Digital Library
JFNA 2025 Survey of Jewish Life since October 7 – Zionism Findings
Topic:
Antisemitism & Antizionism, General/Other, Israel & Regional Politics, Jewish Diaspora & Interfaith Relations
Principal Investigators:
David Manchester, Meg Siritzky
Study Date:
2025
Source:
Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA)
Key Findings:
Strong emotional attachment to Israel
71% of Jews feel emotionally attached to Israel (higher than 58% in Pew 2020).
60% say Israel makes them proud to be Jewish.
The immediate post–October 7 spike has moderated somewhat compared to March 2024.Broad support for Israel’s right to exist, but limited Zionist self-identification
88% believe Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish, democratic state.
Only 37% identify as Zionist.
48% do not identify with any of the offered labels (Zionist, Non-Zionist, Anti-Zionist).Generational variation
Zionist identification appears across all age groups, with a spike among ages 35–44.
Anti-Zionist identification is highest among ages 18–34.
Many respondents—especially younger cohorts—avoid ideological labels.Competing definitions of “Zionism”
Non-Zionists and Anti-Zionists often attribute additional ideological components to Zionism beyond the classic definition (Jewish self-determination).
Misalignment over the meaning of the term helps explain the gap between support for Israel’s existence (88%) and Zionist self-identification (37%).Polarization at the extremes, complexity in the middle
Self-identified Zionists and Anti-Zionists hold more internally consistent views across Israel-related statements.
Those who select “none of these” or “not sure” display more mixed and less ideologically uniform positions.
Methodology:
This was a national survey of U.S. adults, including an oversample of Jewish respondents, conducted in English. Because Jews represent roughly 2% of the U.S. population, the sample was carefully structured to increase the likelihood of reaching Jewish respondents while maintaining overall representativeness. The country was divided using 2020 American Jewish Population Project (AJPP) estimates of Jewish population by geographic cluster. JFNA also used a commercial big data model that predicts likely religious affiliation based on machine learning, identifying individuals with at least a 40% predicted probability of being Jewish. These estimates were adjusted and weighted to align with AJPP age distributions at the Zip Code Tabulation Area level. The final sample included 5,798 total U.S. respondents, of whom 1,877 identified as Jewish and 3,921 as non-Jewish.