Are You “Pewish”? Multiple Assessments of the Landmark Pew Survey

Abstract

As of June 2014, a Google search of the Pew Research Center’s A Portrait of Jewish Americans yielded no fewer than 197,000 results (in 0.40 s)! An important theme of the discussion surrounding the Pew Survey, released on October 1, 2013, focused around what The New York Times headlined in its account: “Poll Shows Major Shift in Identity of U.S. Jews” (Goodstein 2013, p. A11). As Chap. 16 of this volume suggests, “It came like a thunderbolt out of the blue” and spawned much debate and dialogue. The significance of the survey, based on a probability sample of the US Jewish population, was rooted in its being the first comprehensive study since the 2000–2001 National Jewish Population Survey (NJPS 2000–2001). Recognizing the importance of this landmark effort, we asked a panel of 10 prominent social scientists to comment on the Pew findings from the perspective of their respective expertise. The panel’s results are presented in the chapters following a summary of the report. In Chap. 13, a response is provided by two of the principal investigators at the Pew Research Center. Our hope is that these chapters will shed more light than heat on the topic.