Do most Jews say Israel matters to being Jewish?

Yes — a clear majority of Jews say Israel matters to being Jewish, but most reject the framing that equates caring about Israel with endorsing its government’s policies.

In Pew Research Center’s 2020 survey of Jewish Americans¹, 82% — a percentage nearly identical to Pew’s 2013 survey² — said caring about Israel is essential (45%) or important but not essential (37%) to their Jewish identity. Globally, only minorities of American (35%) and French (37%) Jews disagree that caring about Israel is “a very important part of my being a Jew” (Jewish People Policy Institute³).

Yet the same data refutes the propagandistic claim that the importance of Israel to Jewish identity demands loyalty to whoever governs Jerusalem. Fewer than half of U.S. Jews rated Benjamin Netanyahu positively; just one-in-three believed the Israeli government was sincerely seeking peace with the Palestinians; a plurality said West Bank settlement expansion hurts Israel’s security (Pew, 2021⁴). The connection varies across the diaspora: 58% feel at least somewhat emotionally attached, with younger, Reform and unaffiliated Jews less so. As Oxford scholar William Safran notes, diaspora Jews accept Israel “is not exempt from the problems and pathologies of states and societies,” and many favor “tough love”⁵ over blind cheerleading.

So: most Jews say Israel does matter to their Jewishness — which is precisely why many feel obligated to criticize an Israeli government whose policies toward Palestinians they believe endanger the Jewish state and values they cherish. Every major opinion poll of Jewish public opinion confirms this, and equating “Israel matters to me” with “I back the current government” is not survey fact; it is spin, and Jewish public opinion itself refutes it.