Friday, August 27, 2010

Study: Young Jews under age 45 less likely to feel connected to Israel because they are Young

(Via Tablet).Respondents under age 45 were less likely to feel connected to Israel but no less likely to regard Israel as important to their Jewish identities. The study attributes such differences to stages of the lifecycle rather than generational turnover.

Theodore Sasson and Leonard Saxe, who wrote about American Jewish attitudes toward Israel for Tablet Magazine, published an updated study that finds much the same thing at their previous ones: That where younger American Jews are found to feel less of an affinity for Israel, it is—contra Peter Beinart’s big essay—not because they are a new generation with new attitudes, but because they are, simply, younger: “Stages of the lifecycle rather than generational turnover” are to blame.

Other key findings:

• 52 percent believe U.S. support for Israel is “about right”; 39 percent believe it is too weak; nine percent believe it is too strong.

• President Obama’s approval/disapproval rating concerning his handling of the special relationship is 25-37; Prime Minister Netanyahu’s is 25-31.

• Younger American Jews still consider Israel important to their identities, they just feel less connected to the Jewish state than older Jews.

• “Political differences on the liberal-to-conservative continuum were unrelated to measures of attachment to Israel.”