View source for American Jews

{{Short description|American nationals and citizens who are Jewish}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = American Jews
| popplace         = 
| region1          = {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|United States}}}}
| pop1             = 7,500,000<ref name="Mitchell-2021" />
| region2          = {{nowrap|{{flagcountry|Israel}}}}
| pop2             = 300,000<ref>{{cite journal |title=REPORT ON CITIZENSHIP LAW: ISRAEL |journal=Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies |date=June 2018 |last1=Harpaz |first1=Yossi |last2=Herzog |first2=Ben |page=10 |url=https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/56024/RSCAS_GLOBALCIT_CR_2018_02.pdf |access-date=2020-05-21 |quote=The number of U.S. dual citizens in Israel has been estimated at close to 300,000, while the number of French dual citizens is about 100,000. |archive-date=November 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112022624/https://cadmus.eui.eu/bitstream/handle/1814/56024/RSCAS_GLOBALCIT_CR_2018_02.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
| population       = '''7,100,000–7,700,000'''<ref name="Mitchell-2021" />
| regions          = [[History of the Jews in New York City|New York City]], [[History of the Jews in New Jersey|New Jersey]], [[South Florida]], [[History of the Jews in Philadelphia|Philadelphia]], [[History of the Jews in Los Angeles|Los Angeles]], [[Montgomery County, Maryland|Montgomery]], [[History of the Jews in Baltimore|Baltimore]], [[History of the Jews in Washington, D.C.|Washington, D.C.]], [[Boston]], [[History of the Jews in Chicago|Chicago]], [[History of the Jews in San Francisco|San Francisco]], [[History of the Jews in Greater Cleveland|Cleveland]], [[History of the Jews in Atlanta|Atlanta]], [[History of Jewish Americans in St. Louis|St. Louis]], [[History of the Jews in Metro Detroit|Detroit]], [[History of the Jews in Denver|Denver]], [[History of the Jews in Milwaukee|Milwaukee]]
| langs            = {{hlist|[[American English]]|[[Yiddish]]|[[Hebrew]] ([[Modern Hebrew]])| [[Aramaic]] ([[Judeo-Aramaic languages|Judeo-Aramaic]])|[[Farsi language|Farsi]]|[[Spanish language|Spanish]] ([[Ladino language|Ladino]])|[[French language|French]]|[[Amharic language|Amharic]]|[[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]|[[German language|German]]|[[Russian language|Russian]]|[[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]|[[Romanian language|Romanian]]|[[Polish language|Polish]]|[[Arabic]] ([[Judeo-Arabic language|Judeo-Arabic]])|[[Berber languages|Berber]] ([[Judeo-Berber language|Judeo-Berber]])|[[Jewish languages|List of Jewish languages]]|and various other [[languages]]}}
| rels             = [[Judaism]] (35% [[Reform Judaism|Reform]], 18% [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]], 11% [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]], 6% others)<br>[[Jewish secularism|Secular]] (30% [[Jewish atheism|atheist, agnostic]], etc.)<ref>{{cite news |title=Israel versus the Jews |url=https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21724880-israeli-government-opens-rift-american-jews-over-prayer-rights-israel |access-date=9 July 2017 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=7 July 2017 |archive-date=July 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170709030847/https://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21724880-israeli-government-opens-rift-american-jews-over-prayer-rights-israel |url-status=live }}</ref> also 
[[Christianity]] mainly [[Protestantism]] and minority [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/10/02/how-many-jews-are-there-in-the-united-states/ | title=How many Jews are there in the United States? | date=October 2, 2013 }}</ref>
| image            = Percent_of_population_Jewish_by_US_state.svg
| image_caption    = 
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| related_groups   = [[Anglo-Israelis]] and [[Israeli Americans]]
}}
{{Jews}}
'''American Jews''' ({{langx|he|יהודים אמריקאים|translit= Yehudim Amerikaim}}; {{langx|yi|אמעריקאנער אידן|translit=Amerikaner Idn}}) or '''Jewish Americans''' are [[Americans|American]] citizens who are [[Jews|Jewish]], whether by ethnicity, [[Judaism|religion]], or [[Jewish culture|culture]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Sheskin |first=Ira M. |editor-last=McKee |editor-first=Jesse O. |title=Ethnicity in Contemporary America: A Geographical Appraisal |year=2000 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |location=Lanham, MD |isbn=978-0-7425-0034-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ethnicityinconte00jess/page/227 227] |chapter=American Jews |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rrf_HrCTXdgC&pg=PA227 |quote=[The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey] showed that only five percent of American Jews consider being Jewish solely in terms of being a member of a religious group. Thus, the vast majority of American Jews view themselves as members of an ethnic group and/or a cultural group, and/or a nationality. |url=https://archive.org/details/ethnicityinconte00jess/page/227}}</ref> According to a 2020 poll conducted by [[Pew Research]], approximately two thirds of American Jews identify as [[Ashkenazi]], 3% identify as [[Sephardic]], and 1% identify as [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi]]. An additional 6% identify as some combination of the three categories, and 25% do not identify as any particular category.<ref name="pew-2020">{{cite web |title=Jewish Americans in 2020 |publisher=[[Pew Research Center]] |date=2021-05-11 |url=https://pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/#:~:text=Pew%20Research%20Center%20estimates%20that,were%20Jews%20of%20no%20religion. |access-date=2023-11-13 |archive-date=2022-11-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126153746/https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/#:~:text=Pew%20Research%20Center%20estimates%20that,were%20Jews%20of%20no%20religion. |url-status=live}}</ref>

During the colonial era, Sephardic Jews who arrived via [[Portugal]] and via Brazil ([[Dutch Brazil]]) – see [[Congregation Shearith Israel]] – represented the bulk of America's then small Jewish population. While their descendants are a minority nowadays, they represent the remainder of those original American Jews along with an array of other Jewish communities, including more recent Sephardi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, [[Beta Israel|Beta Israel-Ethiopian Jews]], [[Jewish ethnic divisions|various other Jewish ethnic groups]], as well as a smaller number of [[gerim]] (converts). The American Jewish community manifests a wide range of Jewish cultural traditions, encompassing the [[Jewish religious movements#Ashkenazic movements|full spectrum of Jewish religious observance]].

Depending on religious definitions and varying population data, the United States has the largest or second largest Jewish community in the world, after [[Israel]]. As of 2020, the American Jewish population is estimated at 7.5 million people, accounting for 2.4% of the total US population. This includes 4.2 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.5 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.8 million Jewish children.<ref name="Mitchell-2021">{{Cite web |last=Mitchell |first=Travis |date=2021-05-11 |title=1. The size of the U.S. Jewish population |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/the-size-of-the-u-s-jewish-population/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}</ref> It is estimated that up to 15 million Americans are part of the "enlarged" American Jewish population, accounting for 4.5% of the total US population, consisting of those who have [[Who is a Jew?|at least one Jewish grandparent]] and would be eligible for [[Israeli citizenship]] under the [[Law of Return]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sheskin, Dashefsky |first1=Ira, Arnold |title=American Jewish Year Book 2020 The Annual Record of the North American Jewish Communities Since 1899 |date=December 22, 2021 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=9783030787059}}</ref>

==History==
{{Main|History of the Jews in the United States}}
{{Further|Antisemitism in the United States|History of antisemitism in the United States}}

Jews were present in the [[Thirteen Colonies]] since the mid-17th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewsinamerica.org/ |title=Jews in America: Portal to American Jewish History |access-date=February 15, 2015 |website=www.jewsinamerica.org |archive-date=May 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505164009/http://www.jewsinamerica.org/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Kahalsyn.html |title=Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue |work=jewishvirtuallibrary.org |date=2014 |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=December 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203093109/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Kahalsyn.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, they were few in number, with at most 200 to 300 having arrived by 1700.<ref name="Atkin-p305">{{cite EJ|last=Atkin|first=Maurice|display-authors=etal|title=United States of America|volume=20|page=305}}</ref> Those early arrivals were mostly [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jewish]] immigrants, of Western Sephardic (also known as [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews|Spanish and Portuguese Jewish]]) ancestry,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/charleston/kah.htm |title=Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue |work=nps.gov |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=March 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315222519/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/charleston/kah.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> but by 1720, [[Ashkenazi Jews]] from [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora]] communities in Central and Eastern Europe predominated.<ref name="Atkin-p305"/>

For the first time, the English [[Plantation Act 1740]] permitted Jews to become British citizens and emigrate to [[British America|the colonies]]. The first famous Jew in US history was [[Chaim Salomon]], a Polish-born Jew who emigrated to New York and played an important role in the [[American Revolution]]. He was a successful financier who supported the patriotic cause and helped raise most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tzvi |date=2017-04-20 |title=The Jew who Financed the American Revolution |url=https://aish.com/the-jew-who-financed-the-american-revolution/ |access-date=2023-10-09 |website=Aish.com |language=en-US |archive-date=November 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127054734/https://aish.com/the-jew-who-financed-the-american-revolution/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Despite some of them being denied the right to vote or hold office in local jurisdictions, Sephardi Jews became active in community affairs in the 1790s, after they were granted political equality in the five states where they were most numerous.<ref>Alexander DeConde, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=XOlcL8kgrZgC Ethnicity, Race, and American Foreign Policy: A History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121045340/https://books.google.com/books?lr=&id=XOlcL8kgrZgC&q= |date=November 21, 2022 }}'', p. 52</ref> Until about 1830, [[History of the Jews in Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston, South Carolina had more Jews than anywhere else in North America]]. Large-scale Jewish immigration commenced in the 19th century, when, by mid-century, many [[History of the Jews in Germany|German Jews]] had arrived, migrating to the United States in large numbers due to antisemitic laws and restrictions in their countries of birth.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sarna |first1=Jonathan |last2=Golden |first2=Jonathan |title=The American Jewish Experience through the Nineteenth Century: Immigration and Acculturation |url=http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/judaism.htm |website=The National Humanities Center |publisher=TeacherServe |access-date=27 April 2016 |archive-date=May 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160501030159/http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nineteen/nkeyinfo/judaism.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> They primarily became merchants and shop-owners. Gradually early Jewish arrivals from the east coast would travel westward, and in the fall of 1819 the first Jewish religious services west of the Appalachian Range were conducted during the [[High Holidays]] in [[Cincinnati]], the oldest Jewish community in the Midwest. Gradually the [[History of the Jews in Cincinnati|Cincinnati Jewish community]] would adopt novel practices under the leadership Rabbi [[Isaac Meyer Wise]], the father of Reform Judaism in the United States,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/tn/HistoryofTempleIsrael.htm |title=History of Temple Israel |publisher=[[Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life]] |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities |location=Jackson, Mississippi |year=2006 | access-date=July 22, 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402064203/http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/tn/HistoryofTempleIsrael.htm | archive-date=April 2, 2012}}</ref> such as the inclusion of women in ''[[minyan]]''.<ref>{{Jewish Encyclopedia|inline=1|title=WISE, ISAAC MAYER|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/14954-wise-isaac-mayer|last1=Adler|first1=Cyrus|author-link1=Cyrus Adler|last2=Philipson|first2=David|author-link2=David Philipson|access-date=Dec 3, 2015}}<br />'''Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography:'''
*I. M. Wise, ''Reminiscences'', transl. from the German and ed. by David Philipson, Cincinnati, 1901;
*''Selected Writings of Isaac M. Wise'', with a biography by David Philipson and Louis Grossmann, ib. 1900;
*''[[The American Israelite]]'', 1854–1900, [[passim]], and the Jubilee number, 30 June 1904.</ref> A large community grew in the region with the arrival of [[German Jews|German]] and [[Lithuanian Jews]] in the latter half of the 1800s, leading to the establishment of [[Manischewitz]], one of the largest producers of American kosher products and now based in [[New Jersey]], and the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the United States, and second-oldest continuous published in the world, ''[[The American Israelite]]'', established in 1854 and still extant in Cincinnati.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/73-years-of-the-jewish-post/ |title=73 Years of The Jewish Post |date=November 9, 2015 |work=Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana's Digital Newspaper Program |access-date=July 29, 2018 |language=en-US |archive-date=July 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730021937/https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/73-years-of-the-jewish-post/ |url-status=live }}</ref> By 1880 there were approximately 250,000 Jews in the United States, many of them being the educated, and largely secular, German Jews, although a minority population of the older [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jewish]] families remained influential.

[[File:Welcome to the land of freedom.png|thumb|250px|[[Eastern Europe]]an Jewish immigrants arriving in New York]]

Jewish migration to the United States increased dramatically in the early 1880s, as a result of persecution and economic difficulties in parts of Eastern Europe. Most of these new immigrants were [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]]-speaking Ashkenazi Jews, most of whom arrived from poor diaspora communities of the [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian Empire]] and the [[Pale of Settlement]], located in modern-day [[Poland]], [[Lithuania]], [[Belarus]], [[Ukraine]], and [[Moldova]]. During the same period, great numbers of Ashkenazic Jews also arrived from [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicia]], at that time the most impoverished region of the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]] with a heavy Jewish urban population, driven out mainly by economic reasons. Many Jews also emigrated from [[History of the Jews in Romania|Romania]]. Over 2,000,000 Jews landed between the late 19th century and 1924 when the [[Immigration Act of 1924]] restricted immigration. Most settled in the [[New York metropolitan area]], establishing the world's major concentrations of the Jewish population. In 1915, the circulation of the daily [[Yiddish]] newspapers was half a million in New York City alone, and 600,000 nationally. In addition, thousands more subscribed to the numerous weekly papers and the many magazines in Yiddish.<ref>Yiddish is a dialect of German written in the Hebrew alphabet and based entirely on the East European Jewish population. {{cite book |author=Robert Moses Shapiro |title=Why Didn't the Press Shout?: American & International Journalism During the Holocaust |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3lItIwOzCkC&pg=PA18 |year=2003 |publisher=KTAV |page=18 |isbn=9780881257755 |access-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915111213/https://books.google.com/books?id=I3lItIwOzCkC&pg=PA18 |url-status=live }}</ref>

At the beginning of the 20th century, these newly arrived Jews built support networks consisting of many small [[synagogue]]s and ''[[Landsmanshaft]]en'' (German and Yiddish for "Countryman Associations") for Jews from the same town or village. American Jewish writers of the time urged [[Jewish assimilation|assimilation]] and integration into the wider [[Culture of the United States|American culture]], and Jews quickly became part of American life. Approximately 500,000 American Jews (or half of all Jewish males between 18 and 50) fought in [[World War II]], and after the war younger families joined the new trend of [[suburbanization]]. There, Jews became increasingly assimilated and demonstrated rising [[Interfaith marriage|intermarriage]]. The suburbs facilitated the formation of new centers, as Jewish school enrollment more than doubled between the end of World War II and the mid-1950s, while synagogue affiliation jumped from 20% in 1930 to 60% in 1960; the fastest growth came in Reform and, especially, Conservative congregations.<ref>Sarna, ''American Judaism'' (2004) pp. 284–5</ref> More recent waves of Jewish emigration from Russia and other regions have largely joined the mainstream American Jewish community.

Americans of Jewish descent have been successful in many fields and aspects over the years.<ref>{{cite news |last=Lalany |first=Nelly |title=Ashkenazi Jews rank smartest in world |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4098351,00.html |newspaper=[[Ynet]] |date=2011-07-23 |quote=Jews comprise 2.2% of the USA population, but they represent 30% of faculty at elite colleges, 21% of Ivy League students, 25% of the Turing Award winners, 23% of the wealthiest Americans, and 38% of the Oscar-winning film directors |access-date=27 October 2013 |archive-date=February 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140214142839/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4098351,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Lazar |last=Berman |title=The 2011 Nobel Prize and the Debate over Jewish IQ |work=AEI |url=http://www.aei.org/publication/the-2011-nobel-prize-and-the-debate-over-jewish-iq/ |publisher=[[The American (magazine)|The American]] |access-date=18 October 2013 |date=2011-10-19 |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094439/http://www.aei.org/publication/the-2011-nobel-prize-and-the-debate-over-jewish-iq/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Jewish community in America has gone from being part of the [[American lower class|lower class]] of society, with numerous employments barred to them,<ref>{{cite news |last=Goldstein |first=Tani |title=How did American Jews get so rich? |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099803,00.html |newspaper=Ynet |access-date=8 November 2013 |archive-date=November 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101054101/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099803,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> to being a group with a high concentrations in members of the academia and a per capita income higher than the average in the United States.<ref>''[https://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Poll-Jews-highest-earning-religious-group-in-US Poll: Jews highest-earning group in US] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150327022117/http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Poll-Jews-highest-earning-religious-group-in-US |date=March 27, 2015 }}'', ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'', February 26, 2008</ref><ref>'' Why is America Different?: American Jewry on Its 350th Anniversary'' edited by Steven T. Katz, (University of America Press 2010), page 15</ref><ref>'' American Pluralism and the Jewish Community'', edited by Seymour Martin Lipset, (Transaction Publishers 1990), page 3</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+Household income of American Jews – 2014<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/11/how-income-varies-among-u-s-religious-groups/|title=How income varies among U.S. religious groups|newspaper=Pew Research Center|access-date=January 5, 2020|archive-date=May 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511105021/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/10/11/how-income-varies-among-u-s-religious-groups/|url-status=live}}</ref>
!< $30,000
!$30,000–49,999
!$50,000–99,999
!$100,000+
|-
|16%
|15%
|24%
|44%
|}

===Self-identity===
Scholars debate whether the historical experience of Jews in the United States has been such a unique experience as to validate [[American exceptionalism]].<ref>Tony Michels, "Is America 'Different'? A Critique of American Jewish Exceptionalism," ''American Jewish History'', 96 (Sept. 2010), 201–24; David Sorkin, "Is American Jewry Exceptional? Comparing Jewish Emancipation in Europe and America," ''American Jewish History'', 96 (Sept. 2010), 175–200.</ref> Korelitz (1996) shows how American Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries abandoned a [[Racial identity|racial definition]] of Jewishness in favor of one that embraced ethnicity. The key to understanding this transition from a racial self-definition to a cultural or ethnic one can be found in the ''[[Menorah Journal]]'' between 1915 and 1925. During this time contributors to the Menorah promoted a [[Culture|cultural]], rather than a racial, religious, or other views of Jewishness as a means to define Jews in a world that threatened to overwhelm and absorb Jewish uniqueness. The journal represented the ideals of the menorah movement established by [[Horace M. Kallen]] and others to promote a revival in Jewish cultural identity and combat the idea of race as a means to define or identify peoples.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Seth |last=Korelitz |title=The Menorah Idea: From Religion to Culture, From Race to Ethnicity |journal=American Jewish History |year=1997 |volume=85 |issue=1 |pages=75–100 |issn=0164-0178}}</ref>

Siporin (1990) states that the family [[folklore]] of [[ethnic Jews]] provides insights that illuminate collective history and transform it into art, and that these insights tell us how Jews have survived being uprooted and transformed. Many immigrant narratives bear a theme of the arbitrary nature of fate and the reduced state of immigrants in a new culture. By contrast, ethnic family narratives tend to show the ethnicity more in charge of his life, and perhaps in danger of losing his Jewishness altogether. Some stories show how a family member successfully negotiated the conflict between ethnic and American identities.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Siporin |first=Steve |year=1990 |title=Immigrant and Ethnic Family Folklore |url= |journal=Western States Jewish History |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=230–242 |issn=0749-5471 |url-access= }}</ref> After 1960, memories of [[the Holocaust]], together with the [[Six-Day War]] in 1967 had major impacts on fashioning Jewish [[ethnic identity]]. Some have argued that the Holocaust highlighted for Jews the importance of their ethnic identity at a time when other minorities were asserting their own.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Novick |title=The Holocaust in American Life |url=https://archive.org/details/holocaustinameri00novi |url-access=registration |year=1999 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=9780395840092}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Hilene |editor-last=Flanzbaum |title=The Americanization of the Holocaust |year=1999}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Monty Noam |last=Penkower |title=Shaping Holocaust Memory |journal=American Jewish History |year=2000 |volume=88 |issue=1 |pages=127–132 |issn=0164-0178 |doi=10.1353/ajh.2000.0021 |s2cid=161364396}}</ref> The world's largest Jewish gathering outside of Israel occurred in [[Edison, New Jersey|Edison]], central New Jersey, on December 1, 2024.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tapinto.net/towns/edison/sections/religions-and-spirituality/articles/edison-expo-hall-hosts-world-s-largest-confab-of-rabbis-jewish-leaders-2|title=Edison Expo Hall Hosts 'World's Largest' Confab of Rabbis, Jewish Leaders|author=Tony Gallotto|publisher=TAPintoEdison|date=December 1, 2024|access-date=December 1, 2024}}</ref>

===Politics===
{{Main|American Jews in politics}}
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="float:left; font-size:90%; margin:0 0 1em 1em;"
|+Jewish vote to the Democratic Party in Presidential elections since 1916<ref name=JVLvote/>
|-
!Election <br />year
!Candidate of the <br />Democratic Party
!% of <br />Jewish vote to the<br /> Democratic Party
!Result of the<br /> Democratic Party
|-
! 1916 
| '''[[Woodrow Wilson]]'''
| align="center"| 55
| {{won}}
|-
! 1920 
| [[James M. Cox]]
| align="center"| 19
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1924 
| [[John W. Davis]]
| align="center"| 51
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1928 
| [[Alfred E. Smith|Al Smith]]
| align="center"| 72
| {{No|Lost}}
|-
! 1932 
| rowspan="4" | '''[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'''
| align="center"| 82
| {{won}}
|-
! 1936 
| align="center"| 85
| {{won}}
|-
! 1940 
| align="center"| 90
| {{won}}
|-
! 1944 
| align="center"| 90
| {{won}}
|-
! 1948 
| '''[[Harry Truman]]'''
| align="center"| 75
| {{won}}
|-
! 1952 
| rowspan="2" | [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]]
| align="center"| 64
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1956 
| align="center"| 60
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1960 
| '''[[John F. Kennedy]]'''
| align="center"| 82
| {{won}}
|-
! 1964 
| '''[[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'''
| align="center"| 90
| {{won}}
|-
! 1968 
| [[Hubert Humphrey]]
| align="center"| 81
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1972 
| [[George McGovern]]
| align="center"| 65
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1976 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[Jimmy Carter]]'''
| align="center"| 71
| {{won}}
|-
! 1980 
| align="center"| 45
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1984 
| [[Walter Mondale]]
| align="center"| 67
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1988 
| [[Michael Dukakis]]
| align="center"| 64
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
! 1992 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[Bill Clinton]]'''
| align="center"| 80
| {{won}}
|-
! 1996 
| align="center"| 78
| {{won}}
|-
! 2000 
| [[Al Gore]]
| align="center"| 79
|{{no|Lost}}
|-
! 2004 
| [[John Kerry]]
| align="center"| 76
|{{no|Lost}}
|-
! 2008 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[Barack Obama]]'''
| align="center"| 78
| {{won}}
|-
! 2012 
| align="center"| 69
| {{won}}
|-
! 2016 
| [[Hillary Clinton]]
| align="center"| 71<ref name="Smith-2016">{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Gregory A. |last2=Martínez |first2=Jessica |title=How the faithful voted: A preliminary 2016 analysis |url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/ |website=Pew Research Center |access-date=13 January 2017 |date=9 November 2016 |archive-date=January 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170111175437/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
| {{no|Lost}}
|-
|-
! 2020 
| '''[[Joe Biden]]'''
| align="center"| 69<ref name="NPR-2021">{{Cite news |author=N. P. R. Staff |date=2021-05-21 |title=Understanding The 2020 Electorate: AP VoteCast Survey |language=en |work=NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey |access-date=2022-11-04 |archive-date=February 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219064318/https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey |url-status=live }}</ref>
| {{won}}
|-
! 2024 
| [[Kamala Harris]]
| align="center"| 63<ref name="Harvard-2024">{{cite web |url=https://cces.gov.harvard.edu/ |title=Cooperative Election Study |publisher=Harvard University |year=2024 |access-date=2025-08-09 |quote=Harris beat Trump among Jews 63% to 36%}}</ref>
| {{no|Lost}}
|}

{|class="wikitable sortable" style="float:left; font-size:90%; margin:0 0 1em 1em;"
|+Jewish vote to the Republican Party in Presidential elections since 1916<ref name=JVLvote/>
|-
!Election <br />year
!Candidate of the <br />Republican Party
!% of <br />Jewish vote to the<br /> Republican Party
!Result of the<br /> Republican Party
|-
! 1916 
| [[Charles Evans Hughes|Charles E. Hughes]]
| align="center"| 45
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1920 
| '''[[Warren G. Harding]]'''
| align="center"| 43
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1924 
| '''[[Calvin Coolidge]]'''
| align="center"| 27
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1928 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[Herbert Hoover]]'''
| align="center"| 28
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1932 
| align="center"| 18
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1936 
| [[Alf Landon]]
| align="center"| 15
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1940 
| [[Wendell Willkie]]
| align="center"| 10
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1944 
| rowspan="2" | [[Thomas Dewey]]
| align="center"| 10
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1948 
| align="center"| 10
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1952 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]'''
| align="center"| 36
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1956 
| align="center"| 40
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1960 
| [[Richard Nixon]]
| align="center"| 18
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1964 
| [[Barry Goldwater]]
| align="center"| 10
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1968 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[Richard Nixon]]'''
| align="center"| 17
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1972 
| align="center"| 35
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1976 
| [[Gerald Ford]]
| align="center"| 27
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1980 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[Ronald Reagan]]'''
| align="center"| 39
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1984 
| align="center"| 31
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1988 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[George H. W. Bush]]'''
| align="center"| 35
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 1992 
| align="center"| 11
| {{lost}}
|-
! 1996 
| [[Bob Dole]]
| align="center"| 16
| {{lost}}
|-
! 2000 
| rowspan="2" | '''[[George W. Bush]]'''
| align="center"| 19
|{{yes|Won}}
|-
! 2004 
| align="center"| 24
|{{yes|Won}}
|-
! 2008 
| [[John McCain]]
| align="center"| 22
| {{lost}}
|-
! 2012 
| [[Mitt Romney]]
| align="center"| 30
| {{lost}}
|-
! 2016 
| rowspan="3" | '''[[Donald Trump]]'''
| align="center"| 24<ref name="Smith-2016"/>
| {{yes|Won}}
|-
! 2020 
| align="center" | 30<ref name="NPR-2021" />
| {{lost}}
|-
! 2024 
| align="center" | 36<ref name="Harvard-2024"/>
| {{yes|Won}}
|}
{{clear}}

In New York City, while the German-Jewish community was well established 'uptown', the more numerous Jews who migrated from Eastern Europe faced tension 'downtown' with Irish and German Catholic neighbors, especially the Irish Catholics who controlled Democratic Party politics<ref>Ronald H. Bayor, ''Neighbors in Conflict: The Irish, Germans, Jews and Italians of New York City, 1929–1941'' (1978)</ref> [[Tammany Hall|at the time]]. Jews successfully established themselves in the garment trades and in the needle unions in New York. By the 1930s they were a major political factor in New York, with strong support for the most liberal programs of the [[New Deal]]. They continued as a major element of the [[New Deal Coalition]], giving special support to the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. By the mid-1960s, however, the [[Black Power movement]] caused a growing separation between blacks and Jews, though both groups remained solidly in the Democratic camp.<ref>See Murray Friedman, ''What Went Wrong? The Creation and Collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance''. (1995)</ref>

Earlier Jewish immigrants from Germany tended to be politically [[Conservatism|conservative]], though many, including the devoutly Republican [[Louis Marshall]], believed that Jews should not have a political direction at all.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dalin |first=David G. |title=Jews and American public life: essays on American Jewish history and politics |date=2022 |publisher=Academic Studies Press |isbn=978-1-64469-881-5 |series=North American Jewish studies |location=Boston}}</ref> Meanwhile, the wave of Jews from Eastern Europe starting in the early 1880s were generally more liberal or [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] and became the political majority.<ref name="Diner-2004">[[Hasia Diner]], ''The Jews of the United States. 1654 to 2000'' (2004), ch 5</ref> Many came to America with experience in the socialist, [[Jewish Anarchism|anarchist]] and communist movements as well as the [[General Jewish Labor Union|Labor Bund]], emanating from Eastern Europe. Many Jews rose to leadership positions in the early 20th century [[American labor movement]] and helped to found unions that played a major role in left-wing politics and, after 1936, in [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]] politics.<ref name="Diner-2004"/>

American Jews generally leaned towards the Republican party in the second half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. This was compounded by the strong [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]] imagery used by [[William Jennings Bryan]] and other Populist Democrats, which caused fears of Antisemitism among American Jews. Additionally Republican candidates such as [[William McKinley]] and [[Theodore Roosevelt]] were extremely popular with Jewish voters.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Yearning to breathe free: Jews in gilded age America: essays by twenty contributing scholars |date=2022 |publisher=Princeton University Library |isbn=978-0-87811-065-0 |editor-last=Mendelsohn |editor-first=Adam D. |location=Princeton, New Jersey |editor-last2=Sarna |editor-first2=Jonathan D. |editor-last3=Milberg |editor-first3=Leonard L.}}</ref> However, the majority of Jews have generally voted Democratic since at least 1916, when they voted 55% for [[Woodrow Wilson]], and especially since 1928, when 72% supported the unsuccessful candidacy of [[Al Smith]].<ref name=JVLvote>{{cite web |title=Jewish Vote In Presidential Elections |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html |access-date=October 28, 2008 |publisher=American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise |archive-date=May 14, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514093043/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/jewvote.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 

With the election of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], American Jews voted more solidly Democratic. They voted 90% for Roosevelt in the elections of 1940, and 1944, representing the highest of support, equaled only once since. In the election of 1948, Jewish support for Democrat [[Harry S. Truman]] dropped to 75%, with 15% supporting the new [[Progressive Party (United States, 1948)|Progressive Party]].<ref name=JVLvote/> As a result of lobbying, and hoping to better compete for the Jewish vote, both major party platforms had included a pro-Zionist plank since 1944,<ref>{{cite web |title=Democratic Party Platform of 1944 |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29598 |publisher=American Presidency Project |access-date=24 May 2016 |archive-date=June 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625020558/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29598 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Republican Party Platform of 1944 |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25835 |publisher=American Presidency Project |access-date=24 May 2016 |archive-date=June 24, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624233257/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25835 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and supported the creation of a Jewish state; it had little apparent effect however, with 90% still voting other-than-Republican. In every election since, except for 1980, no Democratic presidential candidate has won with less than 67% of the Jewish vote. (In 1980, Carter obtained 45% of the Jewish vote. See below.)

During the 1952 and 1956 elections, Jewish voters cast 60% or more of their votes for Democrat [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]], while [[Dwight Eisenhower|General Eisenhower]] garnered 40% of the Jewish vote for his reelection, the best showing to date for the Republicans since [[Warren G. Harding]]'s 43% in 1920.<ref name=JVLvote/> In 1960, 83% voted for Democrat [[John F. Kennedy]] against [[Richard Nixon]], and in 1964, 90% of American Jews voted for [[Lyndon Johnson]], over his Republican opponent, arch-conservative [[Barry Goldwater]]. [[Hubert Humphrey]] garnered 81% of the Jewish vote in the 1968 elections in his losing bid for president against [[Richard Nixon]].<ref name=JVLvote/>

During the Nixon re-election campaign of 1972, Jewish voters were apprehensive about [[George McGovern]] and only favored the Democrat by 65%, while Nixon more than doubled Republican Jewish support to 35%. In the election of 1976, Jewish voters supported Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] by 71% over incumbent president [[Gerald Ford]]'s 27%, but during the Carter re-election campaign of 1980, Jewish voters greatly abandoned the Democrat, with only 45% support, while Republican winner [[Ronald Reagan]] garnered 39%, and 14% went to independent (former Republican) [[John B. Anderson|John Anderson]].<ref name=JVLvote/><ref name="Helmreich-2008"/>

During the Reagan re-election campaign of 1984, the Republican retained 31% of the Jewish vote, while 67% voted for Democrat [[Walter Mondale]]. The 1988 election saw Jewish voters favor Democrat [[Michael Dukakis]] by 64%, while [[George H. W. Bush]] polled a respectable 35%, but during Bush's re-election attempt in 1992, his Jewish support dropped to just 11%, with 80% voting for [[Bill Clinton]] and 9% going to independent [[Ross Perot]]. Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996 maintained high Jewish support at 78%, with 16% supporting [[Bob Dole]] and 3% for Perot.<ref name=JVLvote/><ref name="Helmreich-2008"/>

In the [[2000 United States presidential election|2000 presidential election]], [[Joe Lieberman]] became the first American Jew to run for national office on a major-party ticket when he was chosen as Democratic presidential candidate [[Al Gore]]'s vice-presidential nominee. The elections of 2000 and 2004 saw continued Jewish support for Democrats [[Al Gore]] and [[John Kerry]], a Catholic, remain in the high- to mid-70% range, while Republican [[George W. Bush]]'s re-election in 2004 saw Jewish support rise from 19% to 24%.<ref name="Helmreich-2008"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Results |title=CNN.com Election 2004 |url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html |website=www.cnn.com |language=en |access-date=November 9, 2006 |archive-date=May 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514025413/http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[2008 United States presidential election|2008 presidential election]], 78% of Jews voted for [[Barack Obama]], who became the first [[African Americans|African American]] to be elected president.<ref>[https://www.jta.org/2008/11/05/news-opinion/politics/op-ed-why-jews-voted-for-obama OP-ED: Why Jews voted for Obama] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118070008/http://www.jta.org/2008/11/05/news-opinion/politics/op-ed-why-jews-voted-for-obama |date=January 18, 2016 }} by Marc Stanley, [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] (JTA), November 5, 2008 (retrieved on December 6, 2008).</ref> Additionally, 83% of white Jews voted for Obama compared to just 34% of white Protestants and 47% of white Catholics, though 67% of those identifying with another religion and 71% identifying with no religion also voted Obama.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p2|title=Local Exit Polls – Election Center 2008 – Elections & Politics from CNN.com|access-date=February 15, 2015|archive-date=June 5, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100605132422/http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p2|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the February [[Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016|2016 New Hampshire Democratic Primary]], [[Bernie Sanders]] became the first Jewish candidate to win a state's presidential primary election.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/us/politics/bernie-sanders-jewish.html |title=As Bernie Sanders Makes History, Jews Wonder What It Means |first=Nicholas |last=Confessore |date=February 10, 2016 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=February 5, 2017 |archive-date=July 22, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722055109/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/us/politics/bernie-sanders-jewish.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

For congressional and senate races, since 1968, American Jews have voted about 70–80% for Democrats;<ref>{{cite journal |last=F. Weisberg |first=Herbert |title=Reconsidering Jewish Presidential Voting Statistics |journal=Contemporary Jewry |doi=10.1007/s12397-012-9093-z |volume=32 |issue=3 |year=2012 |pages=215–236 |s2cid=143580353}}</ref> this support increased to 87% for Democratic House candidates during the 2006 elections.<ref>{{cite web |title=2006 EXIT POLLS |url=http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html |publisher=CNN |access-date=4 January 2014 |archive-date=April 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130425170634/http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:David Levy Yulee - Brady-Handy.jpg|thumb|right|[[David Levy Yulee]]]]

The first American Jew to serve in the Senate was [[David Levy Yulee]], who was Florida's first Senator, serving 1845–1851 and again 1855–1861.

There were 19 Jews among the 435 US Representatives at the start of the [[112th United States Congress|112th Congress]];<ref>{{cite news |last=Kampeas |first=Ron |title=The Chosen: Jewish members in the 112th U.S. Congress |url=https://www.jta.org/2010/11/03/news-opinion/politics/the-chosen-jewish-members-in-the-112th-u-s-congress |access-date=4 January 2014 |newspaper=[[Jewish Telegraphic Agency]] |date=November 3, 2010 |archive-date=January 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108082014/http://www.jta.org/2010/11/03/news-opinion/politics/the-chosen-jewish-members-in-the-112th-u-s-congress |url-status=live }}</ref> 26 Democrats and 1 ([[Eric Cantor]]) Republican. While many of these Members represented coastal cities and suburbs with significant Jewish populations, others did not (for instance, [[Kim Schrier]] of Seattle, Washington; [[John Yarmuth]] of Louisville, Kentucky; and [[David Kustoff]] and [[Steve Cohen (politician)|Steve Cohen]] of Memphis, Tennessee). The total number of Jews serving in the House of Representatives declined from 31 in the [[111th United States Congress|111th Congress]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17558/Jews_in_the_111th_Congress/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812053407/http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/17558/Jews_in_the_111th_Congress/|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 12, 2011 |title=Jews in the 111th Congress - The Jewish Exponent |date=August 12, 2011}}</ref> [[John Adler]] of New Jersey, [[Steve Kagan]] of Wisconsin, [[Alan Grayson]] of Florida, and [[Ron Klein]] of Florida all lost their re-election bids, [[Rahm Emanuel]] resigned to become the President's Chief of Staff; and [[Paul Hodes]] of New Hampshire did not run for re-election but instead (unsuccessfully) sought his state's open Senate seat. [[David Cicilline]] of Rhode Island was the only Jewish American who was newly elected to the 112th Congress; he had been the Mayor of [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]]. The number declined when [[Jane Harman]], [[Anthony Weiner]], and [[Gabby Giffords]] resigned during the 112th Congress.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

{{As of|2014|January}}, there were five openly gay men serving in Congress, and two are Jewish: [[Jared Polis]] of Colorado and [[David Cicilline]] of Rhode Island.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In November 2008, Cantor was elected as the [[Party whips of the United States House of Representatives|House Minority Whip]], the first Jewish Republican to be selected for the position.<ref>[https://www.jta.org/2008/11/25/news-opinion/politics/what-is-the-future-for-republican-jews What is the future for Republican Jews?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094437/http://www.jta.org/2008/11/25/news-opinion/politics/what-is-the-future-for-republican-jews |date=January 9, 2016 }} by Eric Fingerhut, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), November 25, 2008.</ref> In 2011, he became the first Jewish [[House Majority Leader]]. He served as Majority Leader until 2014, when he resigned shortly after his loss in the Republican primary election for his House seat.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

In 2013, Pew found that 70% of American Jews identified with or leaned toward the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], with just 22% identifying with or leaning toward the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/jewish/|title=Jews - Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics|newspaper=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|access-date=April 5, 2019|archive-date=April 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408175102/https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/jewish/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[114th United States Congress|114th Congress]] included 10 Jews<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-senators-in-the-united-states |title=Jewish Senators in the United States |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org |access-date=August 19, 2020 |archive-date=April 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422232353/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-senators-in-the-united-states |url-status=live }}</ref> among 100 [[United States Senate|U.S. Senators]]: nine Democrats ([[Michael Bennet]], [[Richard Blumenthal]], [[Brian Schatz]], [[Benjamin Cardin]], [[Dianne Feinstein]], [[Jon Ossoff]], [[Jacky Rosen]], [[Charles Schumer]], [[Ron Wyden]]), and [[Bernie Sanders]], who became a Democrat to [[Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign|run for President]] but returned to the Senate as an Independent.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/07/26/bernie-sanders-to-return-to-senate-as-an-independent/ |title=Bernie Sanders to Return to Senate as an Independent |work=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=July 26, 2016 |access-date=September 19, 2016 |first=Peter |last=Nicholas |archive-date=September 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160918081045/http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/07/26/bernie-sanders-to-return-to-senate-as-an-independent/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the [[118th United States Congress|118th Congress]], there are 28 Jewish US Representatives.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-representatives-in-the-united-states |title=Jewish Members of U.S. Congress: House of Representatives (1845-Present) |publisher=Jewish Virtual Library |access-date=August 19, 2020 |archive-date=April 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422232341/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-representatives-in-the-united-states |url-status=live }}</ref> 25 are Democrats and the other 3 are Republicans. All 10 Jewish Senators are Democrats.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/03/5-facts-about-the-religious-makeup-of-the-116th-congress/ |title=5 facts about the religious makeup of the 116th Congress |last=Sandstrom |first=Aleksandra |date=January 3, 2019 |access-date=January 3, 2019 |newspaper=Pew Research Center |archive-date=January 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190103174231/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/03/5-facts-about-the-religious-makeup-of-the-116th-congress/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Additionally, six members of President [[Joe Biden]]'s cabinet were Jewish ([[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Antony Blinken]], [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Merrick Garland]], [[Director of National Intelligence|DNI]] [[Avril Haines]], [[White House Chief of Staff]] [[Ron Klain]], [[United States Secretary of Homeland Security|Homeland Security Secretary]] [[Alejandro Mayorkas]], and [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Treasury Secretary]] [[Janet Yellen]]).<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Kornbluh |first1=Jacob |author-link=Jacob Kornbluh |date=January 18, 2021 |title=Enough for a minyan: A Jewish Who's Who of Biden's Cabinet-to-Be |url=https://forward.com/news/462330/enough-for-a-minyan-a-jewish-whos-who-of-bidens-cabinet-to-be/ |access-date=2021-01-26 |website=The Forward |language=en-US |archive-date=April 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415085550/https://forward.com/news/462330/enough-for-a-minyan-a-jewish-whos-who-of-bidens-cabinet-to-be/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Participation in civil rights movements===
{{See also|Jews in the civil rights movement}}

Members of the American Jewish community have included prominent participants in [[civil rights]] movements. In the mid-20th century, there were American Jews who were among the most active participants in the [[Civil Rights Movement]] and [[feminist]] movements. A number of American Jews have also been active figures in the struggle for [[LGBT rights in the United States|gay rights in America]].

[[Joachim Prinz]], president of the [[American Jewish Congress]], stated the following when he spoke from the podium at the Lincoln Memorial during the famous [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom|March on Washington]] on August 28, 1963: "As Jews we bring to this great demonstration, in which thousands of us proudly participate, a twofold experience—one of the spirit and one of our history.{{nbsp}}... From our Jewish historic experience of three and a half thousand years we say: Our ancient history began with [[slavery]] and the yearning for freedom. During the Middle Ages my people lived for a thousand years in the ghettos of Europe.{{nbsp}}... It is for these reasons that it is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is, above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions, a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joachimprinz.com/civilrights.htm |title=Joachim Prinz March on Washington Speech |publisher=joachimprinz.com |access-date=May 25, 2008 |archive-date=March 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311082528/http://www.joachimprinz.com/civilrights.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crmvet.org/info/mowprog.htm |title=Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement – March on Washington |publisher=Civil Rights Movement Archive |access-date=June 2, 2008 |archive-date=July 23, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723183053/http://www.crmvet.org/info/mowprog.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===The Holocaust===
During the [[World War II]] period, the American Jewish community was bitterly and deeply divided and as a result, it was unable to form a united front. Most Jews who had previously emigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe supported [[Zionism]], because they believed that a return to their ancestral homeland was the only solution to the [[Persecution of Jews|persecution]] and the [[The Holocaust|genocide]] which were then occurring across Europe. One important development was the sudden conversion of many American Jewish leaders to Zionism late in the war.<ref>Henry L. Feingold, ''A Time for Searching: Entering the Mainstream, 1920–1945'' (1992), pp. 225–65</ref> [[The Holocaust]] was largely ignored by American media as it was happening. Reporters and editors largely did not believe the stories of atrocities which were coming out of Europe.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Korman |first1=Gerd |year=1987 |title=Mass Murder Hides Holocaust: Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust, 1933–1945 by Deborah E. Lipstadt |journal=Reviews in American History |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=474–479 |jstor=2702047 |doi=10.2307/2702047}}</ref>

[[The Holocaust]] had a profound impact on the Jewish community in the United States, especially after 1960 as Holocaust education improved, as Jews tried to comprehend what had happened during it, and especially as they tried to commemorate it and grapple with it when they looked to the future. [[Abraham Joshua Heschel]] summarized this dilemma when he attempted to understand [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]]: "To try to answer is to commit a supreme blasphemy. Israel enables us to bear the agony of Auschwitz without radical despair, to sense a ray [of] God's radiance in the jungles of history."<ref>Staub (2004) p. 80</ref>

===International affairs===
[[File:Winston Churchill and Bernard Baruch talk in car in front of Baruch's home, 14 April 1961.jpg|thumb|[[Winston Churchill]] and [[Bernard Baruch]] converse in the back seat of a car in front of Baruch's home.]]

[[Zionism]] became a well-organized movement in the U.S. with the involvement of leaders such as [[Louis Brandeis]] and the promise of a reconstituted homeland in the [[Balfour Declaration]].<ref>Melvin I. Urofsky, ''Louis D. Brandeis: A Life'' (2009) p. 515</ref> Jewish Americans organized large-scale boycotts of German merchandise during the 1930s to protest [[Nazi Germany]]. [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s leftist domestic policies received strong Jewish support in the 1930s and 1940s, as did his anti-Nazi foreign policy and his promotion of the [[United Nations]]. Support for political Zionism in this period, although growing in influence, remained a distinctly minority opinion among Jews in the United States until about 1944–45, when the early rumors and reports of the systematic mass murder of the Jews in [[Nazi-occupied countries]] became publicly known with the liberation of the [[Nazi concentration camps]] and [[extermination camp]]s. The founding of the modern State of [[Israel]] in 1948 and recognition thereof by the American government<ref>{{Cite web |title=Milestones in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations - Office of the Historian |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel |access-date=2025-06-09 |website=history.state.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-28 |title=Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel (1948) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/press-release-announcing-us-recognition-of-israel |access-date=2025-06-09 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref> (following objections by American isolationists) was an indication of both its intrinsic support and its response to learning the horrors of the Holocaust.

This attention was based on a natural affinity toward and support for Israel in the Jewish community. The attention is also because of the ensuing and unresolved conflicts regarding the founding of Israel and the role for the Zionist movement going forward. A lively internal debate commenced, following the [[Six-Day War]]. The American Jewish community was divided over whether or not they agreed with the Israeli response; the great majority came to accept the war as necessary.<ref>Staub (2004)</ref> Similar tensions were aroused by the 1977 election of [[Menachem Begin]] and the rise of [[Revisionist Zionism|Revisionist]] policies, the [[1982 Lebanon War]] and the continuing administrative governance of portions of the [[West Bank]] territory.<ref>Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht. "The Fate of the Jews, A people torn between Israeli Power and Jewish Ethics". Times Books, 1983. {{ISBN|0-8129-1060-5}}</ref> Disagreement over Israel's 1993 acceptance of the [[Oslo Accords]] caused a further split among American Jews;<ref name="Seliktar-2007">{{cite book |first=Ofira |last=Seliktar |chapter=The Changing Identity of American Jews, Israel and the Peace Process|editor-first=Danny|editor-last=Ben-Moshe|editor2-first=Zohar|editor2-last=Segev |title=Israel, the Diaspora, and Jewish Identity|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1bXETKMOI1cC&pg=PA126|access-date=January 20, 2016 |year=2007 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-84519-189-4 |page=[https://archive.org/details/israeldiasporaje0000unse/page/126 126] |quote=The 1993 Oslo Agreement made this split in the Jewish community official. Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin's handshake with Yasir Arafat during the September 13 White House ceremony elicited dramatically opposed reactions among American Jews. To the liberal universalists the accord was highly welcome news. As one commentator put it, after a year of tension between Israel and the United States, "there was an audible sigh of relief from American and Jewish liberals. Once again, they could support Israel as good Jews, committed liberals, and loyal Americans." The community "could embrace the Jewish state, without compromising either its liberalism or its patriotism". <br />However, to some right wing Jews, the peace treaty was worrisome. From their perspective, Oslo was not just an affront to the sanctity of how they interpreted their culture, but also a personal threat to the lives and livelihood in the West Bank and Gaza, territory which was historically known as "Judea and Samaria". For these Jews, such as Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist organization of America, and Norman Podhoretz, the editor of ''Commentary'', the peace treaty amounted to an appeasement of Palestinian terrorism. They and others repeatedly warned that the newly established Palestinian Authority (PA) would pose a serious security threat to Israel. |url=https://archive.org/details/israeldiasporaje0000unse/page/126}}</ref> this mirrored a similar split among Israelis and led to a parallel rift within the [[Israel lobby in the United States|pro-Israel lobby]], and even ultimately to the United States for its "blind" support of Israel.<ref name="Seliktar-2007"/> Abandoning any pretense of unity, both segments began to develop separate advocacy and lobbying organizations. The liberal supporters of the [[Oslo Accord]] worked through [[Americans for Peace Now]] (APN), [[Israel Policy Forum]] (IPF) and other groups friendly to the Labour government in Israel. They tried to assure Congress that American Jewry was behind the Accord and defended the efforts of the administration to help the fledgling [[Palestinian Authority]] (PA), including promises of financial aid. In a battle for public opinion, IPF commissioned a number of polls showing widespread support for Oslo among the community.

In opposition to Oslo, an alliance of conservative groups, such as the [[Zionist Organization of America]] (ZOA), [[Americans For a Safe Israel]] (AFSI), and the [[Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs]] (JINSA) tried to counterbalance the power of the liberal Jews. On October 10, 1993, the opponents of the Palestinian-Israeli accord organized at the [[American Leadership Conference for a Safe Israel]], where they warned that Israel was prostrating itself before "an armed thug", and predicted and that the "thirteenth of September is a date that will live in infamy". Some Zionists also criticized, often in harsh language, Prime Minister [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and [[Shimon Peres]], his foreign minister and chief architect of the peace accord. With the community so strongly divided, AIPAC and the Presidents Conference, which was tasked with representing the national Jewish consensus, struggled to keep the increasingly antagonistic discourse civil. Reflecting these tensions, [[Abraham Foxman]] from the [[Anti-Defamation League]] was asked by the conference to apologize for criticizing ZOA's [[Morton Klein]]. The conference, which under its organizational guidelines was in charge of moderating communal discourse, reluctantly censured some Orthodox spokespeople for attacking [[Colette Avital]], the Labor-appointed Israeli [[Consul General]] in New York and an ardent supporter of that version of a peace process.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Scott |last=Lasensky|editor-first=Barry|editor-last=Rubin |url=http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue1/jv6n1a7.html |title=Underwriting Peace in the Middle East: U.S. Foreign Policy and the Limits of Economic Inducements |journal=Middle East Review of International Affairs |volume=6 |issue=1 |date=March 2002|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090510071636/http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2002/issue1/jv6n1a7.html|archive-date=May 10, 2009 |quote=The Palestinian aid effort was certainly not helped by the heated debate that quickly developed inside the Beltway. Not only was the Israeli electorate divided on the Oslo accords, but so, too, was the American Jewish community, particularly at the leadership level and among the major New York and Washington-based public interest groups. American Jews opposed to Oslo joined Israelis "who brought their domestic issues to Washington" and together they pursued a campaign that focused most of its attention on Congress and the aid program. The dynamic was new to Washington. The Administration, the Rabin-Peres government, and some American Jewish groups teamed on one side while Israeli opposition groups and anti-Oslo American Jewish organizations pulled Congress in the other direction.}}</ref>

==Demographics==
{{Further|Jews in New York City}}
[[File:American Jews by state.svg|thumb|upright=1.8|Jewish Americans by state according to the American Jewish Yearbook, 2020 and the US Census Bureau]]

As of 2020, the American Jewish population is, [[Jewish population by country|depending on the method of identification]], either the largest in the world, or the second-largest in the world (after [[Israel]]). Precise population figures vary depending on whether Jews are accounted for based on [[Halakha|halakhic]] considerations, or secular, [[Law of Return|political]] and [[Who is a Jew?#Other non-religious definitions|ancestral identification]] factors. There were about four million adherents of Judaism in the US as of 2001, approximately 1.4% of the US population. According to the [[Jewish Agency]], for the year 2023 Israel was home to 7.2 million Jews (46% of the world's Jewish population), while the United States contained 6.3 million (40.1%).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Population Rises to 15.7 Million Worldwide {{!}} The Jewish Agency |url=https://www.jewishagency.org/jewish-population-rises-to-15-7-million-worldwide-in-2023/ |access-date=2024-06-09 |website=www.jewishagency.org|date=September 19, 2023 }}</ref>

According to [[Gallup, Inc.|Gallup]] and [[Pew Research Center]] findings, "at maximum 2.2% of the US adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/265898/american-jews-politics-israel.aspx |title=American Jews, Politics and Israel |last=Newport |first=Frank |date=2019-08-27 |website=gallup.com |access-date=2019-09-09 |quote=A 2013 Pew Research Center analysis of Jewish identification showed that in addition to the 1.8% of U.S. adults who identified their religion as Jewish (very similar to Gallup's estimate), another small percentage of Americans who did not initially say their religion was Jewish identified their secular heritage as Jewish. According to this research, at maximum 2.2% of the U.S. adult population has some basis for Jewish self-identification. |archive-date=September 5, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905175756/https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/265898/american-jews-politics-israel.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2020, the demographers [[Arnold Dashefsky]] and Ira M. Sheskin estimated in the [[American Jewish Yearbook]] that the American Jewish population totaled 7.15 million, making up 2.17% of the country's 329.5 million inhabitants.<ref name="Jewish American Population" /><ref>{{cite news |title=Population, Population Change, and Estimated Components of Population Change: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2020 (NST-EST2020-alldata) |url=http://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/technical-documentation/research/evaluation-estimates.html |newspaper=The United States Census Bureau |publisher=United States Census Bureau |access-date=22 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222173239/https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/technical-documentation/research/evaluation-estimates.html |archive-date=December 22, 2020 |url-status=live  }}</ref> In the same year, the American Jewish population was estimated at 7.6 million people, accounting for 2.4% of the total US population, by other organization. This includes 4.9 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.2 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.6 million Jewish children.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Brandeis study estimates 7.6 million Jews living in U.S. |last1=Forman |first1=Ethan |url=https://jewishjournal.org/2021/04/22/new-brandeis-study-estimates-7-6-million-jews-living-in-u-s/ |access-date=26 January 2022 |agency=Jewish Journal |publisher=Jewish Journal |archive-date=January 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220126210210/https://jewishjournal.org/2021/04/22/new-brandeis-study-estimates-7-6-million-jews-living-in-u-s/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to a 2020 study by the [[Pew Research Center]], the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7.5 million people, this includes 5.8 million Jewish adults.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/|title=Jewish Americans in 2020|date=May 11, 2021 |publisher=Pew Research Center|quote=In absolute numbers, the 2020 Jewish population estimate is approximately 7.5 million, including 5.8 million adults and 1.8 million children (rounded to the closest 100,000).}}</ref> The study found that the median age of the American Jewish population is 49, and around 18% of American Jewish are under the age of 30, while 49% of American Jewish are ages 50 and older.<ref name="Pew-2021a">{{cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/|title=Jewish Americans in 2020|date=May 11, 2021 |publisher=Pew Research Center|quote=}}</ref> The study found also that 9% of American Jewish identify as [[LGBT]].<ref name="Pew-2021a"/> 

The ''American Jewish Yearbook population survey'' had placed the number of American Jews at 6.4 million, or approximately 2.1% of the total population. This figure is significantly higher than the previous large scale survey estimate, conducted by the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population estimates, which estimated 5.2 million Jews. A 2007 study released by the [[Steinhardt Social Research Institute]] (SSRI) at [[Brandeis University]] presents evidence to suggest that both these figures may be underestimations with a potential 7.0–7.4 million Americans of Jewish descent.<ref>{{cite web|title=Brandeis University Study Finds that American-Jewish Population is Significantly Larger than Previously Thought|url=http://download.2164.net/PDF-newsletters/jewishpopulation.pdf|access-date=30 November 2013|archive-date=October 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002122538/http://download.2164.net/PDF-newsletters/jewishpopulation.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Those higher estimates were however arrived at by including all non-Jewish family members and household members, rather than surveyed individuals.<ref name="Sergio DellaPergola 2012. pp. 212–283">Sergio DellaPergola. "World Jewish Population, 2012." The American Jewish Year Book (2012) (Dordrecht: Springer) pp. 212–283</ref> In a 2019 study by [[Jews of Color Initiative]] it was found that approximately 12-15% of Jews in the United States, about 1,000,000 of 7,200,000 identify as multiracial and [[Jews of color]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Yellin |first=Deena |title=Subjected to anti-Semitism and racism, Jews of color feel 'stuck in the middle' |url=https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/local/2020/08/27/jewish-people-of-color-grapple-with-bigotry-two-fronts/5444526002/ |access-date=2021-02-24 |website=North Jersey Media Group |language=en-US |archive-date=September 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922020243/https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/local/2020/08/27/jewish-people-of-color-grapple-with-bigotry-two-fronts/5444526002/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Dolsten |first=Josefin |title=US Jewish recognition of Jews of color took decades of sweat, blood and tears |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-jewish-recognition-of-jews-of-color-took-decades-of-sweat-blood-and-tears/ |access-date=2021-02-24 |website=[[The Times of Israel]] |language=en-US |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126163304/https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-jewish-recognition-of-jews-of-color-took-decades-of-sweat-blood-and-tears/ |url-status=live |issn=0040-7909}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=How Many Jews of Color Are There? – eJewish Philanthropy |url=https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/how-many-jews-of-color-are-there/ |access-date=2021-02-24 |website=ejewishphilanthropy.com |date=May 17, 2020 |archive-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301061555/https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/how-many-jews-of-color-are-there/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-05-16|title=PRESS RELEASE: Population of Jews of Color is Increasing in U.S., Despite Undercounting in Population Studies {{!}} Leichtag Foundation|url=https://leichtag.org/press-release-population-of-jews-of-color-is-increasing-in-u-s-despite-undercounting-in-population-studies/|access-date=2021-02-24|website=leichtag.org|language=en-US|archive-date=February 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222025933/https://leichtag.org/press-release-population-of-jews-of-color-is-increasing-in-u-s-despite-undercounting-in-population-studies/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Kelman |first1=Dr. Ari Y |last2=Tapper |first2=Dr. Aaron Hahn |last3=Fonseca |first3=Ms. Izabel |last4=Saperstein |first4=Dr. Aliya |date=May 2019 |title=An Analysis of American Jewish Population Studies, with a Focus on Jews of Color |url=https://jewsofcolorfieldbuilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Counting-Inconsistencies-052119.pdf |website=The Jews of Color Initiative |access-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-date=February 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213130219/https://jewsofcolorfieldbuilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Counting-Inconsistencies-052119.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The overall population of Americans of Jewish descent is demographically characterized by an aging population composition and low fertility rates significantly below generational replacement.<ref name="Sergio DellaPergola 2012. pp. 212–283"/> However, the [[Orthodox Jewish]] population, concentrated in the [[Northeastern United States]], has fertility rates when taken alone which are significantly higher than both generational replacement and that of the average U.S. population.

The [[National Jewish Population Survey]] of 1990 asked 4.5 million adult Jews to identify their denomination. The national total showed 38% were affiliated with the [[Reform Judaism|Reform tradition]], 35% were [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]], 6% were [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]], 1% were [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionists]], 10% linked themselves to some other tradition, and 10% said they are "just Jewish."<ref>{{cite book |first=Jack |last=Wertheimer |title=Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U_nEoAZ6ffgC&pg=PA68 |year=2002 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |page=68 |isbn=9780813532066 |access-date=October 16, 2015 |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915111143/https://books.google.com/books?id=U_nEoAZ6ffgC&pg=PA68 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2013, Pew Research's Jewish population survey found that 35% of American Jews identified as Reform, 18% as Conservative, 10% as Orthodox, 6% who identified with other sects, and 30% did not identify with a denomination.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/ |title=A Portrait of Jewish Americans |newspaper=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |publisher=pewforum.org |access-date=June 23, 2017 |date=October 2013 |archive-date=September 15, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180915231110/http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Pew's 2020 poll found that 37% affiliated with Reform Judaism, 17% with Conservative Judaism, and 9% with Orthodox Judaism. Young Jews are more likely to identify as Orthodox or as unaffiliated compared to older members of the Jewish community.<ref name="pew-2020"/>

Many Jews are concentrated in the Northeastern United States, particularly around [[New York City]]. The world's largest [[Hanukkah menorah|menorah]] is lit annually at [[Grand Army Plaza, Manhattan|Grand Army Plaza]] in [[Manhattan]], while the largest menorah in [[New Jersey]] is similarly celebrated in [[Monroe Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey|Monroe Township]], [[Middlesex County, New Jersey|Middlesex County]]. Many Jews also live in [[South Florida]], [[Los Angeles]], and other large metropolitan areas, like [[Chicago]], [[San Francisco]], or [[Atlanta]]. The metropolitan areas of New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami contain nearly one quarter of the world's Jews<ref name=metroareas>{{cite news |url=http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_judaism.html |title=The Largest Jewish Communities |newspaper=adherents.com|access-date=November 8, 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081016132750/http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_judaism.html| archive-date= October 16, 2008 | url-status= usurped}}</ref> and the New York City metropolitan area itself contains around a quarter of all Jews living in the United States.

===By state===
According to a study published by demographers and sociologists Ira M. Sheskin and [[Arnold Dashefsky]] in the American Jewish Yearbook, the distribution of the Jewish population in 2024 was as follows:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jewish Population in the United States by State |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-in-the-united-states-by-state |access-date=2024-12-01 |website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Jewish Population by State (2024)
|-
! !! State !! Jewish Population (2024) !! Percent Jewish
|-
| - || {{flag|Washington, D.C.}} || 57,300 || 8.44%
|-
| 1 || {{flag|New York}} || 1,672,025 || 8.54%
|-
| 2 || {{flag|New Jersey}} || 581,200 || 6.26%
|-
| 3 || {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 318,450 || 4.55%
|-
| 4 || {{flag|Maryland}} || 250,860 || 4.06%
|-
| 5 || {{flag|Connecticut}} || 141,500 || 3.91%
|-
| 6 || {{flag|Florida}} || 753,865 || 3.33%
|-
| 7 || {{flag|California}} || 1,259,315 || 3.23%
|-
| 8 || {{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 347,850 || 2.68%
|-
| 9 || {{flag|Nevada}} || 85,330 || 2.67%
|-
| 10 || {{flag|Illinois}} || 334,180 || 2.66%
|-
| 11 || {{flag|Colorado}} || 117,900 || 2.01%
|-
| 12 || {{flag|Vermont}} || 12,700 || 1.96%
|-
| 13 || {{flag|Virginia}} || 165,260 || 1.90%
|-
| 14 || {{flag|Arizona}} || 132,360 || 1.78%
|-
| 15 || {{flag|Rhode Island}} || 18,950 || 1.73%
|-
| 16 || {{flag|Delaware}} || 17,400 || 1.69%
|-
| 17 || {{flag|Oregon}} || 70,105 || 1.66%
|-
| 18 || {{flag|Ohio}} || 177,295 || 1.50%
|-
| 19 || {{flag|New Hampshire}} || 20,900 || 1.49%
|-
| 20 || {{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}} || 148,555 || 1.35%
|-
| 21 || {{flag|Maine}} || 18,460 || 1.32%
|-
| 22 || {{flag|Michigan}} || 129,225 || 1.29%
|-
| 23 || {{flag|Minnesota}} || 68,855 || 1.20%
|-
| 24 || {{flag|Missouri}} || 71,840 || 1.16%
|-
| 25 || {{flag|Washington}} || 88,530 || 1.13%
|-
| 26 || {{flag|New Mexico}} || 19,855 || 0.94%
|-
| 27 || {{flag|North Carolina}} || 99,795 || 0.92%
|-
| 28 || {{flag|Alaska}} || 6,510 || 0.89%
|-
| 29 || {{flag|Wisconsin}} || 48,515 || 0.82%
|-
| 30 || {{flag|Texas}} || 220,685 || 0.72%
|-
| 31 || {{flag|Hawaii}} || 9,900 || 0.69%
|-
| 32 || {{flag|South Carolina}} || 36,210 || 0.67%
|-
| 33 || {{flag|Kansas}} || 17,590 || 0.60%
|-
| 34 || {{flag|Nebraska}} || 10,230 || 0.52%
|-
| 35 || {{flag|Louisiana}} || 19,870 || 0.43%
|-
| 36 || {{flag|Tennessee}} || 29,775 || 0.42%
|-
| 37 || {{flag|Indiana}} || 31,205 || 0.40%
|-
| 38 || {{flag|Kentucky}} || 18,225 || 0.40%
|-
| 39 || {{flag|Utah}} || 13,030 || 0.38%
|-
| 40 || {{flag|Wyoming}} || 2,210 || 0.38%
|-
| 41 || {{flag|Alabama}} || 18,080 || 0.35%
|-
| 42 || {{flag|Idaho}} || 5,920 || 0.30%
|-
| 43 || {{flag|Montana}} || 3,170 || 0.28%
|-
| 44 || {{flag|Oklahoma}} || 8,880 || 0.22%
|-
| 45 || {{flag|Iowa}} || 6,385 || 0.20%
|-
| 46 || {{flag|Arkansas}} || 5,090 || 0.17%
|-
| 47 || {{flag|West Virginia}} || 2,940 || 0.17%
|-
| 48 || {{flag|North Dakota}} || 910 || 0.12%
|-
| 49 || {{flag|Mississippi}} || 2,885 || 0.10%
|-
| 50 || {{flag|South Dakota}} || 765 || 0.08%
|-
| || '''Total''' || 7,698,840 || 2.30%
|}

===Significant Jewish population centers===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+'''Metropolitan areas with largest Jewish populations (2015)'''
! colspan=2 | Rank
! rowspan=2 | Metro area
! colspan=2 | Number of Jews
|-
! ([[World Jewish Congress|WJC]])<ref name=metroareas/>
! (ARDA)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thearda.com/QuickLists/QuickList_195c.asp |title=Judaism (estimated) Metro Areas (2000) |access-date=December 1, 2009 |publisher=The Association of Religion Data Archives |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091123122848/http://www.thearda.com/QuickLists/QuickList_195c.asp |archive-date=November 23, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=mdy}}</ref>
! (WJC)
! ([[Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies|ASARB]])
|-
| align=center | 1
| align=center | 1
| [[New York metropolitan area|New York City]]
| align=right |1,750,000
| align=right |2,028,200
|-
| align=center | 2
| align=center | 3
|[[South Florida metropolitan area|Miami]]
| align=right | 535,000
| align=right | 337,000
|-
| align=center | 3
| align=center | 2
| [[Greater Los Angeles Area|Los Angeles]]
| align=right | 490,000
| align=right | 662,450
|-
| align=center | 4
| align=center | 4
| [[Delaware Valley|Philadelphia]]
| align=right | 254,000
| align=right | 285,950
|-
| align=center | 5
| align=center | 6
| [[Chicago metropolitan area|Chicago]]
| align=right | 248,000
| align=right | 265,400
|-
| align=center | 8
| align=center | 8
| [[San Francisco Bay Area]]
| align=right | 210,000
| align=right | 218,700
|-
| align=center | 6
| align=center | 7
| [[Greater Boston|Boston]]
| align=right| 208,000
| align=right| 261,100
|-
| align=center | 8
| align=center | 5
| [[Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area|Baltimore–Washington]]
| align=right| 165,000
| align=right| 276,445
|}
[[File:Top of Rock Cropped.jpg|thumb|The [[New York metropolitan area|New York City metropolitan area]] is home to by far the largest Jewish American population.]]
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+States with the highest percentage of Jews (2015)<ref name="metroareas"/>
! Rank
! State
! Percent <br /> Jewish
|-
| align=center | 1
| [[New York (state)|New York]]
| align=right | 8.91
|-
| align=center | 2
|[[New Jersey]]
| align=right | 5.86
|-
| align=center | 3
| [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]]
| align=right | 4.25
|-
| align=center | 4
| [[Massachusetts]]
| align=right | 4.07
|-
| align=center | 5
| [[Maryland]]
| align=right | 3.99
|-
| align=center | 6
| [[Florida]]
| align=right | 3.28
|-
| align=center | 7
| [[Connecticut]]
| align=right| 3.28
|-
| align=center | 8
| [[California]]
| align=right| 3.18
|-
| align=center | 9
| [[Nevada]]
| align=right| 2.69
|-
| align=center | 10
| [[Illinois]]
| align=right| 2.31
|-
| align=center | 11
| [[Pennsylvania]]
| align=right| 2.29
|}

The [[New York metropolitan area|New York City metropolitan area]] is the second-largest Jewish population center in the world after the [[Tel Aviv metropolitan area]] in Israel.<ref name=metroareas/> Several other major cities have large Jewish communities, including [[Los Angeles]], [[Miami]], [[History of the Jews in Baltimore|Baltimore]], [[Boston]], [[Chicago]], [[San Francisco]] and [[Philadelphia]].<ref>{{cite report |editor1-last=Dashefsky |editor1-first=Arnold |editor-link1=Arnold Dashefsky |editor2-last=Della-Pergola |editor2-first=Sergio |editor-link2=Sergio Della Pergola |editor3-last=Sheskin |editor3-first=Ira |date=2021 |title=World Jewish Population|url=https://www.jewishdatabank.org/api/download/?studyId=1185&mediaId=bjdb%5c2021_World_Jewish_Population_AJYB_(DellaPergola)_DB_Public.pdf|publisher=[[Berman Jewish DataBank]]|access-date=4 September 2023}}</ref> In many metropolitan areas, the majority of Jewish families live in suburban areas. The [[Greater Phoenix]] area was home to about 83,000 Jews in 2002, and has been rapidly growing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishphoenix.org/local_includes/downloads/9038.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120513181517/http://www.jewishphoenix.org/local_includes/downloads/9038.pdf |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2012-05-13 |title=2002 Greater Phoenix Jewish Community Study}}</ref> The greatest Jewish population on a per-capita basis for incorporated areas in the US are [[Kiryas Joel]] Village, New York (greater than 93% based on language spoken in home),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mla.org/census_data_results&state_id=36&place_id=39853 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923112824/http://www.mla.org/census_data_results%26state_id%3D36%26place_id%3D39853 |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 23, 2006 |title=Kiryas Joel, New York |publisher=Modern Language Association |access-date=December 14, 2006}}</ref> City of [[Beverly Hills, California]] (61%),<ref>{{cite book |last=Herman |first=Pini |title=Needs of the Community: A Classification of Needs & Services for the L.A. Jewish Community |year=2000 |publisher=Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles |location=Los Angeles |page=36 |url=http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=11686 |access-date=January 3, 2013 |archive-date=January 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116072348/http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=11686 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Lakewood Township, New Jersey|Lakewood Township]], New Jersey (59%),<ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish Population in the United States, 2010 |url=http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=2921 |publisher=Ira Sheskin University of Miami, Arnold Dashefsky University of Connecticut |access-date=8 November 2013 |archive-date=December 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217070116/http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=2921 |url-status=live }}</ref> with two of the incorporated areas, Kiryas Joel and Lakewood, having a high concentration of Haredi Jews, and one incorporated area, Beverly Hills, having a high concentration of non-Orthodox Jews.

The phenomenon of Israeli migration to the US is often termed ''[[Yerida]]''. The [[Israeli American|Israeli immigrant community in America]] is less widespread. The significant Israeli immigrant communities in the United States are in the New York City metropolitan area, Los Angeles, Miami, and Chicago.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gold |first1=Steven |author-link=Steven J. Gold |last2=Phillips |first2=Bruce |title=Israelis in the United States |journal=American Jewish Yearbook |volume=96 |pages=51–101 |year=1996 |url=http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1996_3_SpecialArticles.pdf |access-date=May 8, 2008 |archive-date=May 28, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080528123751/http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1996_3_SpecialArticles.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The [[Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development]] calculated an 'expatriate rate' of 2.9 persons per thousand, putting Israel in the mid-range of expatriate rates among the 175 [[OECD]] countries examined in 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title=Database on immigrants and expatriates:Emigration rates by country of birth (Total population) |work=Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development, Statistics Portal |url=http://www.oecd.org/document/51/0,3343,en_2825_494553_34063091_1_1_1_1,00.html |access-date=April 15, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512003030/http://www.oecd.org/document/51/0%2C3343%2Cen_2825_494553_34063091_1_1_1_1%2C00.html |archive-date=May 12, 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to the 2001 undertaking<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=83784 |title=UJC - NJPS: Demography: The Jewish Population |date=December 2, 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061202051914/http://www.ujc.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=83784|archive-date=December 2, 2006 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> of the [[National Jewish Population Survey]], 4.3 million American Jews have some sort of strong connection to the Jewish community, whether religious or cultural.

===Distribution of Jewish Americans===
According to the North American Jewish Data Bank<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=602 |title=Jewish Maps of the United States by Counties, 2011 |first=Joshua |last=Comenetz |publisher=[[Berman Jewish DataBank]] |access-date=September 10, 2017 |archive-date=June 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603025610/http://www.jewishdatabank.org/Studies/details.cfm?StudyID=602 |url-status=live }}</ref> the 104 counties and [[Independent city (United States)|independent cities]] {{as of|2011|lc=y}} with the largest Jewish communities, as a percentage of population, were:

{{srn}}
{|class="mw-datatable sortable wikitable static-row-numbers" style=text-align:right
|-class=static-row-header
! Counties !! State !! Jews !! Pct<br />Jewish
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Rockland County, New York|Rockland]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 91,300 || 29.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Brooklyn|Kings]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 561,000 || 22.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Nassau County, New York|Nassau]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 230,000 || 17.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Palm Beach County, Florida|Palm Beach]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Florida}} || 208,850 || 15.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Manhattan|New York]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 240,000 || 15.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Westchester County, New York|Westchester]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 136,000 || 14.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Montgomery County, Maryland|Montgomery]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Maryland}} || 113,000 || 11.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Ocean County, New Jersey|Ocean]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 61,500 || 10.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Marin County, California|Marin]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 26,100 || 10.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Bergen County, New Jersey|Bergen]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 92,500 || 10.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Monmouth County, New Jersey|Monmouth]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 64,000 || 10.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Broward County, Florida|Broward]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Florida}} || 170,700 || 9.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Sullivan County, New York|Sullivan]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 7,425 || 9.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Norfolk County, Massachusetts|Norfolk]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 63,600 || 9.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Queens]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 198,000 || 8.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Orange County, New York|Orange]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 32,300 || 8.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Alpine County, California|Alpine]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 101 || 8.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[San Francisco]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 65,800 || 8.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Montgomery County, Pennsylvania|Montgomery]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 64,500 || 8.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Middlesex County, Massachusetts|Middlesex]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 113,800 || 7.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Baltimore]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Maryland}} || 60,000 || 7.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Lake County, Illinois|Lake]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Illinois}} || 51,300 || 7.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Staten Island|Richmond]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 34,000 || 7.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Santa Clara County, California|Santa Clara]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 128,000 || 7.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Virginia}} || 14,000 || 6.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[San Mateo County, California|San Mateo]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 47,800 || 6.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 41,400 || 6.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Ventura County, California|Ventura]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 54,000 || 6.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Middlesex County, New Jersey|Middlesex]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 52,000 || 6.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Camden County, New Jersey|Camden]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 32,100 || 6.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Essex County, New Jersey|Essex]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 48,800 || 6.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Falls Church, Virginia|Falls Church]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Virginia}} || 750 || 6.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Howard County, Maryland|Howard]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Maryland}} || 17,200 || 6.0%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Morris County, New Jersey|Morris]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 29,700 || 6.0%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Somerset County, New Jersey|Somerset]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 19,000 || 5.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Suffolk County, New York|Suffolk]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 86,000 || 5.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Cuyahoga County, Ohio|Cuyahoga]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Ohio}} || 70,300 || 5.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}} || 50,000 || 5.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Los Angeles County, California|Los Angeles]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 518,000 || 5.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Ozaukee County, Wisconsin|Ozaukee]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Wisconsin}} || 4,500 || 5.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Fairfield County, Connecticut|Fairfield]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Connecticut}} || 47,200 || 5.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Oakland County, Michigan|Oakland]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Michigan}} || 61,200 || 5.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Baltimore County, Maryland|Baltimore]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Maryland}} || 30,900 || 5.0%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[St. Louis County, Missouri|St. Louis]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Missouri}} || 49,600 || 5.0%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Nantucket County, Massachusetts|Nantucket]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 500 || 4.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Denver County, Colorado|Denver]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Colorado}} || 28,700 || 4.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Sonoma County, California|Sonoma]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 23,100 || 4.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Union County, New Jersey|Union]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 25,800 || 4.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Washington, D.C.]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Washington, D.C.}} || 28,000 || 4.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 66,800 || 4.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Pitkin County, Colorado|Pitkin]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Colorado}} || 750 || 4.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Arapahoe County, Colorado|Arapahoe]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Colorado}} || 24,600 || 4.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Atlantic County, New Jersey|Atlantic]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 11,700 || 4.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Geauga County, Ohio|Geauga]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Ohio}} || 4,000 || 4.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Miami-Dade County, Florida|Miami-Dade]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Florida}} || 106,300 || 4.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Chester County, Pennsylvania|Chester]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 20,900 || 4.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Cook County, Illinois|Cook]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Illinois}} || 220,200 || 4.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Boulder County, Colorado|Boulder]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Colorado}} || 12,000 || 4.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Passaic County, New Jersey|Passaic]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 20,000 || 4.0%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Alameda County, California|Alameda]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 59,100 || 3.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Albany County, New York|Albany]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 12,000 || 3.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[The Bronx|Bronx]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 54,000 || 3.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Putnam County, New York|Putnam]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 3,900 || 3.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Delaware County, Pennsylvania|Delaware]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 21,000 || 3.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Clark County, Nevada|Clark]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Nevada}} || 72,300 || 3.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Suffolk County, Massachusetts|Suffolk]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 27,000 || 3.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[DeKalb County, Georgia|DeKalb]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}} || 25,000 || 3.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Virginia}} || 38,900 || 3.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Virginia}} || 4,900 || 3.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Dutchess County, New York|Dutchess]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 10,000 || 3.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Napa County, California|Napa]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 4,600 || 3.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Schenectady County, New York|Schenectady]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 5,200 || 3.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Allegheny County, Pennsylvania|Allegheny]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 40,500 || 3.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Berkshire County, Massachusetts|Berkshire]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 4,300 || 3.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Fairfax, Virginia|Fairfax]]|| style="text-align:left" | {{flag|Virginia}} || 750 || 3.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Hartford County, Connecticut|Hartford]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Connecticut}} || 29,600 || 3.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Clay County, Georgia|Clay]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}} || 101 || 3.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Ulster County, New York|Ulster]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 5,900 || 3.2%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Contra Costa County, California|Contra Costa]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 32,100 || 3.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[New Haven County, Connecticut|New Haven]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Connecticut}} || 27,100 || 3.1%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Essex County, Massachusetts|Essex]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 22,300 || 3.0%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Burlington County, New Jersey|Burlington]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 12,900 || 2.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[San Diego County, California|San Diego]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 89,000 || 2.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Sussex County, New Jersey|Sussex]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 4,300 || 2.9%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Johnson County, Kansas|Johnson]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Kansas}} || 15,000 || 2.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Orange County, California|Orange]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 83,750 || 2.8%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Hamilton County, Ohio|Hamilton]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Ohio}} || 21,400 || 2.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Multnomah County, Oregon|Multnomah]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Oregon}} || 20,000 || 2.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Pinellas County, Florida|Pinellas]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Florida}} || 25,000 || 2.7%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Monroe County, New York|Monroe]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New York}} || 19,000 || 2.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Sarasota County, Florida|Sarasota]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Florida}} || 9,950 || 2.6%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Broomfield County, Colorado|Broomfield]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Colorado}} || 1,400 || 2.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Cobb County, Georgia|Cobb]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}} || 17,300 || 2.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Collier County, Florida|Collier]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Florida}} || 8,000 || 2.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Hennepin County, Minnesota|Hennepin]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Minnesota}} || 29,300 || 2.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Mercer County, New Jersey|Mercer]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Jersey}} || 9,000 || 2.5%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Cumberland County, Maine|Cumberland]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Maine}} || 6,775 || 2.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Seminole County, Florida|Seminole]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Florida}} || 10,000 || 2.4%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Cherokee County, Georgia|Cherokee]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}} || 5,000 || 2.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Custer County, Idaho|Custer]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Idaho}} || 101 || 2.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Dukes County, Massachusetts|Dukes]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 300 || 2.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Hampden County, Massachusetts|Hampden]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|Massachusetts}} || 10,600 || 2.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Santa Cruz County, California|Santa Cruz]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|California}} || 6,000 || 2.3%
|-
|style=text-align:left|[[Santa Fe County, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] || style=text-align:left | {{flag|New Mexico}} || 3,300 || 2.3%
|}

===Assimilation and population changes===
These parallel themes have facilitated the extraordinary economic, political, and social success of the American Jewish community, but also have contributed to widespread [[cultural assimilation]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Postrel |first=Virginia |title=Uncommon Culture |magazine=Reason Magazine |date=May 1993 |url=http://www.reason.com/news/show/29368.html |access-date=October 5, 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010033730/http://reason.com/news/show/29368.html| archive-date= October 10, 2007 | url-status= live}}</ref> More recently however, the propriety and degree of [[Jewish assimilation|assimilation]] has also become a significant and controversial issue within the modern American Jewish community, with both [[Zionism|political]] and religious skeptics.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Marsha L. |last=Rozenblit |jstor=4467195 |title=Review of Bela Vago's "Jewish Assimilation in Modern Times" |journal=Jewish Social Studies |volume=44 |issue=3/4 |year=1982 |pages=334–335 |quote=Religious Jews regarded those who assimilated with horror, and Zionists campaigned against assimilation as an act of treason.}}</ref>

While not all Jews disapprove of [[Interreligious marriage|intermarriage]], many members of the Jewish community have become concerned that the high rate of [[Interfaith marriage in Judaism|interfaith marriage]] will result in the eventual disappearance of the American Jewish community. Intermarriage rates have risen from roughly 6% in 1950 and 25% in 1974,<ref>{{cite web |title=THE LARGER TASK – MARCUS |url=http://media.americanjewisharchives.org/docs/marcus/largerTask.pdf |work=[[American Jewish Archives]] |access-date=17 October 2013 |archive-date=February 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160203092656/http://media.americanjewisharchives.org/docs/marcus/largerTask.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> to approximately 40–50% in the year 2000.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_047702_religiouscul.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021128122938/http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_047702_religiouscul.htm|archive-date=2002-11-28 |title=Cengage Learning – Login|access-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref> By 2013, the intermarriage rate had risen to 71% for non-Orthodox Jews.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.jta.org/2013/10/01/news-opinion/united-states/pew-survey-u-s-jewish-intermarriage-rate-rises-to-58-percent |title=Pew survey of U.S. Jews: soaring intermarriage, assimilation rates |work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=October 2013 |access-date=March 2, 2014 |archive-date=February 27, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227094139/http://www.jta.org/2013/10/01/news-opinion/united-states/pew-survey-u-s-jewish-intermarriage-rate-rises-to-58-percent |url-status=live }}</ref> This, in combination with the comparatively low birthrate in the Jewish community, has led to a 5% decline in the Jewish population of the United States in the 1990s. In addition to this, when compared with the general American population, the American Jewish community is slightly older.

A third of intermarried couples provide their children with a Jewish upbringing, and doing so is more common among intermarried families raising their children in areas with high Jewish populations.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/11/10/jewish_population_in_region_rises/ |work=Boston Globe |title=Jewish population in region rises |access-date=November 29, 2009 |first=Michael |last=Paulson |date=November 10, 2006 |archive-date=April 11, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090411122355/http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/11/10/jewish_population_in_region_rises/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The Boston area, for example, is exceptional in that an estimated 60% of children of intermarriages are being raised Jewish, meaning that intermarriage would actually be contributing to a net ''increase'' in the number of Jews.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cjp.org/local_includes/downloads/16072.pdf |title=The 2005 Boston Community Survey: Preliminary Findings|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061213074021/http://www.cjp.org/local_includes/downloads/16072.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 13, 2006 |date=December 13, 2006}}</ref> As well, some children raised through intermarriage [[Baal teshuva movement|rediscover and embrace their Jewish roots]] when they themselves marry and have children.

In contrast to the ongoing trends of assimilation, some communities within American Jewry, such as [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]], have significantly higher birth rates and lower intermarriage rates, and are growing rapidly. The proportion of Jewish synagogue members who were Orthodox rose from 11% in 1971 to 21% in 2000, while the overall Jewish community declined in number.&nbsp;<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.nysun.com/foreign/future-of-judaism/8189/ |title=The Future of Judaism |work=nysun.com |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094437/http://www.nysun.com/foreign/future-of-judaism/8189/ |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2000, there were 360,000 so-called "ultra-orthodox" ([[Haredi]]) Jews in USA (7.2%).<ref name="manchester">{{cite news |url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=2932 |title=Majority of Jews will be Ultra-Orthodox by 2050 |work=manchester.ac.uk |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094438/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/article/?id=2932 |url-status=live }}</ref> The figure for 2006 is estimated at 468,000 (9.4%).<ref name="manchester"/> Data from the Pew Center shows that, as of 2013, 27% of American Jews under the age of 18 live in Orthodox households, a dramatic increase from Jews aged 18 to 29, only 11% of whom are Orthodox. The UJA-Federation of New York reports that 60% of Jewish children in the New York City area live in Orthodox homes. In addition to economizing and sharing, many Haredi communities depend on government aid to support their high birth rate and large families. The Hasidic village of [[New Square, New York]] receives Section{{nbsp}}8 housing subsidies at a higher rate than the rest of the region, and half of the population in the Hasidic village of [[Kiryas Joel, New York]] receive food stamps, while a third receive Medicaid.<ref>[https://forward.com/articles/187429/orthodox-population-grows-faster-than-first-figure/?p=all Orthodox Population Grows Faster Than First Figures in Pew #JewishAmerica Study] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161121140033/http://forward.com/articles/187429/orthodox-population-grows-faster-than-first-figure/?p=all |date=November 21, 2016 }}, ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', 15 November 2013</ref>

About half of the American Jews are considered to be religious. Out of this 2,831,000 religious Jewish population, 92% are [[Non-Hispanic whites|non-Hispanic white]], 5% [[Hispanic]] (Most commonly from Argentina, Venezuela, or Cuba), 1% [[Asian people|Asian]], 1% [[Black people|black]] and 1% Other (mixed-race etc.). Almost this many non-religious Jews exist in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris.pdf |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071127094118/http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris.pdf |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2007-11-27 |title=ARIS 2001}}{{small|(449 KB)}}</ref>

===Race and ethnicity===
[[File:Jewish Ethnic Divisions_map.png|thumb|500px|[[Jewish ethnic divisions]]]]
{{cleanup section|reason=duplicated in [[American Jews#Jews of European descent]] |date=November 2025}}

The [[United States Census Bureau]] classifies most American Jews as [[White Americans|white]].<ref>U.S. Census Bureau, 2000 Census of Population, Public Law 94-171 Redistricting Data File.{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011103175823/http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68178.htm|date=November 3, 2001|title=Race}}. (archived from [http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/meta/long_68178.htm the original] on November 3, 2001).</ref> Jewish people are culturally diverse and may be of any race, ethnicity, or national origin. Many Jews have culturally assimilated into and are phenotypically indistinguishable from the dominant local populations of regions like [[Jewish ethnic divisions#Europe|Europe]], [[Jewish ethnic divisions#The Caucasus and the Crimea|the Caucasus and the Crimea]], [[Jewish ethnic divisions#North Africa|North Africa]], [[Jewish ethnic divisions#West Asia|West Asia]], [[Jewish ethnic divisions#Sub-Saharan Africa|Sub-Saharan Africa]], [[Jewish ethnic divisions#South, East, and Central Asia|South, East, and Central Asia]], and the [[Jewish ethnic divisions#Americas|Americas]] where they have lived for many centuries.<ref>Johnson, ''A History of the Jews'', p.237</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Eyal |first=Gil |title=The Disenchantment of the Orient: Expertise in Arab Affairs and the Israeli State |pages=86–90 |year=2006 |chapter=The “One Million Plan” and the Development of a Discourse about the Absorption of the Jews from Arab Countries |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5d3iEECpQSoC&pg=PA86 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=9780804754033}} p. 86: "The principal significance of this plan lies in the fact, noted by [[Yehuda Shenhav]], that this was the first time in Zionist history that Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries were all packaged together in one category as the target of an immigration plan. There were earlier plans to bring specific groups, such as the Yemenites, but the "one million plan" was, as Shenhav says, "the zero point," the moment when the category of Mizrahi Jews in the current sense of this term, as an ethnic group distinct from European-born Jews, was invented." p.89—90 ..."Shehav's argument that the one million plan led to the invention of the category of Mizrahi Jews and gave the term the meaning it has today, because the plan treated all Jews who originated in these countries as belonging to a single category of candidates for immigration. ... it added another layer of meaning to the newly minted and still crystallizing Mizrahi category, that is, as implying a quasi-racial division between those who had an "oriental appearance" and those who did not."</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Separatists, continued... |url=http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_588.html |access-date=November 17, 2014 |publisher=Adherents.com |archive-date=September 23, 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030923000736/http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_588.html |url-status=usurped }}</ref> Many American Jews identify themselves as being both Jewish and [[White people|white]], while many solely identify as Jewish, resisting this identification.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chen |first1=Carolyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LoUUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |title=Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion Among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation |last2=Jeung |first2=Russell |publisher=NYU Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8147-1735-6 |page=88 |access-date=September 30, 2017 |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915111216/https://books.google.com/books?id=LoUUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |url-status=live }}</ref> Several commentators have observed that "many American Jews retain a feeling of ambivalence about [[White Americans|whiteness]]".<ref>[http://jwa.org/teach/livingthelegacy/american-jews-race-identity-and-civil-rights-movement "American Jews, Race, Identity, and the Civil Rights Movement"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714211748/https://jwa.org/teach/livingthelegacy/american-jews-race-identity-and-civil-rights-movement |date=July 14, 2017 }} Rosenbaum, Judith. Jewish Women's Archive. Accessed December 12, 2015. "Today, many American Jews retain an ambivalence about whiteness, despite the fact that the vast majority have benefited and continue to benefit from white privilege. This ambivalence stems from many different places: a deep connection to a Jewish history of discrimination and otherness; a moral imperative to identify with the stranger; an anti-universalist impulse that does not want Jews to be among the "melted" in the proverbial melting pot; an experience of prejudice and awareness of the contingency of whiteness; a feeling that Jewish identity is not fully described by religion but has some ethnic/tribal component that feels more accurately described by race; and a discomfort with contemporary Jewish power and privilege."</ref> Karen Brodkin explains this ambivalence as rooted in anxieties about the potential loss of [[Jewish identity]], especially outside of intellectual elites.<ref name="Brodkin-1998" /> Similarly, Kenneth Marcus observes a number of ambivalent cultural phenomena which have also been noted by other scholars, and he concludes that "the veneer of whiteness has not established conclusively the racial construction of American Jews".<ref name="Marcus-2010" /> The relationship between Jewish identity and white majority identity continues to be described as "complicated" for many American Jews, particularly Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews of European descent. The issue of Jewish whiteness may be different for many Mizrahi, Sephardi, Black, Asian, and Latino Jews, many of whom may never be considered white by society.<ref name="Schechter-2016" /> Many American [[White nationalism|white nationalists]] and [[White supremacy|white supremacists]] view all Jews as non-white, even if they are of European descent.<ref name="Andersen-2015" /> Some white nationalists believe that Jews can be white and a small number of white nationalists are [[Racism in Jewish communities|Jewish]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/jared-taylor |title=Jared Taylor |publisher=[[Southern Poverty Law Center]] |accessdate=2023-09-06 |archive-date=November 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181121162838/https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/jared-taylor |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2013, the [[Pew Research Center]]'s ''Portrait of Jewish Americans'' found that more than 90% of Jews who responded to its survey described themselves as being [[non-Hispanic whites]], 2% described themselves as being [[African Americans|black]], 3% described themselves as being [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Hispanic]], and 2% described themselves as having other racial or ethnic backgrounds.<ref>{{cite web |date=October 1, 2013 |title=A Portrait of Jewish Americans: Findings from a Pew Research Center Survey of U.S. Jews |url=http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2013/10/jewish-american-full-report-for-web.pdf |access-date=August 19, 2017 |publisher=[[Pew Research Center]] |page=46 |archive-date=August 19, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819102800/http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2013/10/jewish-american-full-report-for-web.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Jews by race, ancestry, or national origin====

=====Asian American Jews=====
According to the Pew Research Center, fewer than 1% of American Jews in 2020 identified as [[Asian Americans]]. Around 1% of religious Jews identified as Asian American.<ref name="Pew-2021"/>

A small but growing community of around 350 [[Indian American]] [[History of the Jews in India|Jews]] lives in the New York City metropolitan area, in both New York state and New Jersey. Many are members of India's [[Bene Israel]] community.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/how-indian-jewish-community-preserving-traditions-next-generation-n827226 |title=How the Indian Jewish community is preserving traditions for the next generation |date=December 11, 2017 |publisher=[[NBC News]] |accessdate=2024-01-31 |archive-date=January 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240131070800/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/how-indian-jewish-community-preserving-traditions-next-generation-n827226 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Indian Jewish Congregation of USA, headquartered in New York City, is the center of the organized community.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewsofindia.org/PDFs/Indian%20Jewish%20Congregation%20Newsletter%20Feb-2007.pdf |title=Indian Jewish Congregation of USA Newsletter |access-date=2024-01-31 |archive-date=February 28, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080228210318/http://www.jewsofindia.org/PDFs/Indian%20Jewish%20Congregation%20Newsletter%20Feb-2007.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

=====Jews of European descent=====
{{cleanup section|reason=duplicated in [[American Jews#Race and ethnicity]] |date=November 2025}}
Jews of European descent are classified as white by the US census and have generally been classified as legally white throughout American history as pertaining to courts, naturalization law, and censuses.<ref name="Yang-2016">{{cite journal |url=https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=jpps |title=The "Becoming White Thesis" Revisited |journal=The Journal of Public and Professional Sociology |volume=8 |issue=1 |accessdate=2022-09-01 |first1=Philip |last1=Q. Yang |first2=Kavitha |last2=Koshy |date=March 2016 |doi=10.62915/2154-8935.1096 |archive-date=May 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520104950/https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=jpps |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref> However, Jews long struggled with social equality and had an ambivalent relationship to being part of a white majority in America.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Eric L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yoa-DwAAQBAJ |title=The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity |date=2019-12-31 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-20728-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Numerous Sport Clubs in New York Are Closed to Jews and Negroes |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/numerous-sport-clubs-in-new-york-are-closed-to-jews-and-negroes |access-date=2025-11-17 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobson |first=Matthew Frye |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvjk2w15 |title=Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race |date=1998 |publisher=Harvard University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctvjk2w15 |jstor=j.ctvjk2w15 |isbn=978-0-674-95191-4}}</ref><ref name="Brodkin-1998"/><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barrett |first1=James R. |last2=Roediger |first2=David |date=1997 |title=Inbetween Peoples: Race, Nationality and the "New Immigrant" Working Class |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27502194 |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=3–44 |jstor=27502194 |issn=0278-5927}}</ref> Many American Jews of [[History of the Jews in Europe|European]] descent identify themselves as being both Jewish and [[White people|white]], while others solely identify themselves as being [[Jews|Jewish]] or identify as both Jewish and non-white.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Carolyn |last1=Chen |first2=Russell |last2=Jeung |title=Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion Among the Latino and Asian American Second Generation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LoUUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |year=2012 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-1735-6 |page=88 |access-date=September 30, 2017 |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915111216/https://books.google.com/books?id=LoUUCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, Jews of European descent rarely identify as [[Jews of color]]. According to the Pew Research Center, the majority of American Jews are non-Hispanic white Ashkenazi Jews.<ref name="Pew-2021"/> Law professor [[David Bernstein (law professor)|David Bernstein]] has questioned the idea that American Jews were once considered non-white, writing that American Jews were "indeed considered white by law and by custom" despite the fact that they experienced "discrimination, hostility, assertions of inferiority and occasionally even violence." Bernstein notes that Jews were not targeted by laws against interracial marriage, were allowed to attend whites-only schools, and were classified as white in the Jim Crow South.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/22/sorry-but-the-irish-were-always-white-and-so-were-the-italians-jews-and-so-on/ |title=Sorry, but the Irish were always 'white' (and so were Italians, Jews and so on) |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |accessdate=2022-09-01 |first=David |last=Bernstein |date=March 22, 2017 |archive-date=September 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922044422/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/22/sorry-but-the-irish-were-always-white-and-so-were-the-italians-jews-and-so-on/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The sociologists Philip Q. Yang and Kavitha Koshy have also questioned what they call the "becoming white thesis", noting that most Jews of European descent have been legally classified as white since the first US census in [[1790 United States census|1790]], were legally white for the purposes of the [[Naturalization Act of 1790]] that limited citizenship to "free White person(s)", and that they could find no legislative or judicial evidence that American Jews had ever been considered non-white.<ref name="Yang-2016"/>

Several commentators have observed that "many American Jews retain a feeling of ambivalence about [[White Americans|whiteness]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jwa.org/teach/livingthelegacy/american-jews-race-identity-and-civil-rights-movement |title=American Jews, Race, Identity, and the Civil Rights Movement |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714211748/https://jwa.org/teach/livingthelegacy/american-jews-race-identity-and-civil-rights-movement |archive-date=July 14, 2017| first=Rosenbaum |last=Judith |website=Jewish Women's Archive |access-date=December 12, 2015 |quote=Today, many American Jews retain an ambivalence about whiteness, despite the fact that the vast majority have benefited and continue to benefit from white privilege. This ambivalence stems from many different places: a deep connection to a Jewish history of discrimination and otherness; a moral imperative to identify with the stranger; an anti-universalist impulse that does not want Jews to be among the "melted" in the proverbial melting pot; an experience of prejudice and awareness of the contingency of whiteness; a feeling that Jewish identity is not fully described by religion but has some ethnic/tribal component that feels more accurately described by race; and a discomfort with contemporary Jewish power and privilege.}}</ref> Karen Brodkin explains this ambivalence as rooted in anxieties about the potential loss of [[Jewish identity]], especially outside of intellectual elites.<ref name="Brodkin-1998">{{cite book |isbn=978-0-8135-2589-1 |location=New Brunswick, N.J|title=How Jews Became White Folks and what that Says about Race in America |url=https://archive.org/details/howjewsbecamewhi00brod |url-access=registration |first=Karen |last=Brodkin |date=1998 |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]]}} : "Ambivalence was expressed in the counterpoint between Jewish intellectuals' embrace of whiteness and the more ambivalent responses to whiteness in Jewish popular culture" (p. 182).</ref> Similarly, Kenneth Marcus observes a number of ambivalent cultural phenomena which have also been noted by other scholars, and he concludes that "the veneer of whiteness has not established conclusively the racial construction of American Jews".<ref name="Marcus-2010">{{Cite book |last=Marcus |first=Kenneth L. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/jewish-identity-and-civil-rights-in-america/CA6BB28CE59F98D699D9040399AB92DE |title=Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America |date=2010 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-76673-9 |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511779565}}</ref> The relationship between American Jews and white majority identity continues to be described as "complicated".<ref name="Schechter-2016">{{cite news |url=http://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/jews-white-complicated/ |title=Are Jews White? It's Complicated |first=Dave |last=Schechter |date=December 19, 2016 |newspaper=Atlanta Jewish Times |access-date=September 1, 2017 |archive-date=August 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831181801/http://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/jews-white-complicated/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Many American [[White nationalism|white nationalists]] view Jews as non-white.<ref name="Andersen-2015">{{cite book |first1=Margaret |last1=Andersen |author2=Patricia Hill Collins |title=Race, Class, & Gender: An Anthology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJBvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA84 |year=2015 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-1-305-53727-9 |pages=84–85 |access-date=August 12, 2018 |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915111720/https://books.google.com/books?id=AJBvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA84 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=====Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent=====
Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent (often referred to as [[Mizrahi Jews]]) are classified as white by the US census. Mizrahi Jews sometimes identify as Jews of color, but often do not, and they may or may not be considered people of color by society. Syrian Jews rarely identify as Jews of color. Many Syrian Jews identify as white, Middle Eastern, or otherwise non-white rather than as Jews of color.<ref name="Pew-2021">{{Cite web |date=May 11, 2021 |title=JEWISH AMERICANS IN 2020: 9. Race, ethnicity, heritage and immigration among U.S. Jews |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/race-ethnicity-heritage-and-immigration-among-u-s-jews/ |website=Pew Research Center |access-date=September 2, 2022 |archive-date=August 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816120928/https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/race-ethnicity-heritage-and-immigration-among-u-s-jews/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=====African American Jews=====
{{Main|African-American Jews}} 
{{See also|African American–Jewish relations}}

The American Jewish community includes African American Jews and other American [[African-American Jews|Jews who are of African descent]], a definition which excludes [[Maghrebi Jews|North African Jewish]] Americans, who are currently classified by the US census as being [[White American|white]] (although a new category was recommended by the Census Bureau for the 2020 census).<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/11/519548276/for-some-arab-americans-checking-a-census-box-is-complicated |title=For Some Americans Of MENA Descent, Checking A Census Box Is Complicated |website=NPR.org |access-date=April 5, 2018 |archive-date=April 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180404023945/https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/03/11/519548276/for-some-arab-americans-checking-a-census-box-is-complicated |url-status=live }}</ref> Estimates of the number of American Jews of African descent in the United States range from 20,000<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://philanthropy.com/article/A-Fledgling-Grant-Maker/183775 |title=A Fledgling Grant Maker Nurtures Young Jewish 'Social Entrepreneurs' |access-date=December 17, 2007 |first=David |last=Whelan |date=May 8, 2003 |magazine=[[The Chronicle of Philanthropy]] |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094438/https://philanthropy.com/article/A-Fledgling-Grant-Maker/183775 |url-status=live }}</ref> to 200,000.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/8029/organization-for-black-jews-claims-200-000-in-u-s/ |title=Organization for black Jews claims 200,000 in U.S. |access-date=August 2, 2010 |first=Michael |last=Gelbwasser |date=April 10, 1998 |work=[[J. The Jewish News of Northern California]] |archive-date=September 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920074803/http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/8029/organization-for-black-jews-claims-200-000-in-u-s/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Jews of African descent belong to all American [[Jewish denominations]]. Like their other Jewish counterparts, some black Jews are [[Jewish atheist|atheists]].

Notable African American Jews include [[Drake (musician)|Drake]], [[Lenny Kravitz]], [[Lisa Bonet]], [[Sammy Davis Jr.]], [[Rashida Jones]], [[Ros Gold-Onwude]], [[Yaphet Kotto]], [[Jordan Farmar]], [[Taylor Mays]], [[Daveed Diggs]], [[Alicia Garza]], [[Tiffany Haddish]], and rabbis [[Capers Funnye]] and [[Alysa Stanton]].

=====Hispanic and Latin American Jews=====
Hispanic Jews have lived in what is now the United States since colonial times. The earliest Hispanic Jewish settlers were Sephardi Jews from Spain and Portugal. Beginning in the 1500s, some of the Spanish settlers in what is now [[New Mexico]] and [[Texas]] were [[Crypto-Jews]], but there was no organized Jewish presence.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/new-mexico-jewish-history |title=Virtual Jewish World: New Mexico, United States |publisher=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |accessdate=2022-09-01 |archive-date=September 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902065329/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/new-mexico-jewish-history |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/texas-jewish-history |title=Virtual Jewish World: Texas, United States |publisher=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |accessdate=2022-09-01 |archive-date=September 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902065318/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/texas-jewish-history |url-status=live }}</ref> Later waves of Sephardi immigration brought [[Judeo-Spanish]] speaking Jews from the Ottoman Empire, in what is now Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Libya, and Syria. These Spanish-speaking Sephardi Jews, as well as Sephardi Jews of European descent, such as the [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews]], are sometimes considered culturally but not ethnically Hispanic.

Hispanic and Latin American Jews, particularly Hispanic and Latin American Ashkenazi Jews, often identify as white rather than as Jews of color. Some Jews with roots in Latin America may not identify as "Hispanic" or "Latino" at all, usually due to their recent European immigrant origins.<ref name="Pew-2021"/> American Jews of Argentine, Brazilian, and Mexican descent are often Ashkenazi, but some are Sephardi.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latintimes.com/sephardic-hispanic-heritage-13-facts-about-latino-jews-340203 |title=Sephardic Hispanic Heritage: 13 Facts About 'Latino Jews' |date=September 15, 2015 |publisher=[[Latin Times]] |accessdate=2022-09-01 |archive-date=September 2, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220902064021/https://www.latintimes.com/sephardic-hispanic-heritage-13-facts-about-latino-jews-340203 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Jews divided by cultural or Jewish ethnic division groupings====
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"
!Ancestry
!Population
!% of US population
|-
! align="left" |[[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazim]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Feldman |first=Gabriel E. |date=May 2001 |title=Do Ashkenazi Jews have a Higher than expected Cancer Burden? Implications for cancer control prioritization efforts |url=http://www.ima.org.il/IMAJ/ViewArticle.aspx?aId=2748 |journal=[[Israel Medical Association Journal]] |volume=3 |issue=5 |pages=341–46 |pmid=11411198 |access-date=2013-09-04 |archive-date=December 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181224213544/https://www.ima.org.il/MedicineIMAJ/viewarticle.aspx?aid=2748 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|5,000,000–6,000,000
|{{pct|5000000|282200000|sigfig=2|%=}}–{{pct|6000000|282200000|sigfig=2}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Sephardi Jews|Sephardim]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Diez |first=Maria Sanchez |title=Mapped: Where Sephardic Jews live after they were kicked out of Spain 500 years ago |language=en |website=Quartz |url=https://qz.com/427032/mapped-where-sephardic-jews-live-after-they-were-kicked-out-of-spain-500-years-ago/ |access-date=2021-04-20 |archive-date=April 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415233849/https://qz.com/427032/mapped-where-sephardic-jews-live-after-they-were-kicked-out-of-spain-500-years-ago/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
|300,000
|{{pct|300000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3|%=}}–{{pct|300000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahim]]
|250,000
|{{pct|250000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3|%=}}–{{pct|250000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Italqim|Italkim]]{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}
|200,000
|{{pct|200000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3|%=}}–{{pct|200000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Bukharan Jews|Bukharim]]
|50,000–60,000
|{{pct|50000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3|%=}}–{{pct|60000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Mountain Jews|Juhurim]]
|10,000–40,000
|{{pct|10000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3|%=}}–{{pct|40000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Turkish Jews|Turkos]]
|8,000
|{{pct|8000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3|%=}}–{{pct|8000|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Romaniote Jews|Romanyotim]]
|6,500
|{{pct|6500|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3|%=}}–{{pct|6500|{{country population|USA}}|pad=3}}
|-
! align="left" |[[Beta Israel]]<ref>{{cite web |last=Mozgovaya |first=Natasha |date=2008-04-02 |title='It's not easy being an Ethiopian Jew in America' |url=https://www.haaretz.com/blogs/focus-u-s-a/it-s-not-easy-being-an-ethiopian-jew-in-america-1.273719 |access-date=2010-12-25 |work=Haaretz |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094437/http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/focus-u-s-a/it-s-not-easy-being-an-ethiopian-jew-in-america-1.273719 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|1,000
|{{pct|1000|{{country population|USA}}|sigfig=1}}
|-
! style="text-align:left" |Total<ref>{{Citation |last=DellaPergola |first=Sergio |title=American Jewish Year Book 2018 |date=2019 |volume=118 |pages=361–449 |editor-last=Dashefsky |editor-first=Arnold |chapter=World Jewish Population, 2018 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-03907-3_8 |isbn=9783030039066 |editor2-last=Sheskin |editor2-first=Ira M. |s2cid=146549764}}</ref>
!5,700,000–8,000,000
! style="text-align:right" |{{pct|5,700,000|{{country population|USA}}|sigfig=2|%=}}–{{pct|8,000,000|{{country population|USA}}|sigfig=2}}
|}

A majority of the Jewish population in the United States are [[Ashkenazi Jews]] who descend from [[Jewish diaspora|diaspora Jewish populations]] of [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]]. Most American Ashkenazi Jews are non-Hispanic whites, but a minority are Jews of color, Hispanic/Latino, or both.

Largely [[Expulsion of Jews from Spain|expelled from the Iberian Peninsula]] in the late 15th century, [[Sephardi Jews]] carried a distinctive [[Jewish diaspora|Jewish diasporic]] identity with them to the [[Americas]] (although in smaller numbers compared to the [[Ashkenazi Jewish]] diaspora) and all other places of their exiled settlement. They sometimes settled near existing Jewish communities, such as the one from former [[Kurdistan]], or were the first in new frontiers, with their furthest reach via the [[Silk Road]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Sephardi People |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sephardi |website=Britannica.com |date=May 11, 2023 |publisher=Britannica |access-date=January 4, 2023 |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029205859/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sephardi |url-status=live }}</ref> As a result of the more recent [[Jewish exodus from Arab lands]], many of the Sephardim Tehorim from Western Asia and North Africa relocated to either [[Israel]] or France, where they form a significant portion of the Jewish communities today. Other significant communities of Sephardim Tehorim also migrated in more recent times from the Near East to [[New York City]], [[Argentina]], Costa Rica, [[Mexico]], [[Montreal]], [[Gibraltar]], [[Puerto Rico]], and [[Dominican Republic]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Jews migration to the Dominican Republic to seek refuge from the Holocaust |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sosua.html |access-date=2013-05-15 |archive-date=September 6, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906010532/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/sosua.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Because of poverty and turmoil in Latin America, another wave of Sephardic Jews joined other Latin Americans who migrated to the United States, Canada, Spain, and other countries of Europe.

Post-1948, [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi Jewish]], mostly thousands from Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian Jewish descent, as well as some from other [[Middle East and North Africa]]n Jewish communities migrated to the United States.

Since the 1990s, around 1000 Hebrew-speaking, [[Ethiopian Jews]] that had settled in Israel as [[Ethiopian Jews in Israel]] re-settled in the United States as [[Ethiopian Americans]], with around half of the [[Ethiopian Americans#Ethiopian Jews in the United States|Ethiopian Jewish Israeli-American]] community living in New York.<ref>{{cite web |last=Mozgovaya |first=Natasha |date=2008-04-02 |title=Focus U.S.A.-Israel News – Haaretz Israeli News source |url=https://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077094.html |access-date=2010-12-25 |publisher=Haaretz.com |archive-date=February 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100205220535/http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077094.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Socioeconomics===
{{See also|Jewish-American working class|Model minority}}

[[Jewish education|Education]] plays a major role as a part of Jewish identity. As Jewish culture puts a special premium on it and stresses the importance of cultivation of intellectual pursuits, scholarship, and learning, American Jews as a group tend to be better educated and earn more than Americans as a whole.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8CBKlNyBM8AC&q=American+Jews+value+education&pg=PA39 |title=Portrait of American Jews: the last half of the twentieth century |access-date=26 August 2014 |author=Samuel C Heilman |isbn=9780295800653 |date=2011-07-01 |publisher=University of Washington Press |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915112133/https://books.google.com/books?id=8CBKlNyBM8AC&q=American+Jews+value+education&pg=PA39 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://forward.com/opinion/183260/a-jewish-fight-for-public-education/?p=all |title=A Jewish Fight for Public Education |publisher=The Jewish Daily |date=September 2, 2013 |access-date=26 August 2014 |first=Amy B. |last=Dean |newspaper=The Forward |archive-date=January 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115144353/http://forward.com/opinion/183260/a-jewish-fight-for-public-education/?p=all |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/148845 |title=New Study Claims US Jews Have Reasons to Be Proud – Latest News Briefs |work=Arutz Sheva |date=June 25, 2008 |access-date=February 15, 2015 |archive-date=February 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215163016/http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/148845 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/jewishamericans/jewish_life/education_and_philanthropy.html |title=Doing Well and Doing Good |access-date=26 August 2014 |author=Grubin, David |website=[[PBS]] |archive-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020005852/http://www.pbs.org/jewishamericans/jewish_life/education_and_philanthropy.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Jewish Americans also have an average of 14.7 years of schooling making them the most highly educated of all major religious groups in the United States.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2016/12/13/jewish-educational-attainment/ |title=6. Jewish educational attainment |work=Pew Research |date=December 13, 2016 |access-date=July 17, 2017 |archive-date=November 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118235537/http://www.pewforum.org/2016/12/13/jewish-educational-attainment/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="pewforum.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2016/12/13/religion-and-education-around-the-world/ |title=Religion and Education Around the World |work=Pew Research |date=December 13, 2016 |access-date=July 17, 2017 |archive-date=February 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190210111009/http://www.pewforum.org/2016/12/13/religion-and-education-around-the-world/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Forty-four percent (55% of [[Reform Jews]]) report family incomes of over $100,000 compared to 19% of all Americans, with the next highest group being [[Hindu]]s at 43%.<ref name="Pew Research Centre">{{cite news |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-3-demographic-profiles-of-religious-groups/ |title=Demographic Profiles of Religious Groups |newspaper=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |publisher=Pew Research Centre |date=May 12, 2015 |access-date=12 May 2015 |archive-date=May 14, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514231927/http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/chapter-3-demographic-profiles-of-religious-groups/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/table-income-by-tradition.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090429190052/http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/table-income-by-tradition.pdf|archive-date=2009-04-29 |title=Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics – Pew Research Center |date=May 11, 2015 |work=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project}}</ref> And while 27% of Americans have a four-year university or [[postgraduate education]], fifty-nine percent (66% of [[Reform Jews]]) of American Jews have, the second highest of any ethnic groups after [[Indian-Americans]].<ref name="Pew Research Centre"/><ref name="Pew-2015">{{cite news |url=http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons |title=Comparative Religions – U.S. Religious Landscape Study – Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life |newspaper=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |access-date=February 15, 2015 |archive-date=February 13, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213155757/http://religions.pewforum.org/comparisons |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/table-education-by-tradition.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090206154901/http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/table-education-by-tradition.pdf|archive-date=2009-02-06 |title=Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics – Pew Research Center |date=May 11, 2015 |work=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project}}</ref> 75% of American Jews have achieved some form of [[Tertiary education|post-secondary education]] if two-year vocational and community college diplomas and certificates are also included.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2016/12/13/religion-and-education-around-the-world/religioneducation_usminorities/ |title=In United States, religious minorities more likely to have college degrees than Christian majority |work=Pew Research |date=December 5, 2016 |access-date=July 17, 2017 |archive-date=July 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170716164717/http://www.pewforum.org/2016/12/13/religion-and-education-around-the-world/religioneducation_usminorities/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/13/jews-are-worlds-best-educated-religious-group-study-reveals |title=Jews are world's best-educated religious group, study reveals |first=Harriet |last=Sherwood |date=December 13, 2016 |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=July 17, 2017 |archive-date=July 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170713195744/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/13/jews-are-worlds-best-educated-religious-group-study-reveals |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/hindus-are-the-most-educated-group-in-the-us-least-educated-worldwide/story-I0Y2xVjO05CJNMXl3g01iM.html |title=Hindus are the most educated group in the US, least educated worldwide |date=December 14, 2016 |access-date=July 17, 2017 |archive-date=July 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170724235837/http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/hindus-are-the-most-educated-group-in-the-us-least-educated-worldwide/story-I0Y2xVjO05CJNMXl3g01iM.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="pewforum.org"/>

31% of American Jews hold a [[Postgraduate education|graduate degree]]; this figure is compared with the general American population where 11% of Americans hold a graduate degree.<ref name="Pew Research Centre"/> White collar professional jobs have been attractive to Jews and much of the community tend to take up professional white collar careers requiring tertiary education involving formal credentials where the respectability and reputability of professional jobs is highly prized within Jewish culture. While 46% of Americans work in [[White-collar worker|professional and managerial]] jobs, 61% of American Jews work as professionals, many of whom are highly educated, salaried professionals whose work is largely self-directed in [[Profession|management, professional, and related occupations]] such as engineering, science, medicine, investment banking, finance, law, and academia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishfederations.org/local_includes/downloads/3905.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214132705/http://www.jewishfederations.org/local_includes/downloads/3905.pdf | archive-date=2010-12-14 |title=NATIONAL JEWISH POPULATION SURVEY 2000–01 |publisher=The Jewish Federations | access-date=January 30, 2013 |first=Bernard J. |last=Shapiro}}</ref>

Much of the Jewish American community lead middle class lifestyles.<ref name="Frum-2010">{{cite web |url=http://www.frumforum.com/do-jews-hate-palin/ |title=Do Jews Hate Palin |publisher=Frum Forum |date=January 4, 2010 | access-date=26 August 2014 |author=Frum, David | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826160849/http://www.frumforum.com/do-jews-hate-palin/ | archive-date=August 26, 2014 | url-status=dead}}</ref> While the median household net worth of the typical American family is $99,500, among American Jews the figure is $443,000.<ref>{{cite book |title=[[The Triple Package|The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America]] |publisher=Penguin Press HC |author=Amy Chua, Jed Rubenfeld |year=2014 |page=7 |isbn=978-1594205460}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/work-in-progress/lessons-from-jews-and-mormons-20140306-34b11 |title=Lessons from Jews and Mormons |publisher=The Sydney Herald |date=7 March 2014 |access-date=20 August 2014 |first=James |last=Adonis |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094437/http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/work-in-progress/lessons-from-jews-and-mormons-20140306-34b11 |url-status=live }}</ref> In addition, the median Jewish American income is estimated to be in the range of $97,000 to $98,000, nearly twice as high the American national median.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America |publisher=Penguin Press HC |author=Amy Chua, Jed Rubenfeld |year=2014 |page=53 |isbn=978-1594205460}}</ref> Either of these two statistics may be [[Confounding|confounded]] by the fact that the Jewish population is on average older than other religious groups in the country, with 51% of polled adults over the age of 50 compared to 41% nationally.<ref name="Pew-2015"/> Older people tend to both [[Personal income in the United States#Income distribution|have higher income]] and be more highly educated. By 2016, [[Modern Orthodox Jews]] had a median household income of $158,000, while [[Open Orthodoxy|Open Orthodox]] Jews had a median household income at $185,000 (compared to the American median household income of $59,000 for 2016).<ref>[https://www.timesofisrael.com/5-key-takeaways-some-surprising-from-new-survey-of-us-modern-orthodox-jews 5 key takeaways, some surprising, from new survey of US Modern Orthodox Jews] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612190930/https://www.timesofisrael.com/5-key-takeaways-some-surprising-from-new-survey-of-us-modern-orthodox-jews/ |date=June 12, 2018 }} By BEN SALES 30 September 2017, JTA</ref>

According to a 2020 study by the [[Pew Research Center]], 23% of American Jewish living in households with incomes of at least $200,000. [[Conservative Judaism|Conservatives]] (27%) and [[Reform Judaism|Reforms]] (26%) are more likely to live in households with incomes of at least $200,000 than those who are [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] (16%).<ref name="Pew-2021a"/> The study found also that American Jews are a comparatively well-educated group, around 60% of them are [[college graduate]]s. [[Reform Judaism|Reforms]] (64%) and [[Conservative Judaism|Conservatives]] (55%) are more likely to obtain college or [[postgraduate education]] than those who are [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] (37%).<ref name="Pew-2021a"/>

As a whole, American and Canadian Jews donate more than $9{{nbsp}}billion a year to [[Charitable organization|charity]]. This reflects Jewish traditions of supporting social services as a way of living out the dictates of Jewish law. Most of the charities that benefit are not specifically Jewish organizations.<ref>Shaul Bar Nissim, Hanna. [https://theconversation.com/american-jews-and-charitable-giving-an-enduring-tradition-87993 "American Jews and Charitable Giving: An Enduring Tradition."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190603202359/https://theconversation.com/american-jews-and-charitable-giving-an-enduring-tradition-87993 |date=June 3, 2019 }} ''The Conversation''. 10 December 2017. 3{{nbsp}}June 2019.</ref>

While the median income of Jewish Americans is high, some Jewish communities have high levels of poverty. In the New York area, there are approximately 560,000 Jews living in poor or near-poor households, representing about 20% of the New York metropolitan Jewish community. Jewish people affected by poverty are disproportionately likely to be children, young adults, the elderly, people with low educational attainment, part-time workers, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, immigrants without American citizenship, Holocaust survivors, Orthodox families, and single adults including single parents.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/178160/jewish-poverty-skyrockets-in-new-york-doubles-in/ |title=Jewish Poverty Skyrockets in New York — Doubles in Size Since 1991 |last=Berkman |first=Seth |date=June 6, 2013 |work=[[The Forward|The Jewish Daily Forward]] |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094437/http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/178160/jewish-poverty-skyrockets-in-new-york-doubles-in/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Disability]] is a major factor in the socioeconomic status of disabled Jews. Disabled Jews are significantly more likely to be low-income compared to able-bodied Jews, while high-income Jews are significantly less likely to be disabled.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mizrahi |first1=Jennifer Laszlo |url=https://www.respectability.org/2022/01/washington-dc-jewish-survey-results/#:~:text=Disability%20and%20Poverty&text=Fully%2026%20percent%20of%20disabled,people%20without%20a%20disability%20connection. |title=Survey of Greater Washington, D.C. Jews Marks Improvement on Jewish Disability Inclusion |work=Disability Belongs |date=January 7, 2022 |publisher=[[RespectAbility]] |accessdate=2023-05-15 |archive-date=May 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515053006/https://www.respectability.org/2022/01/washington-dc-jewish-survey-results/#:~:text=Disability%20and%20Poverty&text=Fully%2026%20percent%20of%20disabled,people%20without%20a%20disability%20connection. |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/disabled-us-jews-twice-as-likely-to-live-in-poverty-new-report-685285 |title='Disabled US Jews twice as likely to live in poverty' - new report |date=November 17, 2021 |publisher=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |accessdate=2023-05-15 |archive-date=May 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230515053007/https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/disabled-us-jews-twice-as-likely-to-live-in-poverty-new-report-685285 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Jewish secularism|Secular Jews]], Jews of no denomination, and people who identify as "just Jewish" are also more likely to live in poverty compared to Jews affiliated with a religious denomination.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hjweinbergfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2019/03/jewish-poverty-in-the-united-states.pdf |title=Jewish Poverty in the United States: A Summary of Recent Research |publisher=[[Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation]] |accessdate=2023-05-15 |archive-date=March 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330113925/https://hjweinbergfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2019/03/jewish-poverty-in-the-united-states.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to analysis by [[The Gallup Organization|Gallup]], American Jews have the highest [[quality of life|well-being]] of any ethnic or religious group in America.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/152732/religious-higher-wellbeing-across-faiths.aspx |title=In U.S., Very Religious Have Higher Well-Being Across All Faiths |last1=Newport |first1=Frank |last2=Agrawal |first2=Sangeeta |last3=Witters |first3=Dan |date=February 16, 2012 |publisher=[[The Gallup Organization|Gallup]] |access-date=July 15, 2020 |archive-date=July 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725055957/https://news.gallup.com/poll/152732/religious-higher-wellbeing-across-faiths.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Jews-religious-or-not-top-US-well-being-index |title=Jews, religious or not, top US 'well-being' index |work=The Jerusalem Post |last=Horn |first=Jordana |date=January 17, 2011 |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094437/http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Jews-religious-or-not-top-US-well-being-index |url-status=live }}</ref>

The great majority of school-age Jewish students attend public schools, although Jewish day schools and yeshivas are to be found throughout the country. [[Jewish culture|Jewish cultural studies]] and [[Hebrew language]] instruction is also commonly offered at synagogues in the form of supplementary Hebrew schools or Sunday schools.

From the early 1900s until the 1950s, [[Numerus clausus|quota systems]] were imposed at elite colleges and universities particularly in the Northeast, as a response to the growing number of children of recent Jewish immigrants; these limited the number of Jewish students accepted, and greatly reduced their previous attendance. Jewish enrollment at Cornell's School of Medicine fell from 40% to 4% between the world wars, and Harvard's fell from 30% to 4%.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Maisel|editor-first1=L. Sandy|editor-link1=L. Sandy Maisel|editor-last2=Forman|editor-first2=Ira N.|editor-link2=Ira Forman|title=Jews in American Politics|year=2001|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7g1jaWlsY24C&pg=PA6|pages=5–6|isbn=978-0-7425-0181-2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121045318/https://books.google.com/books?id=7g1jaWlsY24C&pg=PA6&|archive-date=November 21, 2022}}</ref> Before 1945, only a few Jewish professors were permitted as instructors at elite universities. In 1941, for example, antisemitism drove [[Milton Friedman]] from a non-tenured assistant professorship at the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]].<ref name="Friedmans-1998">Milton Friedman and Rose D. Friedman, ''Two Lucky People: Memoirs'' (1998) p. 58 [https://books.google.com/books?id=kvf0b1pmJsMC&pg=PA58 online]</ref> [[Harry Levin]] became the first Jewish full professor in the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] English department in 1943, but the Economics department decided not to hire [[Paul Samuelson]] in 1948. Harvard hired its first Jewish biochemists in 1954.<ref>Morton Keller, ''Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America's University''. (2001), pp. 75, 82, 97, 212, 472.</ref>

According to [[Clark Kerr]], [[Martin Meyerson]] in 1965 became the first Jew to serve, albeit temporarily, as the leader of a major American [[research university]].<ref name="Kerr-2001">{{cite book |last1=Kerr |first1=Clark |title=The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967, Volume 2 |date=2001 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=9780520925014 |page=264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GSEPX5JIKkC&pg=PA264 |access-date=2 September 2020 |archive-date=September 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230915112134/https://books.google.com/books?id=-GSEPX5JIKkC&pg=PA264 |url-status=live }}</ref> That year, Meyerson served as acting chancellor of the [[University of California, Berkeley]], but was unable to obtain a permanent appointment as a result of a combination of tactical errors on his part and antisemitism on the [[Regents of the University of California|UC Board of Regents]].<ref name="Kerr-2001" /> Meyerson served as the president of the [[University of Pennsylvania]] from 1970 to 1981.

By 1986, a third of the presidents of the elite undergraduate [[final clubs]] at Harvard were Jewish.<ref name="Friedmans-1998"/> [[Rick Levin]] was president of Yale University from 1993 to 2013, [[Judith Rodin]] was president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1994 to 2004 (and is currently president of the [[Rockefeller Foundation]]), Paul Samuelson's nephew, [[Lawrence Summers]], was president of [[Harvard University]] from 2001 until 2006, and [[Harold Tafler Shapiro|Harold Shapiro]] was president of [[Princeton University]] from 1992 until 2000.

====American Jews at American higher education institutions====
{|
|- style="vertical-align:top;"
|'''Public universities'''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hillel.org/about/news/2006/feb/20060216_top.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071220203907/http://www.hillel.org/about/news/2006/feb/20060216_top.htm |archive-date=2007-12-20 |title=Hillel's Top 10 Jewish Schools |access-date=January 6, 2009 |work=Hillel |publisher=Hillel.org |date=February 16, 2006}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- "
!width="50"|Rank !! style="width:210px;"|University !! style="width:50px;"|Enrollment for Jewish Students (est.)<ref name="hillel.org-2">{{cite web |url=http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/search#radius=10&select=top60 |title=News – Views |work=hillel.org|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912092011/http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/search|archive-date=September 12, 2017|url-status=live|access-date=September 17, 2017}}</ref> !! style="width:70px;" |% of Student body !! style="width:70px;"|Undergraduate Enrollment
|-
| 1 || [[University of Florida]] ||6,500|| 19% || 34,464
|-
| 2 || [[Rutgers University]] ||6,400|| 18% ||36,168
|-
| 3 || [[University of Central Florida]] ||6,000|| 11% ||55,776
|-
| 4 || [[University of Maryland, College Park]] ||5,800|| 20% ||28,472
|-
|5
|[[University of Michigan]]
|4,500
|16%
|28,983
|-
| 6 || [[Indiana University (Bloomington)|Indiana University]] 
[[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin]]
| 4,200 || 11%
13%
| 39,184
31,710
|-
|8
|[[Brooklyn College|CUNY, Brooklyn College]]
[[Queens College, City University of New York|Queens College]]

[[Pennsylvania State University-University Park|Pennsylvania State University, University Park]]
|4,000
|28%
25%

10%
|14,406
16,326

41,827
|-
| 11 || [[Binghamton University]] ||3,700|| 27%<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hillelatbinghamton.org/index.php?submenu=FAQs&src=faq#faq1 |title=FAQ |publisher=Hillel at Binghamton |access-date=March 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804151411/http://www.hillelatbinghamton.org/index.php?submenu=FAQs&src=faq#faq1 |archive-date=August 4, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> ||13,632
|-
| 12 || [[University at Albany]]
[[Florida International University]]

[[Michigan State University]]

[[Arizona State University Tempe campus|Arizona State University]]

[[California State University, Northridge]]
| 3,500 || 27%<br />8%
9%

8%

10%
|13,139<br />45,813
39,090

42,477

35,552
|}
|'''Private universities'''
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- "
!width="50"|Rank !! style="width:210px;"|University !! style="width:55px;"|Enrollment of Jewish Student (est.)<ref name="hillel.org-2"/>
!width="50"|% of Student body !! style="width:70px;"|Undergraduate Enrollment
|-
| 1 || [[New York University]] || 6,500 || 33% || 19,401
|-
| 2 || [[Boston University]] || 4,000 || 20% || 15,981
|-
| 3 || [[Cornell University]] || 3,500 || 25% || 13,515
|-
| 4 || [[University of Miami]] || 3,100 || 22% || 14,000
|-
| 5 || [[The George Washington University]]<br />[[University of Pennsylvania]]<br />[[Yeshiva University]] || 2,800 ||31%<br />30%<br />99% ||10,394<br />9,718<br />2,803
|-
| 8 || [[Syracuse University]] || 2,500 ||20% ||12,500
|-
| 9 || [[Columbia University]]<br />[[Emory University]]<br />[[Harvard University]]<br />[[Tulane University]] || 2,000 ||29%<br />30%<br />30%<br />30%||6,819<br />6,510<br />6,715<br />6,533
|-
| 13 || [[Brandeis University]]<ref name="hillel.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.hillel.org/college-guide |title=College Guide – Hillels Guide to Jewish Life at Colleges and Universities |work=hillel.org |access-date=January 20, 2016 |archive-date=January 27, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127025314/http://www.hillel.org/college-guide |url-status=live }}</ref><br />[[Northwestern University]]<ref name="hillel.org"/><br />[[Washington University in St. Louis]]<ref name="hillel.org"/> || 1,800||56%<br />23%<br />29% ||3,158<br />7,826<br />6,097
|}
|}

==Religion==
[[File:Touro Synagogue, Newport, RI.jpg|thumb|[[Touro Synagogue]] (built in 1759), in Newport, Rhode Island, has the oldest still existing synagogue building in the United States.]]

===Observances and engagement===
{{See also|Religion in the United States#Judaism}}

The American Jews' majority continues to identify themselves with Judaism and its main traditions, such as [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]], [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] and [[Reform Judaism]].<ref name="Wertheimer1991p86–88">{{cite book |surname=Wertheimer |given=Jack |authorlink=Jack Wertheimer |chapter=Recent Trends in American Judaism |editor-surname=Neusner |editor-given=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Neusner |title=An Introduction to Judaism: A Textbook and Reader |place=Louisville, Kentucky |publisher=Westminster/John Knox Press |year=1991 |pages=85–116 |chapter-url={{Google books|id=6M8oxDql1KIC|plainurl=y|page=85|keywords=|text=}} |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6M8oxDql1KIC |isbn=0-664-25348-2 |access-date=June 29, 2023 |archive-date=June 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624043151/https://books.google.com/books?id=6M8oxDql1KIC |url-status=live }} pp. 86–88.</ref><ref>{{cite book |surname=Wertheimer |given=Jack |authorlink=Jack Wertheimer |title=The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today |place=Princeton, NJ; Oxford |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2018 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DthDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103 |page=103 |isbn=978-0-691-18129-5 |access-date=July 3, 2023 |archive-date=July 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230703055818/https://books.google.com/books?id=1DthDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA103 |url-status=live }}</ref> But, already in the 1980s, 20–30 percent of members of largest Jewish communities, such as of New York City, Chicago, Miami, and others, rejected a [[Jewish religious movements|denominational]] label.<ref name="Wertheimer1991p86–88" />

[[File:BirkatHachamaEncino.jpg|thumb|''[[Birkat Hachama]]'' of Conservative Jews, Encino, Los Angeles]]
According to the 1990 [[National Jewish Population Survey]], 38% of Jews were affiliated with the Reform tradition, 35% were Conservative, 6% were Orthodox, 1% were Reconstructionists, 10% linked themselves to some other tradition, and 10% said they are "just Jewish".<ref>{{cite book |editor-surname=Wertheimer |editor-given=Jack |editor-link=Jack Wertheimer |title=Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members |url={{Google books|id=U_nEoAZ6ffgC|plainurl=y|page=68|keywords=|text=}} |year=2002 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |page=68 |isbn=0-8135-2821-6 |archive-date=2016-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094436/https://books.google.com/books?id=U_nEoAZ6ffgC&pg=PA68 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:US Navy 091211-N-6003P-067 Lt. Zac Stang, operations administrator and Jewish lay leader of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).jpg|thumb|US serviceman lighting a Menorah in observance of the first day of [[Hanukkah]]]]

Jewish religious practice in America is quite varied. Among the 4.3 million American Jews described as "strongly connected" to Judaism, over 80% report some sort of active engagement with Judaism,<ref>{{cite news |title=A Portrait of Jewish Americans – Chapter 3: Jewish Identity |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/chapter-3-jewish-identity/ |work=[[Pew Research]] |date=October 1, 2013 |access-date=2014-01-04 |archive-date=January 4, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104213222/http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/chapter-3-jewish-identity/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ranging from attending at daily prayer services on one end of the spectrum, to as little as attending only [[Passover Seder]]s or lighting [[Hanukkah]] candles on the other.

According to a 2020 study by the [[Pew Research Center]], 37% of American Jews identify as [[Reform Judaism|Reforms]], 32% do not with a particular branch, 17% identify as [[Conservative Judaism|Conservatives]], 9% identify as [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]], and 4% are members of other Jewish branches, such as Reconstructionist or Humanist Judaism.<ref name="Pew-2021a"/> The survey found that Jews are far less religious than American adults as a whole, 8% of American Jews go to the synagogue at least once a month, 27% go few times a year, and 56% seldom or never go to the synagogue.<ref name="Pew-2021a"/>

A 2003 [[Harris Poll]] found that 16% of American Jews go to the synagogue at least once a month, 42% go less frequently but at least once a year, and 42% go less frequently than once a year.<ref name="Taylor-2003">{{cite web |first=Humphrey |last=Taylor |url=http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-While-Most-Americans-Believe-in-God-Only-36-pct-A-2003-10.pdf |title=While Most Americans Believe in God, Only 36% Attend a Religious Service Once a Month or More Often |work=The Harris Poll #59 |date=October 15, 2003|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101206042041/http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris-Interactive-Poll-Research-While-Most-Americans-Believe-in-God-Only-36-pct-A-2003-10.pdf|archive-date=December 6, 2010}}</ref>
The survey found that of the 4.3 million strongly connected Jews, 46% belong to a synagogue. Among those households who belong to a synagogue, 38% are members of Reform synagogues, 33% Conservative, 22% Orthodox, 2% [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionist]], and 5% other types.

Traditionally, [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi]] and [[Mizrahi Jews]] do not have different branches (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, etc.) but usually remain observant and religious. However, their synagogues are generally considered Orthodox or [[Sephardic Haredim]] by non-Sephardic Jews. But, not all Sephardim are Orthodox; among the pioneers of Reform Judaism movement in the 1820s there was the Sephardic congregation [[Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim|Beth Elohim]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina]].<ref>{{cite book |surname=Meyer |given=Michael A. |author-link=Michael A. Meyer |title=Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1988 |place=New York |isbn=9780195051674 |pages=232–35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M12toEjI5PEC&pg=PA232 |access-date=June 30, 2023 |archive-date=June 30, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230630175739/https://books.google.com/books?id=M12toEjI5PEC&pg=PA232 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The survey discovered that Jews in the [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]] and [[Midwest]] are generally more observant than Jews in the South or West. Reflecting a trend also observed among other religious groups, Jews in the Northwestern United States are typically the least observant.

The 2008 [[American Religious Identification Survey]] found that around 3.4 million American Jews call themselves [[Religious Jews|religious]]—out of a general Jewish population of about 5.4 million. The number of Jews who identify themselves as only culturally Jewish has risen from 20% in 1990 to 37% in 2008, according to the study. In the same period, the number of all US adults who said they had no religion rose from 8% to 15%. Jews are more likely to be secular than Americans in general, the researchers said. About half of all US Jews—including those who consider themselves religiously observant—claim in the survey that they have a secular worldview and see no contradiction between that outlook and their faith, according to the study's authors. Researchers attribute the trends among American Jews to the high rate of intermarriage and "disaffection from Judaism" in the United States.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3759000,00.html |title=US survey: Number of religious Jews drops sharply |work=ynet |date=August 9, 2009 |access-date=February 15, 2015 |archive-date=November 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129154638/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3759000,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Religious beliefs===
American Jews are more likely to be [[Atheism|atheists]] or [[Agnosticism|agnostics]] than most Americans, especially when they are compared with American [[Protestantism|Protestants]] or [[Catholic Church|Catholics]]. A 2003 poll found that while 79% of Americans [[Belief in God|believe in God]], only 48% of American Jews do, compared to 79% and 90% of American Catholics and Protestants respectively. While 66% of Americans said that they were "absolutely certain" of God's existence, 24% of American Jews said the same. And though 9% of Americans believe that there is [[Atheism|no God]] (8% of American [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] and 4% of American [[Protestantism|Protestants]]), 19% of American Jews believe that God does not exist.<ref name="Taylor-2003"/>

A 2009 Harris Poll showed that American Jews constitute the one religious group which is most accepting of the science of [[evolution]], with 80% accepting evolution, compared to 51% for Catholics, 32% for Protestants, and 16% of born-again Christians.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ncse.com/news/2009/12/evolution-new-harris-poll-005232 |title=Evolution in a new Harris poll |publisher=NCSE |access-date=March 14, 2012 |date=2009-12-16 |archive-date=January 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120125174028/http://ncse.com/news/2009/12/evolution-new-harris-poll-005232 |url-status=live }}</ref> They were also less likely to believe in supernatural phenomena such as [[miracle]]s, [[angel]]s, or [[heaven]].

==== Christianity ====
A 2013 [[Pew Research Center]] report found that 1.7 million American Jewish adults, 1.6 million of whom were raised in Jewish homes or had Jewish ancestry, identified as [[Christians]] or [[Messianic Judaism|Messianic Jews]] but also consider themselves ethnically Jewish. Another 700,000 American Christian adults considered themselves "[[Judaizers|Jews by affinity]]" or "grafted-in" Jews.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nycreligion.info/national-survey-shows-jews-leaving-judaism-assimilating-christians-nones/ |title=National survey shows Jews leaving Judaism, assimilating, becoming Christians or "Nones" |date=October 1, 2013 |website=A Journey through NYC religions |access-date=December 12, 2019 |archive-date=December 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212034549/https://www.nycreligion.info/national-survey-shows-jews-leaving-judaism-assimilating-christians-nones/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/02/how-many-jews-are-there-in-the-united-states/ How many Jews are there in the United States?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210529104046/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/02/how-many-jews-are-there-in-the-united-states/ |date=May 29, 2021 }} ''Pew Research Center''</ref> According to a 2020 study by the [[Pew Research Center]], 19% of those who say they were raised Jewish, consider themselves Christian.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/|title=Jewish Americans in 2020|date=May 11, 2021 |publisher=Pew Research Center|quote=That means that one-third of those raised Jewish or by Jewish parent(s) are not Jewish today, either because they identify with a religion other than Judaism (including 19% who consider themselves Christian) or because they do not currently identify as Jewish either by religion or aside from religion.}}</ref>

A 2025 Pew Research Center report found that 7% of American adults who identify ethnically as Jewish were raised as Christians. Additionally, among those who were raised as religious Jews rather than in a Christian environment, 2% now identify as Christian.<ref name="Lesage-2025">{{Cite web |last1=Lesage |first1=Kirsten |last2=Starr |first2=Kelsey Jo |last3=Miner |first3=William |date=26 March 2025 |title=6. Religious switching into and out of Judaism |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/03/26/religious-switching-into-and-out-of-judaism/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250327132426/https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/03/26/religious-switching-into-and-out-of-judaism/#has-judaism-experienced-net-gains-or-losses-from-religious-switching |archive-date=27 March 2025 |website=[[Pew Research Center]]}}</ref>

====Buddhism====
{{Main|Jewish Buddhist}}

[[Jewish Buddhist]]s<ref name="Cohn-Sherbok-2010">{{cite book |surname=Cohn-Sherbok |given=Dan |authorlink=Dan Cohn-Sherbok |chapter=Jewish Buddhists |title=Judaism Today |year=2010 |publisher=Continuum |place=London; New York |pages=98–100 |chapter-url={{Google books|id=kw8SBwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=98|keywords=|text=}} |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kw8SBwAAQBAJ |isbn=978-0-8264-3829-4 |access-date=July 3, 2023 |archive-date=June 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230628053238/https://books.google.com/books?id=kw8SBwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> are overrepresented among [[Buddhism in the United States|American Buddhists]]; this is specifically the case among those Jews whose parents are not [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], and those Jews who are without a Buddhist heritage, with between one fifth<ref>{{cite news |last=Yoheved |first=Sara |url=http://www.aish.com/sp/so/48905982.html |title=Conflicts of a Buddhist Jew |newspaper=Aishcom |publisher=Aish.com |date=May 14, 2005 |access-date=March 14, 2012 |archive-date=June 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603120838/http://www.aish.com/sp/so/48905982.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and 30% of all American Buddhists identifying as Jewish<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week126/cover.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081110221232/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics///week126/cover.html|archive-date=2008-11-10 |title=Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly . COVER STORY . Jews and American Buddhism . February 27, 1998 |publisher=PBS |date=February 27, 1998 |access-date=March 14, 2012}}</ref> though only [[Religion in the United States#Judaism|2% of Americans are Jewish]]. Nicknamed ''Jubu''s, an increasing{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} number of American Jews have started to adopt Buddhist spiritual practices, while at the same time, they are continuing to identify with and practice Judaism. It may be the individual practices both Judaism and Buddhism.<ref name="Cohn-Sherbok-2010" /> Notable American Jewish Buddhists include: [[Robert Downey Jr.]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/arts/music/robert-downey-jr-the-album.html |work=The New York Times |title=Robert Downey Jr.: The Album |date=November 21, 2004 |access-date=May 6, 2010 |first=Hilary |last=De Vries |archive-date=September 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920063301/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/arts/music/robert-downey-jr-the-album.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Allen Ginsberg]],<ref>{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Schumacher |url=http://www.allenginsberg.org/bio.php |title=The Allen Ginsberg Trust: Biography |work=allenginsberg.org |date=January 27, 2002|access-date=August 23, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080723165917/http://allenginsberg.org/bio.php|archive-date=July 23, 2008}}</ref> [[Linda Pritzker]],<ref>[https://www.forbes.com/profile/linda-pritzker/ Forbes: The World's Billionaires - Linda Pritzker] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714151328/https://www.forbes.com/profile/linda-pritzker/ |date=July 14, 2018 }} July 2018</ref> [[Jonathan F.P. Rose]],<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/nyregion/in-person-developer-with-eye-to-profits-for-society.html IN PERSON; Developer With Eye To Profits For Society" By TINA KELLEY] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180808204436/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/nyregion/in-person-developer-with-eye-to-profits-for-society.html |date=August 8, 2018 }} April 11, 2004</ref> [[Goldie Hawn]]<ref>{{cite news |url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0602/24/lkl.01.html |work=CNN |access-date=May 6, 2010 |title=CNN.com |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629093937/http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0602/24/lkl.01.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and daughter [[Kate Hudson]], [[Steven Seagal]], [[Adam Yauch]] of the rap group [[The Beastie Boys]], and [[Garry Shandling]]. Film makers the [[Coen Brothers]] have been influenced by Buddhism as well for a time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dudespaper.com/the-dude-abidesnot-just-coen-brothers-fans-will-take-comfort-in-that.html/ |title=The Dude Abides{{nbsp}}... Not Just Coen Brothers Fans Will Take Comfort in That |work=The Dudespaper |date=September 5, 2009 |access-date=February 11, 2014 |archive-date=April 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422230926/https://www.reddit.com/static/button/button1.html?newwindow=true&width=120&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdudespaper.com%2Fthe-dude-abidesnot-just-coen-brothers-fans-will-take-comfort-in-that.html%2F&title=The%20Dude%20Abides...Not%20Just%20Coen%20Brothers%20Fans%20Will%20Take%20Comfort%20in%20That |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Islam ====
A 2025 Pew Research Center report revealed that 1% of American Jewish adults who were raised in Judaism later identified as [[Muslims|Muslim]].<ref name="Lesage-2025" />

==Contemporary politics==
{{Main|American Jews in politics}}
[[File:Map of Jewish US Senators.png|thumb|Map of Jewish senators as of 2025. Blue indicates there is currently at least one Jewish senator from that state. Gray indicates no Jewish senators from that state.]]

Today, American Jews are a distinctive and influential group in the nation's politics. Jeffrey S. Helmreich writes that the ability of American Jews to effect this through political or financial clout is overestimated,<ref>Steven L. Spiegel, ''The Other Arab-Israeli Conflict'' (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 150–165.</ref> that the primary influence lies in the group's voting patterns.<ref name="Helmreich-2008">{{cite web |url=http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp446.htm |title=The Israel swing factor: how the American Jewish vote influences U.S. elections |first=Jeffrey S. |last=Helmreich|access-date=October 2, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920070714/http://www.jcpa.org/jl/vp446.htm|archive-date=September 20, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

"Jews have devoted themselves to politics with almost religious fervor," writes [[Mitchell Bard]], who adds that Jews have the highest percentage [[voter turnout]] of any ethnic group (84% reported being registered to vote<ref>{{cite news |url=http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2religious-landscape-study-chapter-2.pdf |title=Pugh Forum findings Page 81 |newspaper=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |access-date=March 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309205034/http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2religious-landscape-study-chapter-2.pdf|archive-date=March 9, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>).

Though the majority (60–70%) of the country's Jews identify as Democratic, Jews span the political spectrum, with those at higher levels of observance being far more likely to vote Republican than their less observant and secular counterparts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://andrewgelman.com/2008/05/23/voting_patterns/ |title=Voting patterns of Jews and other religious groups |work=Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science |access-date=February 15, 2015 |archive-date=February 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215194355/http://andrewgelman.com/2008/05/23/voting_patterns/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Florence_Prag_Kahn.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Florence Prag Kahn|Florence Kahn]] was the first Jewish woman to be elected to the [[United States Congress]] and first woman to be reelected.]]
Owing to high Democratic identification in the [[2008 United States presidential election]], 78% of Jews voted for Democrat [[Barack Obama]] versus 21% for Republican [[John McCain]], despite Republican attempts to connect Obama to Muslim and pro-Palestinian causes.<ref name="Benhorin-2008" /> It has been suggested that running mate [[Sarah Palin]]'s conservative views on social issues may have nudged Jews away from the McCain–Palin ticket.<ref name="Helmreich-2008"/><ref name="Benhorin-2008">{{cite web |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3618408,00.html |title=78% of American Jews vote Obama |first=Yitzhak |last=Benhorin |publisher=Yedioth Internet |access-date=October 5, 2008 |archive-date=November 8, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081108102151/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3618408,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the [[2012 presidential election]], 69% of Jews voted for the Democratic incumbent President Obama.<ref>{{cite news |last=Berenbaum |first=Michael |url=http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/some_jewish_takeaways_from_the_2012_election |title=Some Jewish takeaways from the 2012 Election |work=Jewish Journal |date=November 8, 2012 |access-date=November 8, 2012 |archive-date=January 16, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116070345/http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/some_jewish_takeaways_from_the_2012_election |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2019, after the 2016 election of [[Donald Trump]], poll data from the Jewish Electorate Institute showed that 73% of Jewish voters felt less secure as Jews than before, 71% disapproved of Trump's handling of antisemitism (54% strongly disapprove), 59% felt that he bears "at least some responsibility" for the [[Pittsburgh synagogue shooting]] and [[Poway synagogue shooting]], and 38% were concerned that Trump was encouraging right-wing extremism. Views of the Democratic and Republican parties were milder: 28% were concerned that Republicans were making alliances with white nationalists and tolerating antisemitism within their ranks, while 27% were concerned that Democrats were tolerating antisemitism within their ranks.<ref>Jewish Electorate Institute. [https://www.jewishelectorateinstitute.org/poll-domestic-issues-dominate-the-priorities-of-the-jewish-electorate/ POLL: Domestic issues dominate the priorities of the Jewish electorate] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190815211740/https://www.jewishelectorateinstitute.org/poll-domestic-issues-dominate-the-priorities-of-the-jewish-electorate/ |date=August 15, 2019 }}. May 22, 2019.</ref>

In the [[2020 U.S. Presidential Election]], 77% of American Jews voted for Joe Biden, while 22% voted for Donald Trump.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ziri |first1=Danielle |title=Over three-quarters of U.S. Jews Voted for Biden in Election, Poll Finds |url=https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-over-three-quarters-of-u-s-jews-voted-for-biden-in-election-poll-finds-1.9288692 |access-date=2 July 2021 |publisher=Haaretz |date=November 4, 2020 |archive-date=July 4, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210704160954/https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-over-three-quarters-of-u-s-jews-voted-for-biden-in-election-poll-finds-1.9288692 |url-status=live }}</ref> A similar trend emerged in the [[2024 United States presidential election|2024 Presidential Election]], where 78% of American Jews voted for [[Kamala Harris]] while 22% voted for Donald Trump.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Exit poll results 2024 {{!}} CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0 |access-date=2025-05-24 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref>

===Foreign policy===
American Jews have displayed a very strong interest in [[Foreign policy|foreign affairs]], especially regarding [[Germany]] in the 1930s, and [[Israel]] since 1945.<ref>Michael N. Barnett, ''The Star and the Stripes: A History of the Foreign Policies of American Jews'' (2016)</ref> Both major parties have made strong commitments in support of Israel. Dr. Eric Uslaner of the [[University of Maryland]] argues, with regard to the 2004 election: "Only 15% of Jews said that Israel was a key voting issue. Among those voters, 55% voted for Kerry (compared to 83% of Jewish voters not concerned with Israel)." Uslander goes on to point out that negative views of [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Christians]] had a distinctly negative impact for Republicans among Jewish voters, while [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]], traditionally more conservative in outlook as to social issues, favored the Republican Party.<ref>Eric M. Uslaner, {{cite web |url=http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/uslaner/uslanerlichbachjewishvotingbehaviorsummary.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615202225/http://www.bsos.umd.edu/gvpt/uslaner/uslanerlichbachjewishvotingbehaviorsummary.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date= 2010-06-15 |title=Two Front War: Jews, Identity, Liberalism, and Voting}}&nbsp;{{small|(59.6&nbsp;KB)}}</ref> A ''New York Times'' article suggests that the Jewish movement to the Republican party is focused heavily on faith-based issues, similar to the Catholic vote, which is credited for helping [[George W. Bush|President Bush]] taking Florida in 2004.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Laurie |last1=Goodstein |first2=William |last2=Yardley |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/politics/campaign/bush-benefits-from-efforts-to-build-a-coalition-of-the-faithful.html |title=President Benefits From Efforts to Build a Coalition of Religious Voters |work=The New York Times |date=November 5, 2004|access-date=January 19, 2016}}</ref> However, Natan Guttman, ''[[The Forward]]''{{'}}s Washington bureau chief, dismisses this notion, writing in ''[[Moment (magazine)|Moment]]'' that while "[i]t is true that Republicans are making small and steady strides into the Jewish community{{nbsp}}... a look at the past three decades of [[exit polls]], which are more reliable than pre-election polls, and the numbers are clear: Jews vote overwhelmingly Democratic,"<ref>{{cite news |first=Natan |last=Guttman |url=http://www.momentmag.com/ |title=Myths About the "Jewish Vote" |work=Moment Magazine |date=July–August 2011 |access-date=June 30, 2011 |archive-date=July 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703222905/http://www.momentmag.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> an assertion confirmed by the most recent presidential election results.

Jewish Americans were more strongly opposed to the [[Iraq War]] from its onset than any other ethnic group, or even most Americans. The greater opposition to the war was not simply a result of high Democratic identification among Jewish Americans, as Jewish Americans of all political persuasions were more likely to oppose the war than non-Jews who shared the same political leanings.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/26677/Among-Religious-Groups-Jewish-Americans-Most-Strongly-Oppose-War.aspx |title=Among Religious Groups, Jewish Americans Most Strongly Oppose War |publisher=Gallup, Inc. |first=Jeffrey M. |last=Jones |newspaper=Gallup.com |date=February 23, 2007|access-date=October 4, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081011153616/http://www.gallup.com/poll/26677/Among-Religious-Groups-Jewish-Americans-Most-Strongly-Oppose-War.aspx|archive-date=October 11, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aipac.org/Publications/AIPACPeriodicalsNearEastReport/NER011507.pdf |title=Editor's Comments |publisher=Near East|access-date=October 4, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081029001438/http://www.aipac.org/Publications/AIPACPeriodicalsNearEastReport/NER011507.pdf|archive-date=October 29, 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Domestic issues===
{{Further|Jewish views on homosexuality|Judaism and abortion|Judaism and environmentalism}}
A 2013 Pew Research Center survey suggests that American Jews' views on domestic politics are intertwined with the community's self-definition as a persecuted minority who benefited from the liberties and societal shifts in the United States and feel obligated to help other minorities enjoy the same benefits. American Jews across age and gender lines tend to vote for and support politicians and policies which are supported by the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. On the other hand, Orthodox American Jews have domestic political views which are more similar to those of their religious Christian neighbors.<ref>Boyarsky, Bill. [http://www.jewishjournal.com/bill_boyarsky/article/pew_finds_jews_mostly_liberal "Pew finds Jews mostly liberal."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110145921/http://www.jewishjournal.com/bill_boyarsky/article/pew_finds_jews_mostly_liberal |date=November 10, 2013 }} ''Jewish Journal''. 23 October 2013. 23 October 2013.</ref>

American Jews are largely supportive of [[LGBT rights]] with 79% responding in a 2011 Pew poll that homosexuality should be "accepted by society", while the overall average in the same 2011 poll among Americans of all demographic groups was that 50%.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2religious-landscape-study-chapter-2.pdf |title=Pew Forum findings Page 92 |newspaper=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |access-date=March 10, 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110309205034/http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2religious-landscape-study-chapter-2.pdf| archive-date= March 9, 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref> A split on homosexuality exists by level of observance. [[Reform Judaism|Reform]] rabbis in America perform same-sex marriages as a matter of routine, and there are fifteen LGBT Jewish congregations in North America.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/the-gay-question-and-the-jewish-question-1.206707 |title=The gay question and the Jewish question |newspaper=haaretz |access-date=January 6, 2010 |date=2006-12-10 |archive-date=January 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109094438/http://www.haaretz.com/the-gay-question-and-the-jewish-question-1.206707 |url-status=live }}</ref> Reform, [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionist]] and, increasingly, [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]], Jews are far more supportive on issues like gay marriage than [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]] are.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewsonfirst.org/howjewsseegr.html |title=Attacks on Gay Rights: How Jews See It |work=jewsonfirst.org|access-date=February 25, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116072133/http://www.jewsonfirst.org/howjewsseegr.html|archive-date=January 16, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> A 2007 survey of Conservative Jewish leaders and activists showed that an overwhelming majority supported gay rabbinical ordination and same-sex marriage.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://forward.com/news/9989/poll-conservative-leaders-back-gay-rabbis/ |title=Poll: Conservative Leaders Back Gay Rabbis |first=Rebecca |last=Spence |date=February 2007 |access-date=April 23, 2009 |publisher=Forward Association |archive-date=July 2, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702160629/http://forward.com/news/9989/poll-conservative-leaders-back-gay-rabbis/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Accordingly, 78% of Jewish voters rejected [[California Proposition 8 (2008)|Prop{{nbsp}}8]], the bill that banned gay marriage in California. No other ethnic or religious group voted as strongly against it.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/11/la-jews-overwhe.html |title=L.A. Jews overwhelmingly opposed Prop. 8, exit poll finds |newspaper=LA Times|access-date=December 10, 2008 |date=November 9, 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081212232129/http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/11/la-jews-overwhe.html| archive-date= December 12, 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>

A 2014 Pew poll found that American Jews mostly support abortion rights, with 83% answering that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.<ref>{{cite web |title=Views about abortion among Jews |website=pewresearch.org |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/jewish/views-about-abortion/ |access-date=27 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220619163830/https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-tradition/jewish/views-about-abortion/ |archive-date=19 June 2022 }}</ref>

In considering the trade-off between the economy and environmental protection, American Jews were significantly more likely than other religious groups (excepting Buddhism) to favor stronger environmental protection.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2religious-landscape-study-chapter-2.pdf |title=Pugh Forum findings Page 104 |newspaper=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |access-date=March 10, 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110309205034/http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report2religious-landscape-study-chapter-2.pdf| archive-date= March 9, 2011 | url-status= live}}</ref>

Jews in America also overwhelmingly oppose current United States marijuana policy.{{update inline|date=March 2021}} In 2009, eighty-six percent of Jewish Americans opposed arresting nonviolent marijuana smokers, compared to 61% for the population at large and 68% of all Democrats. Additionally, 85% of Jews in the United States opposed using federal law enforcement to close patient cooperatives for medical marijuana in states where medical marijuana is legal, compared to 67% of the population at large and 73% of Democrats.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5052 |title=Majority of Americans Oppose US Marijuana Policies|access-date=April 23, 2009 |publisher=NORML| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090423031414/http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5052| archive-date= April 23, 2009 | url-status= live}}</ref>

A 2014 Pew Research survey titled "How Americans Feel About Religious Groups", found that Jews were viewed the most favorably of all other groups, with a rating of 63 out of 100.<ref>{{cite news |title=How Americans Feel About Religious Groups |website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |date=2014-07-16 |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-religious-groups/ |access-date=2018-02-10 |archive-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209101432/http://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-religious-groups/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Jews were viewed most positively by fellow Jews, followed by white Evangelicals. Sixty percent of the 3,200 persons surveyed said they had ever met a Jew.<ref>{{cite web |last=Green |first=Emma |title=Americans Say Jews Are the Coolest |website=The Atlantic |date=2014-07-16 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/americans-just-think-jews-are-the-coolest/374530/ |access-date=2018-02-10 |archive-date=February 11, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211185959/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/americans-just-think-jews-are-the-coolest/374530/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Jewish American culture==
{{See also|Jewish secularism|Jewish culture}}

Since the time of the last major wave of Jewish immigration to America (over 2,000,000 Jews from Eastern Europe who arrived between 1890 and 1924), Jewish secular culture in the United States has become integrated in almost every important way with the broader American culture. Many aspects of Jewish American culture have, in turn, become part of the wider culture of the United States.

===Language===
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ Jewish languages in the US
|-
! Year
! Hebrew
! Yiddish
|-
| 1910{{ref|foreignborn|a|}} ||{{center|—}} ||{{center|1,051,767}}
|-
| 1920{{ref|foreignborn|a|}} ||{{center|—}} ||{{center|1,091,820}}
|-
| 1930{{ref|foreignborn|a|}} ||{{center|—}} ||{{center|1,222,658}}
|-
| 1940{{ref|foreignborn|a|}} ||{{center|—}} ||{{center|924,440}}
|-
| 1960{{ref|foreignborn|a|}} ||{{center|38,346}} ||{{center|503,605}}
|-
| 1970{{ref|foreignborn|a|}} ||{{center|36,112}} ||{{center|438,116}}
|-
| 1980<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/Table2.xls |title=Appendix Table 2. Languages Spoken at Home: 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2007. |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=August 6, 2012 |archive-date=July 24, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170724154829/https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/acs/Table2.xls |url-status=live }}</ref> || ||{{center|315,953}}
|-
| 1990<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/census/table5.txt |title=Detailed Language Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English for Persons 5 Years and Over – 50 Languages with Greatest Number of Speakers: United States 1990 |year=1990 |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=July 22, 2012 |archive-date=July 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718105948/https://www.census.gov/hhes/socdemo/language/data/census/table5.txt |url-status=live }}</ref> ||{{center|144,292}} ||{{center|213,064}}
|-
| 2000<ref>{{cite web |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_QTP16&prodType=table |title=Language Spoken at Home: 2000 |publisher=[[United States Bureau of the Census]] | access-date = August 8, 2012 | archive-url = https://archive.today/20200212212514/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_00_SF3_QTP16&prodType=table | archive-date = February 12, 2020 | url-status = dead}}</ref> ||{{center|195,374}} ||{{center|178,945}}
|-
|colspan="3"|{{note|foreignborn|a|Foreign-born population only<ref>{{Cite web |date=2000-06-02 |title=Tech Paper 29: Table 6. Mother Tongue of the Foreign-Born Population: 1910 to 1940, 1960, and 1970 |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab06.html|access-date=2021-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000602111328/https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab06.html|archive-date=June 2, 2000}}</ref>}}
|}

Most American Jews today are native [[English language|English speakers]]. A variety of other languages are still spoken within some American Jewish communities that are representative of the various [[Jewish ethnic divisions]] from around the world that have come together to make up all of America's Jewish population.

Many of America's [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidic Jews]], being exclusively of [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] descent, are raised speaking [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]]. Yiddish was once spoken as the primary language by most of the several million Ashkenazi Jews who migrated to the United States. It was, in fact, the original language in which ''[[The Forward]]'' was published. Yiddish has had an influence on [[American English]], and words borrowed from it include ''[[chutzpah]]'' ({{Gloss|effrontery, gall}}), ''nosh'' ({{Gloss|snack}}), ''schlep'' ({{Gloss|drag}}), ''schmuck'' ({{Gloss|an obnoxious, contemptible person}}, euphemism for {{Gloss|penis}}), and, depending on [[idiolect]], hundreds of other terms. (See also [[Yinglish]].)

Many [[Mizrahi Jews]], including those from Arab countries such as Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Libya, etc. speak [[Arabic]]. There are communities of Mizrahim in [[Brooklyn]]. The town of [[Deal, New Jersey]], is notably mostly Syrian-Jewish, with many of them Orthodox.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.eldridgestreet.org/blog/where-you-live-in-new-york-may-say-a-lot-about-your-jewish-heritage/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724194247/https://www.eldridgestreet.org/blog/where-you-live-in-new-york-may-say-a-lot-about-your-jewish-heritage/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=July 24, 2020 | title=Where You Live in New York May Say a Lot About Your Jewish Heritage | date=August 21, 2019 }}</ref>

The [[Persian Jews|Persian Jewish]] community in the United States, notably the large community in and around Los Angeles and [[Beverly Hills, California]], primarily speak [[Persian language|Persian]] (see also [[Dzhidi language|Judeo-Persian]]) in the home and synagogue. They also support their own Persian language newspapers. Persian Jews also reside in eastern parts of New York such as [[Kew Gardens, Queens|Kew Gardens]] and [[Great Neck, New York|Great Neck, Long Island]].

Many recent Jewish immigrants from the [[Soviet Union]] speak primarily Russian at home, and there are several notable communities where public life and business are carried out mainly in Russian, such as in [[Brighton Beach]] in New York City and [[Sunny Isles Beach]] in Florida. 2010 estimates of the number of Jewish Russian-speaking households in the New York city area are around 92,000, and the number of individuals are somewhere between 223,000 and 350,000.<ref>Kliger, Sam. [http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=8002 "Russian Jews in America: Status, Identity and Integration] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110924101621/http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=8002 |date=September 24, 2011 }}". International Conference "Russian-speaking Jewry in Global Perspective: Assimilation, Integration and Community-building". American Jewish Committee (AJC). June 2004</ref> Another high population of Russian Jews can be found in the [[Richmond District, San Francisco, California|Richmond District]] of San Francisco where Russian markets stand alongside the numerous Asian businesses.

[[File:Brooklyn Posters 1.jpg|thumb|left|A typical poster-hung wall in Jewish Brooklyn, New York]]

American [[Bukharan Jews]] speak [[Bukhori]], a dialect of Tajik Persian. They publish their own newspapers such as the ''Bukharian Times'' and a large portion live in [[Queens]], New York. [[Forest Hills, Queens, New York|Forest Hills]] in the New York City borough of Queens is home to 108th Street, which is called by some "Bukharian Broadway",<ref>{{cite news |last=Moskin |first=Julia |title=The Silk Road Leads to Queens |url=http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/dining/18rego.html |work=The New York Times |date=January 18, 2006 |access-date=April 23, 2010 |archive-date=December 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218051116/http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/dining/18rego.html |url-status=live }}</ref> a reference to the many stores and restaurants found on and around the street that have Bukharian influences. Many Bukharians are also represented in parts of [[Arizona]], Miami, Florida, and areas of [[Southern California]] such as San Diego.

There is a sizeable [[Mountain Jewish]] population in [[Brooklyn]], New York, that speaks [[Judeo-Tat]] (Juhuri), a dialect of Persian.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2008/01/14/feature-mountain-jews-brooklyn/ | title=Feature: The Mountain Jews of Brooklyn | date=January 14, 2008 | access-date=January 31, 2022 | archive-date=January 31, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220131072300/https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2008/01/14/feature-mountain-jews-brooklyn/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Classical Hebrew]] is the language of most Jewish religious literature, such as the [[Tanakh]] (Bible) and [[Siddur]] (prayerbook). [[Modern Hebrew]] is also the primary official language of the modern State of [[Israel]], which further encourages many to learn it as a second language. Some recent Israeli immigrants to America speak Hebrew as their primary language.

There are a diversity of [[Hispanic Jews]] living in America. The oldest community is that of the Sephardi Jews of New Netherland. Their ancestors had fled Spain or Portugal during the Inquisition for the Netherlands, and then came to New Netherland. Though there is dispute over whether they should be considered Hispanic. Some Hispanic Jews, particularly in Miami and Los Angeles, immigrated from Latin America. The largest groups are those that fled Cuba after the communist revolution (known as [[Jewban|Jewbans]]), Argentine Jews, and more recently, Venezuelan Jews. Argentina is the Latin American country with the largest Jewish population. There are a large number of synagogues in the Miami area that give services in Spanish. The last Hispanic Jewish community would be those that recently came from Portugal or Spain, after Spain and Portugal granted citizenship to the descendants of Jews who fled during the Inquisition. All the above listed Hispanic Jewish groups speak either Spanish or Ladino.

===Jewish American literature===
{{Main|Jewish American literature}}

Although American Jews have contributed greatly to American arts in general, there still remains a distinctly Jewish American literature. Jewish American literature often explores the experience of being a Jew in America, and the conflicting pulls of secular society and history.

===Popular culture===
{{Main|Jews in American cinema|Jews in baseball|List of Jewish American authors|List of Jewish American entertainers|List of Jewish musicians|List of Jewish American visual artists|List of Jewish American photographers}}

Yiddish theater was very well attended, and provided a training ground for performers and producers who moved to Hollywood in the 1920s. Many of the early Hollywood moguls and pioneers were Jewish.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Sarah Blacher Cohen|editor-link=Sarah Blacher Cohen |title=From Hester Street to Hollywood: The Jewish-American Stage and Screen |url=https://archive.org/details/fromhesterstreet00cohe|url-access=registration |year=1983 |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |isbn=9780253325006}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gabler |first=Neal|author-link=Neal Gabler |title=An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood |year=1988 |publisher=[[Crown Publishing Group]]|title-link=An Empire of Their Own}}</ref> They played roles in the development of radio and television networks, typified by [[William S. Paley]] who ran [[CBS]].<ref>Sally Bedell Smith, ''In All His Glory: the Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting'' (1990).</ref> Stephen J. Whitfield states that "The Sarnoff family was long dominant at NBC."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield, "The Jewish contribution to American journalism." ''American Journalism'' 3.2 (1986): 99–112, quote p 102.</ref>

Many individual Jews have made significant contributions to American popular culture.<ref>Paul Buhle, ''From the Lower East Side to Hollywood: Jews in American Popular Culture'' (Verso, 2004).</ref> There have been many Jewish American actors and performers, ranging from early 1900s actors, to classic Hollywood film stars, and culminating in many currently known actors. The field of American comedy includes many Jews. The legacy also includes songwriters and authors, for example the author of the song "Viva Las Vegas" [[Doc Pomus]], or ''[[Billy the Kid (ballet)|Billy the Kid]]'' composer [[Aaron Copland]]. Many Jews have been at the forefront of women's issues.

=== Sports ===
{{See also|List of Jewish American sportspeople|Jews in baseball}}
[[File:Spaldeen.jpg|thumb|152x152px|The rubber [[spaldeen]], often used to play [[variations of baseball]] in the street<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Riess |first=Steven A. |date=1985 |title=Introduction: Sport and The American Jew |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23882634 |journal=American Jewish History |volume=74 |issue=3 |pages=211–221 |jstor=23882634 |issn=0164-0178}}</ref>]]
The first generation of Jewish Americans who immigrated during the 1880–1924 peak period were not interested in [[baseball]], the country's national pastime, and in some cases tried to prevent their children from watching or participating in baseball-related activities. Most were focused on making sure they and their children took advantage of education and employment opportunities. Despite the efforts of parents, Jewish children became interested in baseball quickly since it was already embedded in the broader American culture. The second generation of immigrants saw baseball as a means to celebrate American culture without abandoning their broader religious community. After 1924, many Yiddish newspapers began covering baseball, which they had not done previously.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Patterson |first=Alan Owen |date=February 2008 |title=The Eastern European Jewish Immigrant Experience with Baseball in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century |journal=Modern Judaism |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=79–104 |jstor=30130936 |doi=10.1093/mj/kjm019 |s2cid=161807444}}</ref>

===Government and military===
{{Main|List of Jewish American politicians|List of Jewish Americans in the military}}
{{See also|Military history of Jewish Americans}}
[[File:JewishConfederate.JPG|thumb|right|Grave of a [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] Jewish soldier near [[Clinton, Louisiana|Clinton]], [[Louisiana]]]]

Since 1845, a total of 34 Jews have served in the Senate, including the 14 present-day senators noted [[#Politics|above]]. [[Judah P. Benjamin]] was the first practicing Jewish Senator, and would later serve as [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] [[Secretary of War]] and Secretary of State during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. [[Rahm Emanuel]] served as Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama. The number of Jews elected to the House rose to an all-time high of 30. [[List of Jewish United States Supreme Court justices|Eight]] Jews have been appointed to the [[United States Supreme Court]], of which one ([[Elena Kagan]]) is currently serving. Had [[Merrick Garland]]'s 2016 nomination been accepted, that number would have risen to four out of nine since [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]] and [[Stephen Breyer]] were also serving at that time.

The Civil War marked a transition for American Jews. It killed off the antisemitic canard, widespread in Europe, to the effect that Jews are cowardly, preferring to run from war rather than serve alongside their fellow citizens in battle.<ref>Adam Mendelsohn, "Beyond the Battlefield: Reevaluating the Legacy of the Civil War for American Jews," ''American Jewish Archives Journal'' 64 (nos. 1–2, 2012), 82–111 [http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/2012_64_01_00_mendelsohn.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708104454/http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/2012_64_01_00_mendelsohn.pdf |date=July 8, 2014 }}.</ref><ref>Howard B. Rock, "Upheaval, Innovation, and Transformation: New York City Jews and the Civil War," ''American Jewish Archives Journal'' 64 (nos. 1–2, 2012), 1–26.</ref>

At least twenty eight American Jews have been awarded the [[Medal of Honor]].

===World War II===
More than 550,000 Jews served in the [[Military of the United States|U.S. military]] during [[World War II]]; about 11,000 of them were killed and more than 40,000 of them were wounded. There were three recipients of the Medal of Honor; 157 recipients of the [[Army Distinguished Service Medal]], [[Navy Distinguished Service Medal]], [[Distinguished Service Cross (United States)|Distinguished Service Cross]], or [[Navy Cross (United States)|Navy Cross]]; and about 1600 recipients of the [[Silver Star]]. About 50,000 other decorations and awards were given to Jewish military personnel, making a total of 52,000 decorations. During this period, Jews were approximately 3.3 percent of the total U.S. population but they constituted about 4.23 percent of the U.S. armed forces. About 60 percent of all Jewish physicians in the United States who were under 45 years of age were in service as military physicians and [[medic]]s.<ref>Brody, Seymour. "[http://seymourbrody.com/index.htm Jewish Heroes and Heroines in America: World War II to the Present, A Judaica Collection Exhibit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160302191841/http://seymourbrody.com/index.htm |date=March 2, 2016 }}."</ref>

Disproportionately many Jewish [[physicist]]s, such as [[Richard Feynman]], [[Hans Bethe]], [[John von Neumann]] as well as the project head,
[[J. Robert Oppenheimer]], were involved in the [[Manhattan Project]], the secret World War II effort to develop the [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/753|accessdate=2025-11-19|publisher=Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at BYU|title=Jewish Contribution to the Manhattan Project|last=Beus|first=Abigail}} "''Of the 86 members in this division, 18 were Jewish—almost 21%. Even more impressive, of the eight groups in 1945, five were led by Jewish scientists such as Richard Feynman, Hans Bethe, and John von Neumann. Although Jews only constituted around .05% of the US population at the time, they made up a significant portion of the scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.''"</ref> Many of these physicists were refugees from [[Nazi Germany]] or they were refugees from [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] persecution which was also occurring elsewhere in Europe.

===American folk music===
Jews have been involved in the American folk music scene since the late 19th century;<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.amazon.com/Union-Hymnal-Prayers-Jewish-Worship/dp/B00157OXGY |title=Union Hymnal: Songs and Prayers for Jewish Worship: Central Conference of American Rabbis, Committee on Synagogue Music |via=Amazon.com |date=January 1948 |publisher=The Central Conference of American Rabbis |access-date=August 29, 2017 |archive-date=September 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918051622/https://www.amazon.com/Union-Hymnal-Prayers-Jewish-Worship/dp/B00157OXGY |url-status=live }}</ref> these tended to be refugees from Central and Eastern Europe, and significantly more economically disadvantaged than their established Western European Sephardic coreligionists.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://old.library.jhu.edu/collections/specialcollections/sheetmusic/musictours/text/jewishmusic.html |title=The Jew and American Popular Music |first=Margaret |last=Burri |date=July 18, 2007 |publisher=jhu.edu|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116072128/http://old.library.jhu.edu/collections/specialcollections/sheetmusic/musictours/text/jewishmusic.html|archive-date=January 16, 2013 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Historians see it as a legacy of the secular Yiddish theater, cantorial traditions and a desire to assimilate. By the 1940s Jews had become established in the American folk music scene.

Examples of the major impact Jews have had in the American folk music arena include, but are not limited to: [[Moe Asch]] the first to record and release much of the music of [[Woody Guthrie]], including "[[This Land is Your Land]]" (see [[The Asch Recordings]]) in response to [[Irving Berlin]]'s "God Bless America", and Guthrie wrote [[Woody Guthrie#Jewish songs|Jewish songs]]. Guthrie married a [[Marjorie Guthrie|Jew]] and their son [[Arlo Guthrie|Arlo]] became influential in his own right. Asch's one-man corporation Folkways Records also released much of the music of Leadbelly and Pete Seeger from the 1940s and 1950s. Asch's large music catalog was voluntarily donated to the [[Smithsonian]].

Jews have also [[Jewish Americans in Jazz|thrived in jazz music]] and contributed to its popularization.

Three of the four creators of the [[Newport Folk Festival]], Wein, Bikel and Grossman (Seeger is not) were Jewish. Albert Grossman put together [[Peter, Paul and Mary]], of which Yarrow is Jewish. [[Oscar Brand]], from a Canadian Jewish family, has the longest running radio program "Oscar Brand's Folksong Festival" which has been on air consecutively since 1945 from New York City.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wnyc.org/shows/folksong-festival/ |title=Folksong Festival |publisher=WNYC |access-date=August 20, 2012 |archive-date=August 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804171950/http://www.wnyc.org/shows/folksong-festival/ |url-status=live }}</ref> And is the first American broadcast where the host himself will answer any personal correspondence.

The influential group [[The Weavers]], successor to the Almanac Singers, led by Pete Seeger, had a Jewish manager, and two of the four members of the group were Jewish (Gilbert and Hellerman). The B-side of "Good Night Irene" had the Hebrew folk song personally chosen for the record by Pete Seeger "[[Tzena, Tzena, Tzena]]".

The influential folk music magazine ''Sing Out!'' was co-founded and edited by [[Irwin Silber]] in 1951, and edited by him until 1967, when the magazine stopped publication for decades. ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's first music critic [[Jon Landau]] is of German Jewish descent. Izzy Young who created the legendary<ref>Dylan, Seeger, Lomax, Cohen all either write whole songs about it, or spend considerable time praising it</ref> Folklore Center in New York, and currently the Folklore Centrum near Mariatorget in Södermalm, Sweden, which relates to American and Swedish folk music.<ref>{{cite web |title=Izzy Young: A folk man in Sweden defined by Dylan |url=http://www.thelocal.se/20100215/24996 |website=The Local |access-date=4 January 2014 |date=2010-02-15 |archive-date=January 4, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104212540/http://www.thelocal.se/20100215/24996 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Dave Van Ronk observed that the behind the scenes 1950s folk scene "was at the very least 50 percent Jewish, and they adopted the music as part of their assimilation into the Anglo-American tradition which itself was largely an artificial construct but none the less provided us with some common ground".<ref>Dave von Ronk, ''The Mayor of Macdougal Street, A Folk Memoir'' p. 29</ref>
Nobel Prize winner [[Bob Dylan]] is also Jewish.

===Finance and law===
Jews have been involved in financial services since the colonial era. They received rights to trade fur, from the Dutch and Swedish colonies. British governors honored these rights after taking over. During the Revolutionary War, Haym Solomon helped create America's first semi-central bank, and advised Alexander Hamilton on the building of America's financial system.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

American Jews in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries played a major role in developing America's financial services industry, both at investment banks and with investment funds.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/banking-and-bankers|title=Banking and Bankers|website=www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=August 28, 2022|archive-date=August 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828074945/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/banking-and-bankers|url-status=live}}</ref> German Jewish bankers began to assume a major role in American finance in the 1830s when government and private borrowing to pay for canals, railroads and other [[internal improvements]] increased rapidly and significantly. Men such as [[August Belmont]] (Rothschild's agent in New York and a leading Democrat), Philip Speyer, [[Jacob Schiff]] (at Kuhn, Loeb & Company), [[Joseph Seligman]], [[Philip Lehman]] (of [[Lehman Brothers]]), [[Jules Bache]], and [[Marcus Goldman]] (of [[Goldman Sachs]]) illustrate this financial elite.<ref>[[Stephen Birmingham]], ''[[Our Crowd]]: The Great Jewish Families of New York'' (1967) pp. 8–9, 96–108, 128–42, 233–36, 331–37, 343,</ref> As was true of their non-Jewish counterparts, family, personal, and business connections, a reputation for honesty and integrity, ability, and a willingness to take calculated risks were essential to recruit capital from widely scattered sources. The families and the firms which they controlled were bound together by religious and social factors, and by the prevalence of intermarriage. These personal ties fulfilled real business functions before the advent of institutional organization in the 20th century.<ref>Vincent P. Carosso, "A Financial Elite: New York's German-Jewish Investment Bankers," ''American Jewish Historical Quarterly'', 1976, Vol. 66 Issue 1, pp. 67–88</ref><ref>Barry E. Supple, "A Business Elite: German-Jewish Financiers in Nineteenth-Century New York," ''Business History Review'', Summer 1957, Vol. 31 Issue 2, pp. 143–177</ref> Antisemitic elements often falsely targeted them as key players in a supposed Jewish cabal conspiring to dominate the world.<ref>Richard Levy, ed. "Bankers, Jewish" in ''Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution'' (2005) pp. 55–56</ref>

Since the late 20th century, Jews have played a major role in the hedge fund industry, according to Zuckerman (2009).<ref>Bruce Zuckerman, ''The Jewish Role In American Life'' (2009) pp. 64, 70</ref> Thus [[SAC Capital Advisors]],<ref>Led by Steven Cohen; Bruce Zuckerman, ''The Jewish Role In American Life'' (2009) p. 71</ref> [[Soros Fund Management]],<ref>Bruce Zuckerman, ''The Jewish Role In American Life'' (2009) p. 72</ref> [[Och-Ziff Capital Management]],<ref>"Schechter school mourns founder Golda Och, 74" ''New Jersey Jewish News'' January 13, 2010</ref> [[GLG Partners]]<ref>"The 400 Richest Americans: No. 355 Noam Gottesman" ''Forbes'' Sept 17. 1008</ref> [[Renaissance Technologies]]<ref>Steven L. Pease. ''The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement'' (2009) p. 510</ref> and [[Elliott Management Corporation]]<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111213231257/http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2011/05/14/3087695/jewish-republican-pro-gay-rights JTA: "Jewish, Republican, pro-gay rights" By Ron Kampeas] May 14, 2011</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://fortune.com/2012/03/26/mitt-romneys-hedge-fund-kingmaker/ |title=Mitt Romney's hedge fund kingmaker |website=Fortune |language=en |access-date=2019-12-12 |archive-date=November 20, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191120153302/https://fortune.com/2012/03/26/mitt-romneys-hedge-fund-kingmaker/ |url-status=live }}</ref> are large hedge funds cofounded by Jews. They have also played a pivotal role in the private equity industry, co-founding some of the largest firms in the United States, such as [[Blackstone Group|Blackstone]],<ref>See Jamie Johnson, "Wasps Stung over Renaming of the N.Y.P.L." [https://web.archive.org/web/20090809075734/http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2008/05/it-is-an-act-of.html ''Vanity Fair Daily'' May 19, 2008]</ref> [[Cerberus Capital Management]],<ref>[https://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/a-shy-wunderkind-stephen-feinberg-1.174285 Hareetz: "A shy wunderkind, Stephen Feinberg" By Eytan Avriel] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505111845/http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/a-shy-wunderkind-stephen-feinberg-1.174285 |date=May 5, 2014 }} November 16, 2005</ref> [[TPG Capital]],<ref>[http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2013/03/26/tpg-sells-shares-of-indian-company-win-win-for-everybody-2/ "TPG Sells Shares of Indian Company – Win-win for Everybody!" By Orna Taub] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111053821/http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2013/03/26/tpg-sells-shares-of-indian-company-win-win-for-everybody-2/ |date=January 11, 2014 }}, [[Jewish Business News]], March 26, 2013</ref> [[BlackRock]],<ref>{{cite news |url=http://forward.com/the-assimilator/131013/jews-dominate-vanity-fair-100-most-influential-mog/ |work=The Jewish Daily Forward |title=Jews Dominate Vanity Fair 100 Most Influential Moguls List |date=3 September 2010 |access-date=September 3, 2010 |location=Israel |first=Michael |last=Kaminer |archive-date=December 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151212120223/http://forward.com/the-assimilator/131013/jews-dominate-vanity-fair-100-most-influential-mog/ |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Carlyle Group]],<ref>Robin Pogrebin, "Donor Gives Lincoln Center $10 Million", [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/arts/01donor.html ''New York Times'' Sept. 30, 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116110128/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/01/arts/01donor.html |date=November 16, 2012 }}</ref> [[Warburg Pincus]],<ref>Ron Chernow, ''The Warburgs'' (1994) p. 661</ref> and [[Kohlberg Kravis Roberts|KKR]].<ref>R. William Weisberger, "Jews and American Investment Banking," ''American Jewish Archives'', June 1991, Vol. 43 Issue 1, pp. 71–75</ref><ref>On the careers of [[John Gutfreund]] (at [[Salomon Brothers]]); [[Felix Rohatyn]] (based at [[Lazard]]); [[Sanford I. Weill]] (of [[Citigroup]]) and numerous others see Judith Ramsey Ehrlich, ''The New Crowd: The Changing of the Jewish Guard on Wall Street'' (1990), pp. 4, 72, 226.</ref><ref>Charles D. Ellis, ''The Partnership: The Making of Goldman Sachs'' (2nd ed. 2009) pp. 29, 45, 52, 91, 93</ref>

Very few Jewish lawyers were hired by [[White Anglo-Saxon Protestant]] ("WASP") upscale [[White-shoe firm|white-shoe law firms]], but they started their own. The WASP dominance in law ended when a number of major Jewish law firms attained elite status in dealing with top-ranked corporations. As late as 1950 there was not a single large Jewish law firm in New York City. However, by 1965 six of the 20 largest firms were Jewish; by 1980 four of the ten largest were Jewish.<ref>Eli Wald, "The rise and fall of the WASP and Jewish law firms." ''Stanford Law Review'' 60 (2007): 1803-1866; discrimination p. 1838 and statistics p. 1805.</ref>

====Federal Reserve====
[[Paul Warburg]], one of the leading advocates of the establishment of a [[central bank]] in the United States and one of the first governors of the newly established [[Federal Reserve System]], came from a prominent Jewish family in Germany.<ref>Ron Chernow, ''The Warburgs'' (1994) p. 26</ref> Since then, several Jews have served as [[Chairman of the Federal Reserve|chairmen]] of the Fed, including [[Eugene Meyer (financier)|Eugene Meyer]], [[Arthur F. Burns]], [[Alan Greenspan]], [[Ben Bernanke]] and [[Janet Yellen]].

===Science, business, and academia===
{{Main|List of Jewish American scientists|List of Jewish American businesspeople|List of Jewish American academics}}

Many Jews have become remarkably successful as an entrepreneurial and professional minority in the United States.<ref name="Frum-2010"/> Many Jewish [[family business]]es that are passed down from one generation to the next serve as an [[financial asset|asset]], source of income and layer a strong financial groundwork for the family's overall socioeconomic prosperity.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-100114.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140110131435/http://atimes.com/atimes/China/CHIN-01-100114.html|url-status=unfit|archive-date=January 10, 2014 |title=Common traits bind Jews and Chinese |publisher=Asia Times Online |date=January 10, 2014 | access-date=23 September 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.philstar.com/business-life/2015/08/03/1483091/misconceptions-and-lessons-about-chinese-and-jewish-entrepreneurs |title=Misconceptions and lessons about Chinese and Jewish entrepreneurs |publisher=Lifestyle |date=August 3, 2015 |access-date=23 September 2015 |archive-date=July 28, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728171231/http://www.philstar.com/business-life/2015/08/03/1483091/misconceptions-and-lessons-about-chinese-and-jewish-entrepreneurs |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/the-chosen-few-a-new-explanati |title=The Chosen Few: A New Explanation of Jewish Success |publisher=PBS Newshour |date=April 18, 2013 |access-date=4 July 2015 |author=Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein |archive-date=September 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170906223448/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/the-chosen-few-a-new-explanati/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099803,00.html |title=How did American Jews get so rich? |newspaper=YNetNews |date=2011-10-26 |access-date=4 July 2015 |first=Tani |last=Goldstein |archive-date=November 1, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101054101/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4099803,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Within the Jewish American cultural sphere, Jewish Americans have also developed a strong culture of entrepreneurship, for excellence in entrepreneurship and engagement in business and commerce is highly prized in Jewish culture.<ref name="Nathan-Kazis-2014">{{cite news |url=http://forward.com/articles/197643/why-are-so-many-pro-basketball-owners-jewish-like/?p=all |title=Why Are So Many Pro Basketball Owners Jewish (Like Donald Sterling)? |newspaper=Forward |date=May 6, 2014 |access-date=5 April 2015 |first=Josh |last=Nathan-Kazis |archive-date=April 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150412134117/http://forward.com/articles/197643/why-are-so-many-pro-basketball-owners-jewish-like/?p=all |url-status=live }}</ref> American Jews have also been drawn to various disciplines within academia such as physics, sociology, economics, psychology, mathematics, philosophy and linguistics (see [[Jewish culture]] for some of the causes), and have played a disproportionate role in numerous academic domains. Jewish American intellectuals such as [[Saul Bellow]], [[Ayn Rand]], [[Noam Chomsky]], [[Thomas Friedman]], [[Milton Friedman]] and [[Elie Wiesel]] have made a major impact within mainstream American public life. Of American Nobel Prize winners, 37 percent have been Jewish Americans (18 times the percentage of Jews in the population), as have been 61 percent of the [[John Bates Clark Medal]] in economics recipients (thirty-five times the Jewish percentage).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jinfo.org/Clark_Economics.html |title=JEWISH RECIPIENTS OF THE JOHN BATES CLARK MEDAL IN ECONOMICS |publisher=Jinfo |access-date=September 9, 2014 |archive-date=August 26, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826160929/http://www.jinfo.org/Clark_Economics.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the business world, it was found in 1995 that while Jewish Americans constituted less than 2.5 percent of the U.S. population, they occupied 7.7 percent of board seats at various U.S. [[corporations]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1998/03/new-power-elite |title=Mother Jones, the Changing Power Elite, 1998 |newspaper=Mother Jones |access-date=January 20, 2007 |archive-date=May 8, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508052706/http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1998/03/new-power-elite |url-status=live }}</ref> American Jews also have a strong presence in [[National Basketball Association|NBA]] ownership. Of the 30 teams in the NBA, there are 14 Jewish principal owners. Several Jews have served as NBA commissioners including prior NBA commissioner [[David Stern]] and current commissioner [[Adam Silver]].<ref name="Nathan-Kazis-2014"/>

Since many careers in science, business, and academia generally pay well, Jewish Americans also tend to have a somewhat higher average income than most Americans. The 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey shows that the median income of a Jewish family is $54,000 a year ($5,000 more than the average family) and 34% of Jewish households report income over $75,000 a year.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=46193 |title=NJPS: Demography: Education, Employment and Income |work=jewishfederations.org |date=2001|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130720145138/http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=46193|archive-date=July 20, 2013}}</ref>

===Food===
{{Main|American Jewish cuisine}}

Jewish American people have had a large effect on the cuisine of the United States, with several [[kosher-style]] delicatessens achieving mainstream popularity and defining American Jewish culture.<ref name="Savoring">{{cite book|author=Andrew F. Smith, Garrett Oliver|title=Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover's Companion to New York City|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2015|isbn=9780190263645|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBGnCgAAQBAJ|quote="Some Jewish delicatessen served only kosher meat, but many were kosher style, meaning that they served meat not certified as kosher but did not serve dairy (to avoid mixing with meat) or any pork and shellfish products. With Jewish acculturation to the mainstream, however, the concept of kosher-style delicatessens broadened to include smoked meat sandwiches with slices of cheese or luscious New York-style cheesecakes for dessert - if not the occasional ham sandwich."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Raphael |last=Magarik |date=January 25, 2016 |url=http://forward.com/culture/books/329884/how-pastrami-helped-to-create-american-jewish-culture/ |title=How Pastrami Helped to Create American Jewish Culture |website=Forward |access-date=August 7, 2017}}</ref> For that reason, American Jewish food is typically associated with [[Ashkenazi cuisine]], including foods such as [[bagel]]s, [[Knishes|knish]], [[gefilte fish]], [[kreplach]], [[Matzah ball|matzoh ball soup]], [[hamantash]], [[lox]], [[kugel]], [[pastrami]], and [[brisket]]. Other Jewish communities, such as the Sephardic community, have influenced the dishes served at American restaurants, particularly in New York City.<ref>{{cite web | last=Sietsema | first=Robert | title=Where to Find Sephardic Jewish Food in NYC and Its Suburbs | website=Eater NY | date=2016-10-25 | url=https://ny.eater.com/2016/10/25/13403926/nyc-sephardic-jewish-food-sietsema | access-date=2024-10-13}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Judaism|United States}}
{{Main list|Lists of American Jews}}
{{commonscat|Judaism in the United States}}
* [[American Jewish cuisine]]
* [[Galveston Movement]]
* [[Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America]]
* [[List of Jewish cemeteries in the United States]]
* [[List of Jewish political milestones in the United States]]
* [[History of the Jews in the United States]]
* [[National Museum of American Jewish Military History]]

==References==
{{Reflist
|refs =
<ref name="Jewish American Population">'''7,153,065''' as of 2020 according to:
* {{cite web |title=Jewish Population in the United States by State |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-in-the-united-states-by-state |website=Jewish Population in the United States by State |publisher=Jewish Virtual Library |access-date=24 February 2021 |archive-date=October 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018050539/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-in-the-united-states-by-state |url-status=live }}
Enlarged population of '''8,000,000–10,000,000''' (in 2015) according to:
* {{cite report |author=DellaPergola, Sergio |year=2015 |title=World Jewish Population, 2015 |url=https://www.jewishdatabank.org/content/upload/bjdb/803/World%20Jewish%20Population,%202015%20(DellaPergola)%20from%20The%20American%20Year%20Book1.pdf |publisher=Berman Jewish DataBank |access-date=23 May 2019 |archive-date=September 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914024945/https://www.jewishdatabank.org/content/upload/bjdb/803/World%20Jewish%20Population%2C%202015%20%28DellaPergola%29%20from%20The%20American%20Year%20Book1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

==Bibliography==

===General works===
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* [[Hasia Diner|Diner, Hasia]]. ''The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000'' (2004) [https://archive.org/details/diner-hasia-j-auth-the-jews-of-the-united-states-1654-to-2000 online]
* {{cite book |year=1999 |editor-surname=Farber |editor-given=Roberta Rosenberg |editor-surname2=Waxman |editor-given2=Chaim I. |editor-link2=Chaim I. Waxman |title=Jews in America: A Contemporary Reader |publisher=Brandeis University Press |place=Waltham, Ma |isbn=9780874518993}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-surname=Feingold |editor-given=Henry L. |title=The Jewish People in America: 5-volume Set |year=1992–1995 |place=Baltimore, Md |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press}}
** Faber, Eli. ''A Time for Planting: The First Migration, 1654–1820'' (Vol. 1, 1992) [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801843433 online]
** [[Hasia Diner|Diner, Hasia R.]] ''A Time for Gathering: The Second Migration, 1820–1880'' (Vol. 2, 1992) [https://archive.org/details/timeforgathering0000dine online]
** Sorin, Gerald. ''A Time for Building: The Third Migration, 1880–1920'' (Vol. 3, 1992 [https://archive.org/details/timeforbuildingt0000sori_t9w1 online]
** Feingold, Henry L. ''A Time for Searching: Entering the Mainstream, 1920–1945'' (Vol. 4, 1992) [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780801843464 online]
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* {{cite book |editor-surname=Sklare |editor-given=Marshal |title=American Jews, a Reader |year=1983 |place=New Brunswick, NJ; New York |publisher=Brandeis University Center for Modern Jewish Studies; Behrman House |isbn=0874413486}}
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===Historical topics===
{{Further|History of the Jews in the United States#Historiography and memory}}
* Barnett, Michael N. 2016. ''[https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691165974/the-star-and-the-stripes The Star and the Stripes: A History of the Foreign Policies of American Jews]''. Princeton University Press.
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* {{cite journal |last1=Gurock |first1=Jeffrey S |year=2013 |title=Writing New York's Twentieth Century Jewish History: A Five Borough Journey |journal=History Compass |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=215–226 |doi=10.1111/hic3.12033}}
* Howe, Irving. ''World of our Fathers: The journey of the East European Jews to America and the life they found and made'' (1976)
* Hyman, Paula, and [[Deborah Dash Moore]], eds. ''Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia.'' 1997
* Lederhendler, Eli. ''American Jewry: A New History'' (Cambridge UP, 2017). 331 pp.
* Marcus, Jacob Rader. ''The American Jew, 1585–1990: a history'' (1995) [https://archive.org/details/americanjew158510000marc online].
* Marcus, Jacob Rader. ''The American Jewish woman, 1654–1980'' (1981) [https://archive.org/details/americanjewishwo0000marc online]
* Norwood, Stephen H., and Eunice G. Pollack, eds. ''Encyclopedia of American Jewish history'' (2 vol 2007), 775pp; comprehenisive coverage by experts; [https://books.google.com/books?id=nUDbttcSl08C excerpt and text search vol 1]
* Robinson, Ira. "The Invention of American Jewish History." ''American Jewish History'' (1994): 309–320. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23884550 in JSTOR]
* Wenger, Beth S. ''History Lessons: The Creation of American Jewish Heritage'' (2012) [https://www.amazon.com/History-Lessons-Creation-American-Heritage/dp/069115614X/ excerpt]
* {{cite book |year=1993 |surname=Wertheimer |given=Jack |authorlink=Jack Wertheimer |chapter=American Jewish History |title=The Modern Jewish Experience: A Reader's Guide |editor=Jack Wertheimer |place=New York; London |publisher=NYU Press |pages=52–61 |chapter-url={{Google books|id=-G8TCgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=52|keywords=|text=}} |url={{Google books|id=-G8TCgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}} |isbn=0-8147-9261-8}}
* Whitfield, Stephen J. ''In Search of American Jewish Culture.'' 1999
* Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim. ''[[Zakhor: Jewish History and Jewish Memory]]'' (University of Washington Press, 2012)

===Politics===
{{Further|American Jews in politics#Further reading}}
* Dollinger, Marc. ''Quest for Inclusion: Jews and Liberalism in Modern America.'' 2000.
* Feingold, Henry L. ''American Jewish Political Culture and the Liberal Persuasion'' (Syracuse University Press; 2014) 384 pages; traces the history, dominance, and motivations of liberalism in the American Jewish political culture, and look at concerns about Israel and memories of the Holocaust.
* Goren, Arthur. ''The Politics and Public Culture of American Jews.'' 1999.
* {{cite book|editor-last1=Maisel|editor-first1=L. Sandy|editor-link1=L. Sandy Maisel|editor-last2=Forman|editor-first2=Ira N.|editor-link2=Ira Forman|title=Jews in American Politics|year=2001|publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]]}}
* [[Deborah Dash Moore|Moore, Deborah Dash]] (2008). ''American Jewish Identity Politics''. University of Michigan Press.
* Svonkin, Stuart (1997). ''Jews against Prejudice: American Jews and the Fight for Civil Liberties''.

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* {{cite book |surname=Gurock |given=Jeffrey S. |year=1998 |authorlink=Jeffrey S. Gurock |title=From Fluidity to Rigidity: The Religious Worlds of Conservative and Orthodox Jews in Twentieth Century America |place=Ann Arbor, Mi |publisher=Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan |isbn=9781881759065}}
* {{cite book |surname=Gurock |given=Jeffrey S. |year=2009 |authorlink=Jeffrey S. Gurock |title=Orthodox Jews in America |place=Bloomington, In |publisher= Indiana University Press |url={{Google books|id=MKyLmWOSCPoC|plainurl=y}} |isbn=978-0-253-35291-0}}
* [[Samuel Heilman|Heilman, Samuel C.]]; [[Steven M. Cohen|Cohen, Steven M.]] (1989). ''Cosmopolitans and Parochials: Modern Orthodox Jews in America''. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0226324966}}.
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* {{cite book |year=1990 |surname=Liebman |given=Charles S. |authorlink=Charles Liebman |surname2=Cohen |given2=Steven Martin |authorlink2=Steven M. Cohen |title=Two Worlds of Judaism: The Israeli and American Experiences |place=New Haven, Conn |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=9780300047264}}
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* [[Jacob Neusner|Neusner, Jacob]] (1981). ''Judaism in the American Humanities''. Brown Judaic Studies. Chico: Scholars Press.
* [[Jacob Neusner|Neusner, Jacob]] (1983). ''Judaism in the American Humanities.'' Second Series.'' Jewish Learning and the New Humanities.'' Brown Judaic Studies. Chico: Scholars Press.
* {{cite book |year=1993 |editor-surname=Neusner |editor-given=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Neusner |title=The Reformation of Reform Judaism |series=Judaism in Cold War America, 1945–1990, vol. 6 |place=New York; London |publisher=Garland Publ. |isbn=9780815300762}}
* {{cite book |year=1993 |editor-surname=Neusner |editor-given=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Neusner |title=Conserving Conservative Judaism: Reconstructionist Judaism |series=Judaism in Cold War America, 1945–1990, vol. 7 |place=New York; London |publisher=Garland Publ. |isbn=9780815300786}}
* {{cite book |year=1993 |editor-surname=Neusner |editor-given=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Neusner |title=The Rabbinate in America: Reshaping an Ancient Calling |series=Judaism in Cold War America, 1945–1990, vol. 10 |place=New York; London |publisher=Garland Publ. |isbn=9780815300823}}
* {{cite book |surname=Rudavsky |given=David |title=Modern Jewish Religious Movements: A History of Emancipation and Abjustment |edition=3rd rev. |year=1979 |orig-year=1967 |place=New York |publisher=Behrman House |url=https://archive.org/details/modernjewishreli0000ruda/page/n8/mode/1up |url-access=registration |pages=271–402 |isbn=0-87441-286-2}}
* {{cite book |surname=Raphael |given=Marc Lee |title=Profiles in American Judaism: the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist traditions in historical perspective |year=1984  |publisher=Harper & Row |place=San Francisco, Ca |isbn=0-06066801-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/profilesinameric00raph |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Raphael |given=Marc Lee |title=Judaism in America |publisher=Columbia University Press |place=New York |year=2003 |isbn=0-231-12060-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/judaisminamerica00raph |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite journal |surname=Raphael |given=Melissa |date=April 1998 |title=Goddess Religion, Postmodern Jewish Feminism, and the Complexity of Alternative Religious Identities |journal=[[Nova Religio]] |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=198–215 |doi=10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.198 |url=https://online.ucpress.edu/nr/article-abstract/1/2/198/70030/Goddess-Religion-Postmodern-Jewish-Feminism-and?redirectedFrom=PDF |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Rebhum |given=Uzi |year=2016 |title=Jews and the American Religious Landscape |place=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |url={{Google books|id=cb6lDAAAQBAJC|plainurl=y|page=}} |isbn=9780231178266 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
* {{cite book |surname=Sarna |given=Jonathan D. |author-link=Jonathan Sarna |title=American Judaism: A History |url={{Google books|id=j4-EmcMrAy4C|plainurl=y}} |year=2004 |place=New Haven, Conn |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-10197-3}}
* [[Moshe Shokeid|Shokeid, Moshe]] (1995). ''A Gay Synagogue in New York.'' New York: Columbia University Press. ([{{Google books|id=hazES1iT8AUC|plainurl=y}} Reprint]: Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
* {{cite book |surname=Sklare |given=Marshall |title=Conservative Judaism: An American Religious Movement |year=1955 |place=Glencoe, Il |publisher=The Free Press |isbn=0819144800}}
* [[Chaim I. Waxman|Waxman, Chaim I]]. (2002). "What We Don't Know about the Judaism of America's Jews." ''Contemporary Jewry'', 23. pp.&nbsp;72–95. {{ISSN|0147-1694}} Uses survey data to map the religious beliefs of American Jews, 1973–2002.
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Wertheimer |year=1987 |editor-given=Jack |editor-link=Jack Wertheimer |title=The American Synagogue: A Sanctuary Transformed |url={{Google books|id=D5dZQhCII6UC|plainurl=y}} |publisher=Cambridge University Press |place=Cambridge |isbn=0-521-33290-7}}
* {{cite book |surname=Wertheimer |given=Jack |authorlink=Jack Wertheimer |chapter=Recent Trends in American Judaism |editor-surname=Neusner |editor-given=Jacob |editor-link=Jacob Neusner |title=An Introduction to Judaism: A Textbook and Reader |place=Louisville, Kentucky |publisher=Westminster/John Knox Press |year=1991 |pages=85–116 |chapter-url={{Google books|id=6M8oxDql1KIC|plainurl=y|page=85|keywords=|text=}} |url={{Google books|id=6M8oxDql1KIC|plainurl=y}} |isbn=0-664-25348-2}}
* {{cite book |surname=Wertheimer |given=Jack |authorlink=Jack Wertheimer |year=1997 |title=A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America Religion Today  |publisher=Brandeis University Press |place=Waltham, Ma |isbn=9780874518481}}
* {{cite book |year=2002 |editor-surname=Wertheimer |editor-given=Jack |editor-link=Jack Wertheimer |title=Jews in the Center: Conservative Synagogues and Their Members |url={{Google books|id=U_nEoAZ6ffgC|plainurl=y}} |publisher=Rutgers University Press |place=New Brunswick, NJ |isbn=0-8135-2821-6}}
* {{cite book |surname=Wertheimer |given=Jack |authorlink=Jack Wertheimer |title=The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today |place=Princeton, NJ; Oxford |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-691-18129-5 |url={{Google books|id=1DthDwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}}}}

===Other topics===
* Antler, Joyce, ed. (1998). ''Talking Back: Images of Jewish Women in American Popular Culture.''
* {{cite book |surname=Cohen |given=Steven Martin |authorlink=Steven M. Cohen |year=1983 |title=American Modernity and Jewish Identity |place=London |publisher=Tavistock Publ.
|isbn=0422777501}}
* Cutler, Irving. (1995). ''The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb.''
* [[Leonard Dinnerstein|Dinnerstein, Leonard]] (1994). ''Antisemitism in America''.
* [[Samuel Heilman|Heilman, Samuel C.]] ''Portrait of American Jews: The Last Half of the 20th Century''.
* Kobrin, Rebecca, ed. ''Chosen Capital: The Jewish Encounter With American Capitalism'' (Rutgers University Press; 2012) 311 pages; scholarly essays on the liquor, real-estate, and scrap-metal industries, and Jews as union organizers.
* [[Charles Liebman|Liebman, Charles S.]] (2001). ''Ambivalent American Jew: Politics, Religion, and Family in American Jewish Life'', Varda Books. {{ISBN|1-59045-039-6}}
* [[Charles Liebman|Liebman, Charles S.]]; Argov, Merkaz (2001). ''[http://www.bjpa.org/Publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=8568 A Research Agenda for American Jews]''. Ramat Gan: Bar-Ilan University, Dept. of Political Studies.
* [[Deborah Dash Moore|Moore, Deborah Dash.]] ''[[To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L. A.]]'' 1994.
* [[Deborah Dash Moore|Moore, Deborah Dash.]] ''GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation'' (2006).
* Morawska, Ewa (1999). ''Insecure Prosperity: Small-Town Jews in Industrial America, 1890–1940''. Princeton University Press.
* [[Peter Novick|Novick, Peter]]. ''The Holocaust in American Life.'' 1999.
* {{cite book |surname=Rebhum |given=Uzi |surname2=Ari |given2=Lilakh Lev |year=2010 |title=American Israelis: Migration, Transnationalism, and Diasporic Identity |place=Leiden |publisher=Brill |url={{Google books|id=CG-WQZDJdo8C|plainurl=y|page=}} |isbn=978-90-04-18388-9}}
* {{cite book |surname=Waxman |given=Chaim I. |year=1989 |authorlink=Chaim I. Waxman |title=American Aliya: Portrait of an Innovative Migration Movement |place=Detroit, Mi |publisher=Wayne State University Press |url={{Google books|id=aWmoHFPZa_UC|plainurl=y}} |isbn=0-8143-1936-X}}

===Primary sources===
* American Jewish Committee. ''American Jewish Yearbook: The Annual Record of Jewish Civilization'' (annual, 1899–2012+),[http://www.ajcarchives.org/main.php?GroupingId=40 complete text online 1899–2007]; long sophisticated essays on status of Jews in U.S. and worldwide; the standard primary source used by historians.
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Blau |editor-given=Joseph Leon |editor-link=Joseph Leon Blau |editor-surname2=Baron |editor-given2=Salo Wittmayer |editor-link2=Salo Wittmayer Baron |title=The Jews of the United States, 1790–1840: A Documentary History |volume=1 |year=1963  |publisher=Columbia University Press; The Jewish Publication Society |place=New York; Philadelphia, Pa}}
* Marcus, Jacob Rader, ed. ''The American Jewish Woman, A Documentary History'' (Ktav 1981).
* Schappes, Morris Urman, ed. ''A documentary history of the Jews in the United States, 1654–1875'' (Citadel Press, 1952).
* Staub, Michael E. ed. ''The Jewish 1960s: An American Sourcebook'' University Press of New England, 2004; 371 pp.&nbsp;{{ISBN|1-58465-417-1}} [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=12276 online review]
* {{Cite book |last1=Wenger |first1=Beth S. |title=The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America |date=2007 |language=English |isbn=978-0-385-52139-0 |publisher=Doubleday |location=New York |oclc=144774311 |df=mdy-all }}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Jewish people of the United States}}
* [http://www.ajhs.org American Jewish Historical Society]
* [http://www.americanjewisharchives.org American Jewish Archives]
* [http://www.ajcongress.org American Jewish Congress]
* [http://www.ajws.org American Jewish World Service]
* [http://www.jewishfederations.org Jewish Federations of North America]
* [http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/american-jewish-life/ My Jewish Learning: American Jewish Life]
* [http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/jewish_population_growth_in_usa#.Xs1a0GhKizk Jewish population growth in the United States – ''The Literary Digest'' (1922)]
* [https://www.jewishdatabank.org/databank The Berman Jewish Databank @ The Jewish Federations of North America]

{{Jewish American topics|state=expanded}}
{{Organized Jewish Life in the United States}}
{{Demographics of the United States}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Jews and Judaism in the United States| ]]
[[Category:American Jews|*]]
[[Category:American people of Jewish descent|*American Jews]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in the United States]]