Poll: Jewish Americans split on Gaza, Trump

A sweeping new survey of Jewish Americans has found deep divisions over Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, with religiously affiliated Jews far more supportive of the war effort than secular Jews who identify with the faith through culture or ancestry rather than belief.

The survey, conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, polled 1,022 Jewish adults nationwide between June 11 and June 17 as part of a larger sample of 3,040 Americans. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults identify as Jewish by religion, while the remaining 3 in 10 say they are atheist, agnostic or unaffiliated but still identify as Jewish through ethnicity, culture or family background.

The gap between the two groups showed up repeatedly in the results. About 8 in 10 religiously affiliated Jews called Israel’s initial response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack “justified,” but only about half said the same of Israel’s continuing military operations in Gaza. Among secular Jews, roughly half backed the initial response, while just 2 in 10 now call the ongoing campaign acceptable.

The war has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, whose casualty counts U.N. agencies and international organizations generally regard as reliable, though the figures don’t separate civilians from combatants. Hamas’ initial attack killed roughly 1,200 people in Israel, most of them civilians.

On the question of genocide, about a quarter of religiously affiliated Jews said Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a charge that has been leveled by several human rights organizations and a panel of experts commissioned by the United Nations. Israel has flatly rejected the accusation, while the U.S. government does not consider Israel’s actions in Gaza to constitute genocide. Roughly 4 in 10 secular Jews agreed with the genocide characterization.

Security concerns also weighed heavily on respondents. About 6 in 10 Jewish adults called antisemitism an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the U.S. today, and roughly 3 in 10 said they or a household member had been physically assaulted, verbally abused, harassed online or had property damaged because of their Jewish identity in the past year. Only about a third of respondents said they feel safe as Jews in America today, while another third said they feel unsafe and the remainder felt neither.

Politically, the poll found little confidence in either party or in President Trump. Just 2 in 10 Jewish adults said Mr. Trump supports Jewish Americans “extremely” or “very” well — a lower share than the roughly 3 in 10 among the general public who said the same. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults hold an unfavorable view of the president, compared with about 3 in 10 who view him favorably.

The parties fared little better. Jewish respondents were about equally unlikely to say either the Democratic or Republican Party supports them well, though they were more inclined to describe Democrats as at least somewhat supportive.

The poll also revealed a generational split unrelated to Gaza. About half of religious Jews 45 and older said supporting Israel is central to their Jewish identity, compared with only about 4 in 10 younger religious Jews, who were more likely to point to religious holidays and traditions as their strongest connection to the faith.

Respondents were largely unified, however, on what constitutes antisemitism outright. Large majorities agreed that vandalizing synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses, denying the scope of the Holocaust, and asserting American Jews are responsible for Israel’s conduct all qualify as antisemitic acts. Views were far more split on whether protesting a pro-Israel event amounts to antisemitism, with about half saying it does not, roughly 4 in 10 saying it does, and the remainder unsure.

The survey carries a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points for the Jewish adult subsample.