It will not come as a surprise if I suggest that we Jews are a peculiar people. For all the talk of escalating assimilation, we remain, in important respects, quite different from most other Americans. I report here on a massive survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a survey of 35,000 Americans that conveys substantial information on the broad array of America’s religious groups.

First, some demographic findings: Jews constitute but 1.7 percent of adult Americans. Note, however, that the third-largest grouping (16 percent) of Americans identifies itself as “unaffiliated,” and it is possible that Jews are over-represented in that category. In addition, most American Buddhists (0.7 percent of all Americans) are American-born converts to Buddhism, and there is at least substantial anecdotal evidence to suggest that many of them are (were?) Jews. Among those who say they are Jews, 41 percent say they are Reform, 31 percent say they are Conservative, 10 percent say they are Orthodox, and the balance are “other.” 

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