Israelis worry about weakening connection with younger Jewish Americans
[July 31, 2026]
By GIOVANNA DELL'ORTO
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis across political and religious lines are
worried about the weakening connection with younger Jewish Americans —
who, according to a recent AP poll, tend to consider support for Israel
less crucial to their Jewish identity than older adults.
“It’s extremely important to us,” said Itai Nixon, who leads the
diaspora department for Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. “We’re
the state of the Jewish people, not just Israelis.”
Lesley Sachs, who has protested the current Israeli government and
chairs the Israel Movement for Progressive and Reform Judaism, also
considers a close relationship with diaspora Jews a “strategic asset”
for both Israel and Jews worldwide.
So she’s greatly concerned about diaspora Jews losing the sense that
Israel can be a homeland for them, especially as rising antisemitism
targets them regardless of political and religious affiliations.
“That was always really, really important that everybody around the
world, especially after the Holocaust, knows that there is a country
that will always take them,” Sachs said in her synagogue in Tel Aviv.
“This is already a few generations after, and this is less prominent in
their DNA. And I think that this is really a failure on the part of both
Israel and world Jewry, that we have not managed to keep that
prominent.”
Since 2000, Taglit-Birthright Israel has brought a million Jewish young
adults from the United States and elsewhere for a free 10-day
“discovery” tour of Israel. The organization’s CEO says it’s more
necessary than ever to show what their connection to Israel could be
like beyond controversial politics.
“That really increases the importance of my job to expose people to what
they give up on,” said Gidi Mark. “What we give them is a mirror.”
The staunch Israel-US relationship shows some cracks
Israel and the United States have long been staunch allies. U.S.
President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
met in Washington earlier this week to discuss the war against Iran they
launched together five months ago.
“The United States is perceived as the best friend of Israel in the
entire world, and that’s still the case,” said Tamar Hermann, who
directs the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Center for Public
Opinion and Policy Research in Jerusalem.
Divisions over the ceasefire in the Iran war, however, have weakened
Jewish Israelis’ belief that Trump prioritizes Israel’s security — from
64% in March to 26% in June — according to the center.
Amid diplomatic tensions, the role of Jewish Americans who historically
lobbied for political, military and financial support for Israel gains
new prominence, Israelis said. And that deepens the concern that many
young progressive Americans, including Jews, now see supporting Israel
in any way as irreconcilable with their worldview.
The decline in support for Israel has become particularly stark since
the Oct. 7, 2023, attack when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people,
mostly civilians in southern Israel, and abducted 251 others. Israel’s
ensuing war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 people,
according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, which was part of
the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records
viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international
organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants
but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.
That in turn ignited protests across the United States, especially on
college campuses.
“Holocaust, refugees, the importance of Israel in times of need abroad,
and the fact that Israel is a small country fighting for its existence …
that’s history they read in a book,” Sachs said of younger Jewish
Americans. “They weren’t emotionally part of it in any way or any form.
And so they look at their values and the things that they believe in.
And they don’t see it in Israel.”
Jewish Americans have complicated relationship with Israel
Only about 4 in 10 religious Jewish adults under 45 in the United States
say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their
Jewish identity, while about half of older religious Jewish adults do,
according to the AP-NORC poll.
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A U.S. flag is seen through a hole torn in an Israel national flag,
as they wave in the wind at a horse ranch, near the southern Israeli
town of Sderot, Friday, Nov. 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)
The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults — including people who identify as
Jewish by religion and religiously unaffiliated people who identify
as Jewish through culture, ethnicity or family background — also
found that only about half of religious adults say Israel’s ongoing
military operations in Gaza are justified. The number drops to 2 in
10 among Jewish adults without a religious affiliation.
At the same time, about 6 in 10 Jewish adults say prejudice against
Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the
United States today.
To many Israelis, safety threats against Jews make it all the more
tragic — and dangerous — that young Jewish Americans do not see the
state of Israel as a refuge or even an ally.
“Antisemitism sadly helps us to explain why a Jewish homeland is not
a bad idea,” said Asaf Zamir, a deputy mayor of Tel Aviv who served
as consul general in New York. “Opposing the government is fine, but
you cannot understand your history as a Jew without understanding
the part of Israel in it.”
Israel reaches out to secular and liberal Jews in North America
In order to promote deeper attachment between Israel and diaspora
Jews, both the government and religious organizations are
reinforcing exchange programs. For decades, young Israelis have
traveled to Jewish summer camps across North America, and
non-Israeli Jews get free trips to Israel.
“To see Israel and meet Israelis is the gold standard,” Itai Nixon
said of programs bringing teens to the country.
Taglit-Birthright’s Gidi Mark said that since 2023, with multiple
wars, tour participants are fewer — and their reactions to touring
Israel have also changed. He recalled one participant shouting
“Israel! Israel!” outside his hotel just because he felt safe to
express himself.
“These people don’t feel free to experience who they are in the
places that they are coming from,” Mark said.
These and other initiatives are focusing on secular Jews and
adherents to Reform Judaism. The largest branch of the religion in
North America, it emphasizes progressive values such as social
justice.
Orthodox Jews abroad tend to have stronger ties to Israel — and
Orthodox Jews in Israel tend to see themselves as closer to diaspora
Jews than do secular Israelis, Hermann said.
Within the Israeli Reform movement, which is a small part of Judaism
in the country, there’s a push to send more young Israelis to the
United States, including as camp counselors.
“That kind of action is important, that one-on-one connection
saying, ‘You know what, we believe in the same things you do.
Really, we have the same ideology in general, and we feel we need to
change Israel together,'" Sachs said. “We need to be partners in
making Israel the country that we all need.”
Alma Edry, 18, is spending two months as a counselor at a
progressive Jewish summer camp in Ontario with teens and young
adults from Canada and the United States. She said her biggest
surprise has been “that Israel is such a big deal for people outside
the country.”
“Most of their friends are anti-Israel,” she said of the campers.
“This is their chance to celebrate their connection.”
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