AP-NORC Poll Finds Religious-Secular Split Among US Jews on Israel and Gaza Is Straining Relationships

A new AP-NORC poll finds the deepest divisions over Israel and Gaza fall along religious versus secular lines among American Jews.

Nearly three years into the war in Gaza, American Jews remain deeply divided over Israel — and a new AP-NORC poll pinpoints where those fault lines run most sharply. The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research surveyed U.S. Jews and found that religiously affiliated respondents are far more likely to view support for Israel as central to their Jewish identity, while secular or religiously unaffiliated Jews are more likely to be critical of Israel's actions in Gaza and hold ambivalent views. The poll is described as making the religious-secular divide the clearest single fault line in the data. New coverage emphasizes that this divide is actively straining relationships — personal, familial, and communal — among American Jews, reflecting tensions that have played out in synagogues, advocacy organizations, and campus groups navigating disagreements about how to respond to Israeli military operations that began following the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023. Beyond the religious-secular split, the poll also signals broader fragmentation in how American Jews connect their faith, ethnicity, and political views to positions on Israel — a dynamic the survey's authors say has become more pronounced as the conflict has extended.

Why it matters

The survey provides rare quantitative detail on internal divisions within a community that is often treated as monolithic in political discourse. The findings have implications for how U.S. politicians, Jewish institutions, and advocacy groups navigate a conflict that remains a significant domestic political flashpoint.

What's next

The full AP-NORC poll findings are expected to be covered in further reporting by the Associated Press, which may release additional crosstabs and analysis.

Key facts

• The poll was conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a well-established national survey organization
• The survey focuses on U.S. Jewish opinion on Israel and the Gaza conflict, now approaching its third year
• The largest divide identified is between religiously affiliated Jews and secular Jews
• Religiously affiliated Jews are more likely to see support for Israel as central to their Jewish identity
• Secular Jews are more likely to hold critical or distanced views on Israel's actions
• The conflict in Gaza began following the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023

Bias & framing notes

All five sources ran the same headline verbatim, and most shared near-identical or truncated text — four appear to have published the same wire-service copy, while two sources provided only brief summaries with no additional detail. No source offered independent reporting or original analysis, limiting the depth of available information. There are no notable framing differences across outlets because the content is functionally the same article.