than the established community institutions.
In addition, there has been an increase across the political spectrum in the percentage of American Jews who feel that the US does not support Israel enough, a significant change from January. The data shows that even a quarter of the most liberal Jewish respondents agreed with this sentiment, while over 90% of strongly conservative voters felt this was the case.
This trend closely follows US Jewish attitudes to the war, in particular to the support for Israel to continue the military campaign with goal of eradicating Hamas even at the cost of growing Palestinian casualties.
JPPI President, Yedidia Stern, commented on the findings, “This survey provides a valuable snapshot of the evolving attitudes within the American Jewish community regarding the Gaza war and its broader implications. Understanding these perspectives is crucial for shaping policies and fostering stronger ties between US Jews and Israel. The lack of optimism over the future of the United States, compared to the greater optimism for the future of Israel – more so than that of Israelis themselves – is a sign of the great sense of alienation American Jews have experienced since October 7th.”