The study behind the '39% of young Jews' number

The Jim Joseph Foundation commissioned the study, called Project Prism, in partnership with the research firm Sense Worldwide, with NORC at the University of Chicago running the quantitative side. Fieldwork ran from December 2025 through April 2026, and the sample was 2,071 Jewish adults ages 22 to 40, deliberately including people with minimal or no connection to Jewish organizations, across a range of family backgrounds, religious identities, and geography. ²

The headline number: 39% of respondents said they've engaged less, more selectively, or not at all with Jewish spaces because of events affecting Jewish people in recent years. That's not one uniform reaction. Among that 39%, 42% said the discourse around Israel and Palestine didn't leave room for their own views, 40% said they wanted to avoid one-sided messaging, and 48% said the conversations themselves felt "hostile, toxic, or unproductive." ¹

The study also complicates a simpler story about people leaving Jewish life altogether. Three-quarters of respondents still do something Jewish regularly, most often informally, spending time with Jewish family and friends rather than showing up at a synagogue or JCC. Fifty-five percent named family as their main connection to Jewish life, 44% named Jewish friends, and only 19% named a community organization. Separately, the broader dataset found 68% of respondents report a strong sense of life purpose, but only 23% credit being Jewish for it, and more than half were raised without two Jewish parents or without a fully Jewish upbringing. ¹²

Asked what would make Jewish experiences more appealing to them going forward, 30% said something more cultural and less religious, and 26% wanted spaces where non-Zionist or anti-Zionist views could be voiced without being labeled antisemitic. ¹ The report was written up by Stacie Cherner, the foundation's director of research and learning. ²