- \n
- US Jews believe the attack on Iran has somewhat reduced the existential threat to Israel.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- US Jews are less convinced that Israel has \u201cdefeated\u201d Iran than Jewish Israelis.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- A third of American Jews believe that Israel is winning or has won the broader war.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Jewish confidence that Trump \u201cwill do the right thing\u201d regarding Israel-US relations has increased.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- A quarter of US Jews have changed their opinion of Netanyahu for the worse; in Israel, a third have changed their opinion for the better.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- A large majority of respondents say Mamdani is a bad candidate for the mayor of New York City, and do not support him.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Most say that Mamdani is \u201canti-Israel and antisemitic\u201d; 20% say he is \u201canti-Israel but not antisemitic.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Overall, US Jews trust other people less than Israeli Jews do.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- American, Canadian, and British Jews trust Jews significantly more than non-Jews.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
To download the PDF version, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n
The Iran Campaign<\/strong><\/p>\n
In June, Israel conducted a 12-day offensive against Iran, and the US joined forces with it for a one-off strike on several of Iran\u2019s major nuclear facilities. The American strike increased the share of Jews who believe that Trump will \u201cdo the right thing\u201d in dealing with Iran, and lowered the share with no confidence that he will. This increase, at various levels, is discernible across all ideological cohorts, except for the \u201cstrong liberal\u201d group, where the increase is small. Confidence among Jewish Trump voters in his Iran policy rose to 66%, but there was no significant change among Jewish Harris voters to Trump\u2019s benefit, though there was some erosion of negative sentiment. Many Jewish Harris voters who last month said they \u201chave no confidence at all\u201d that Trump will do the right thing in dealing with Iran switched to having \u201ca little confidence\u201d that Trump will do the right thing on Iran (the questionnaire gave three options: a great deal of confidence, a little confidence, and no confidence at all).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLike Israelis, and Jewish Israelis in particular, US Jews view the attack on Iran as a success that somewhat reduced the threat posed by Iran to Israel. However, American Jews perceive the threat reduction as less sharp, because the percentage who regarded Iran as an existential threat was slightly lower to begin with, and because the percentage of those who believe that Iran remains an existential threat is higher. For comparison purposes: JPPI\u2019s Israeli Society Index from early July found that 93% of Jewish Israelis believed Iran to be an existential threat before the campaign, while just 63% said that Iran remains an existential threat after the campaign. By contrast, 86% of the US Voice of the Jewish People panel said Iran was an existential threat (to a great extent or some extent) before the campaign, with the percentage dropping to 73% after it. It should be noted that there was a two-week gap in data collection, during which time a number of conflicting reports addressed the Iran campaign\u2019s success. The disparity between Israeli and American Jews may stem, in this case (the comparison of JPPI\u2019s two July surveys), from the time gap between them and from the types of reporting that appeared during this interval.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nGenerally, US Jews are less convinced than Israeli Jews that Israel \u201cwon\u201d the Iran campaign. Again, these differences could be due to a perception discrepancy, or to the time gap between the two surveys \u2013 JPPI\u2019s Israeli Society Index survey was administered in early July, a relatively short time after the campaign, and the present survey was conducted in mid-July, after more time had passed and impressions could be formed based on additional reports on the damage done to Iran\u2019s nuclear program, and to Israel. Only 12% of Israeli Jews rated their sense that Israel had won as low (1 + 2), while double that percentage of American respondents felt that way (25%). Among those who \u201cfeel\u201d that Israel won, there is also a striking disparity between Israeli Jews, over a third of whom chose the highest rating in this regard (5), and American Jews, only 7% of whom gave the \u201c5\u201d rating.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAmong US Jews, the sense of Israeli victory over Iran closely correlates to ideological orientation. About half of the strong liberal cohort said they do not feel that Israel won (48% rating 1 or 2), while among centrists and those on the right, a majority feel that Israel did win. This split is also apparent among Israeli Jews, although ideologically flipped: most Jewish Israelis are situated on the ideological spectrum from the center rightward, while most US Jews are situated from the center leftward, which of course affects the overall result.<\/p>\n
The Gaza War<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAbout a third of US Jews believe that Israel \u201cis winning or has won\u201d the war. This question refers to the broader war that began on October 7, 2023, and has proceeded on multiple fronts. More than half of Israeli Jews (54%) said they felt this way when surveyed in early July. It should be noted, however, that the July findings in Israel reflected something of a surge in the sense of victory concerning the broader war, perhaps as an aftereffect of the Iran campaign. We must wait for subsequent surveys to see whether these findings continue as is. Events pertaining to Gaza are dynamic, and in the two weeks between the surveys conducted in Israel and the US, difficult negotiations were underway to reach a hostage deal and ceasefire \u2013 in whose wake, perhaps, an end to the war might be achieved.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs one might expect, there are major perception gaps on the question of Israeli victory \u2013 both in the US and in Israel \u2013 that correlate with ideological orientation. Half of Jewish Trump voters gave ratings of 4 or 5, i.e., that Israel is winning or has won the war. By contrast, over half of Jewish Harris voters gave ratings of 1 or 2 \u2013 meaning that Israel is not winning or has not won the war (53%). Among conservative and right-wing US Jews, the degree of confidence in Israeli victory is also substantially lower than among Israeli Jews.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThere was no significant difference this month over last month in the Voice of the Jewish People respondent panel\u2019s views regarding Israel\u2019s level of aggressiveness in the Gaza war, or on whether Israel is, in moral terms, prosecuting the war appropriately. Both questions on this issue \u2013 one pertaining to aggressiveness and the other to allegations that Israel is carrying out a \u201cgenocide\u201d \u2013 yielded similar responses in June and July. Forty-four percent of strong liberals agree with the allegation that Israel is committing \u201cgenocide\u201d in Gaza. The strong liberal cohort holds views on Israel\u2019s prosecution of the war that diverge from the other groups.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/7-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs noted, no real change was found this month over last month in the assessment of Israel\u2019s aggressiveness in the Gaza war. Nearly half of the respondent panel believes that Israel is \u201cmuch too aggressive\u201d or \u201ca little too aggressive\u201d in the war (45%); a third believes that Israel is not aggressive enough.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/8-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nOverall, a majority in the two liberal respondent cohorts maintain that Israel is being too aggressive in the war \u2013 while a majority of conservatives, a smaller share of the survey sample, believe that Israel is not being aggressive enough. Seventy percent of Trump-voting Jews (who constitute a quarter to a third of all American Jews) believe that Israel is not aggressive enough in Gaza. Sixty-eight percent of Jews who voted for Harris, the majority of US Jews, think Israel is too aggressive.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/9-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nConfidence in Netanyahu and Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/10-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe respondent panel\u2019s confidence that Trump will \u201cdo the right thing\u201d regarding Israel-US relations rose this month over last month, perhaps in the wake of his decision to attack Iran and\/or Prime Minister Netanyahu\u2019s friendly visit to Washington at the beginning of July. A majority of the respondent panel (57%) has some confidence that Trump will do the right thing regarding relations between the two countries. This majority also comprises a third of Harris voters (35%) who believe that Trump will act appropriately in this regard.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/11-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFurther comparison of the Israeli and American July surveys shows a disparity between American and Israeli Jews who have a lot or a little confidence in Trump. A larger percentage of Israeli Jews have a lot of confidence in Trump, and about half have a little confidence. Among US Jews, express \u201ca little\u201d or no confidence in him. Overall, 67% of Jewish Israelis have confidence in Trump; the figure for American Jews is 57%.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/12-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIn the wake of the Iran campaign and a discernible rise in Israelis\u2019 confidence in the prime minister, we posed a direct question this month, in both the US and Israel, regarding public opinion toward Mr. Netanyahu. Similar majorities in both countries say their opinion of Netanyahu has not changed recently. However, a quarter of US Jews changed their view of Netanyahu for the worse, while a third of Israeli Jews changed their opinion of him for the better (somewhat for the better or very much for the better).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/13-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA mirror effect emerges when comparing the views of Jewish Trump and Harris voters. Among Trump voters, a third say they changed their opinion of Netanyahu for the better in recent weeks, while a third of Harris voters say they changed their view of him for the worse in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
The New York City Mayoral Race<\/strong><\/p>\n
The mayoral elections in New York City \u2013 the \u201clargest Jewish city in the world\u201d \u2013 have captured the attention of the global Jewish community, primarily because issues are at play directly related to Israel and the Jews. Last month, Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary. Mamdani has a history of harsh statements about Israel and, implicitly, about Jews \u2013 at least according to many Jewish leaders. Among other things, Mamdani has not denounced the slogan \u201cglobalize the intifada,\u201d which some perceive as a call for violence against Israelis or Israel supporters around the world, including the US (in mid-July, Mamdani committed to encouraging others to stop using the slogan).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/14-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis month\u2019s Voice of the Jewish People survey posed two questions on Mamdani. One looks at how Jews feel about the possibility that he will become mayor. The following table shows both the aggregate views of all surveyed Jews and the views specifically expressed by New York respondents (33 in New York City, 144 in the state of New York), as well as an ideological breakdown. Unsurprisingly, Mamdani\u2019s candidacy is viewed much more favorably by respondents in the strong-liberal cohort, and much less so by Jews further to the right. Even in the leaning liberal cohort, a majority do not support Mamdani\u2019s candidacy. A Honan Strategy Group survey from May found that 20% of New York Jewish Democrats supported Mamdani\u2019s candidacy, 31% supported the candidacy of Mario Cuomo. However, Cuomo lost the June primary to Mamdani and subsequently announced his intention to run as an independent in the November mayoral elections). JPPI\u2019s July Voice of the Jewish People survey found that a quarter of Harris voters (24%) support Mamdani\u2019s candidacy and would be happy to see him win. Another 15% are indifferent.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/15-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe second question on Mamdani sought to determine whether his views are or are not perceived by Jews as anti-Israel and\/or antisemitic. Most of the respondent panel believes that Mamdani\u2019s views are both anti-Israel and antisemitic. A fifth said his views are anti-Israel but not antisemitic, and a small minority thinks his views are neither anti-Israel nor antisemitic. A third of New York respondents think Mamdani is anti-Israel but not antisemitic. In the strong liberal cohort, a majority believe that he is not antisemitic; 49% of the leaning liberal cohort believe that Mamdani has expressed antisemitic views (12% say they don\u2019t know). The Centrist and right-wing cohorts have clear majorities who think that Mamdani\u2019s views are both anti-Israel and antisemitic; 98% of Trump voters feel this way. Among Harris voters \u2013 Jews tend to support Democrats \u2013 40% think Mamdani has expressed views that are both anti-Israel and antisemitic; 31% believe his views are anti-Israel but not antisemitic.<\/p>\n
Trust in People<\/strong><\/p>\n
In 1972, nearly half of Americans (46%) said that, in general, \u201cmost people\u201d can be trusted, five decades later, the figure had dropped to 34% \u2013 from nearly half to about a third. In a Pew Research Center study published in May, Americans\u2019 Trust in One Another, its authors wrote, \u201cSocial trust is rooted partly in personal experience. People learn to trust others based on how they themselves have been treated. But scarring events that reduce trust \u2013 like\u00a0losing a job\u00a0or\u00a0experiencing discrimination\u00a0\u2013 may happen to people in some groups more often than others, leading to differences in trust across society.\u201d In the US, one can see a major trust gap based on income and education levels: those who earn less and those who are less educated trust people less.<\/p>\n
Both of this month\u2019s JPPI surveys assessed trust in other people among both Israelis and American Jews. Findings from both surveys were compared in the context of international indices of a similar nature. To conduct this comparison with a high degree of accuracy, we used a standard question: \u201cGenerally speaking, would you say that most people can or cannot be trusted?\u201d<\/p>\n
Forty-four percent of the American Jews on JPPI\u2019s Voice of the Jewish People respondent panel answered yes, 27% said no, and 29% were unable to answer the question. This trust level is significantly lower than among Israeli Jews, but somewhat higher than for Americans in general.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/16-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs part of our expansion of the Voice of the Jewish People panel into additional countries, we also posed the trust question to panel participants in Canada and the UK. The findings from these countries should be treated with caution at this stage, as we are still in the process of consolidating the panel. Still, it is interesting to note that among Canadian Jews (a sample of about a hundred participants), the share of those who trust other people is low compared to all Canadians \u2013 33%. British Jews\u2019 trust level is quite close to that of other Britons \u2013 40%.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/17-1.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe tendency of Jews to trust or not trust other people correlates somewhat with ideological orientation: trust in others drops as one moves from the liberal to the conservative end of the ideological spectrum. A majority of strong liberals say people can be trusted, as do a clear majority in both the leaning liberal and centrist cohorts. There is no such majority in the conservative cohorts. Note that the percentage of respondents who \u201cdon\u2019t know\u201d is higher for this question than for most of the questions in this survey, and double or more than the corresponding percentage of respondents in JPPI\u2019s July Israeli Society Index survey.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/18.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAs in our July Israeli Society Index survey of Jews and non-Jews, we looked at US Jews\u2019 trust in specific groups besides the very general one of \u201cother people\u201d: trust in \u201cmost Americans,\u201d in \u201cmost American Jews,\u201d in \u201cmost Israelis,\u201d and in \u201cmost Israeli Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/19.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe results show that US Jews place much greater trust in other Jews (including Israelis) than they do in people in general, including other Americans. Less than half said that most people or most Americans can be trusted, while seven in ten said that most Jews can be trusted \u2013 in the US or Israel (the disparity between trust in Israelis and trust in Jewish Israelis is very small, probably because most Israelis are Jews; the distinction thus has little significance, certainly not when viewed from a distance).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/20.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIn all the Jewish communities we surveyed, the share of Jews who trust other Jews within their communities is much higher than the share of Jews who trust non-Jews. This finding is true of Israeli and American Jews, with similar findings obtained for our smaller samples of Canadian and British Jews.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/21.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTo return to the US, it is interesting and perhaps surprising that trust levels broken down by ideological orientation remain stable even when trust in Jews is at issue. Even liberal Jews tend to place more trust in other Jews than do conservative Jews.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/22.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTrust levels broken down by ideological orientation are somewhat reversed when the question pertains to Israeli Jews. In this instance, the tendency of liberals \u2013 strong liberals in particular \u2013 is to place less trust in Israeli Jews, while the tendency of conservative Jews is to place more trust in Israeli Jews.<\/p>\n
- US Jews are less convinced that Israel has \u201cdefeated\u201d Iran than Jewish Israelis.<\/strong><\/li>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jppi.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/23.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n