Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis gather for a conference in New York City (Nov. 23, 2008)
Two years ago, Pew released
a detailed study that probed the demographics of American Jewry in depth. Now they've returned to the topic (relying on the same data they collected in 2013) with
a fascinating analysis of the distinctions between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. The Orthodox, who are more religiously observant, make up about 10 percent of the nation's
roughly 5.3 million Jews, and politically, they're well to the right of their brethren: 57 percent identify with or lean toward the GOP, compared to just 18 percent of non-Orthodox Jews, and they consequently tend to take more conservative stands on other political issues, like the size of government.
But just as Jews as a whole are not a monolithic group, there are differences within Orthodoxy, too. Some 31 percent of Orthodox Jews identify as Modern Orthodox, while 62 percent fall into the stricter Haredi tradition, which includes Hasidic Jews and issometimes called "ultra-Orthodox" (though never by adherents). Haredim are more even more observant than Modern Orthodox by almost every measure, such as keeping kosher or fasting on Yom Kippur.
However, Modern Orthodox tend to identify with Israel much more strongly. (There is a strong anti-Zionist tradition among many Hasidic groups, which oppose the creation of a state of Israel by human rather than divine hands.) Haredim are also much more hostile to gays: Fully 70 percent say that society should discourage homosexuality, while only 38 percent of Modern Orthodox (and just 8 percent of non-Orthodox) agree.
Pew also notes that the Orthodox have far more children: Respondents age 40-59 have an average of 4.1 kids, versus just 1.7 for non-Orthodox, with Haredim the most fecund of all (27 percent say they have at least four children at home). You might think these numbers would mean that the Orthodox share of American Jewry should grow quickly, but as Pew observed previously, 52 percent of Jews who were raised as Orthodox no longer identify that way, a trend exemplified by the "Off the Derech" movement.
One new piece of data is that conversely, 70 percent of those who currently identify as Orthodox were brought up in the tradition, a much higher figure than that for non-Orthodox Conservative or Reform Jews (57 and 55 percent, respectively). That means that out-migration for Orthodox is relatively high, while in-migration is relatively low. Together, these two trends are holding back Orthodox Jewry from more rapid growth, meaning that the general portrait of American Jews as secular, liberal, and broadly supportive of the Democratic Party is likely to persist.