Study: Secular Jews the Minority in Israel

Orthodox and traditional Jews comprise a majority of Israel's Jewish population according to a Central Bureau of Statistics study published Sunday.

Ezra HaLevi

Published: Apr 11, 2006, 7:41 AM (GMT+3)

Updated: 4/10/2006, 3:52:10 PM

According to the study, which was carried out from 2002 to 2004, 8% of Israeli Jews defined themselves as hareidi-religious, 9% as Orthodox and 39% as traditional – leaving secular Jews as a minority of 44%.

The rate of those identifying as secular is much higher among native Israelis of European and North American origin (63%) than those from Asian origin (33%) or Sephardic and North African origin (25%).

When the questions used terms of religiosity instead of denominational labels, just 18% said they were "not religious at all." 11% said they were "very religious," 42% as "religious" and 21% said they were "not very religious."

Of those identifying as hareidi-religious, 58% said their primary activity is Torah-study at a yeshiva or kollel (full-time Torah academy). Overall, 9% of Israel's Jews answered similarly.

According to the survey, 81% of Israel's population is Jewish, 12% are Muslim, 3.5% are Christian, 1.5% are atheist and .5% said they belong to other religions.