Israel
Israel only country where more men pray
ANT KATZ
Among US Jewry, 57 per cent eat pork and worldwide, Torah study is growing according to the new poll by the authoritative Pew Research Centre released this week. An estimated 83,4 per cent of women worldwide identify with a faith group, compared to 79,9 per cent of men, according to the new poll.
Jewish Report Online has uploaded an ON-SITE PDF of the full, comprehensive study so that users who wish to read it do not have to use additional data to download it. It can also be printed or mailed to friends or family as a PDF file and will make a fascinating Pesach read for those interested in studying it.
RIGHT: In another recently-released Pew poll, a healthy growth of 16 per cent is projected over 40 years for world Jewry – however it also shows that Muslims will outnumber Jews in the US by 2050
Women in Christian countries report more weekly attendance at religious services than men, but the opposite is true in majority Muslim countries and in Israel. This is due in large part to religious norms that prioritise male worship participation in Muslim and Orthodox Jewish societies, the study found.
In the 84 countries for which data were available, women said they pray daily at a rate 8 percentage points higher than men. Women pray daily more than men in 43 of those countries. With the exception of Israel, the two genders pray daily at roughly equal rates in the remainder of the countries.
Israel is also an outlier in the gender gap when it comes to the question of whether respondents considered religion very important to them personally. In 36 of 84 countries, more women than men said religion was very important to them, and in 46 countries roughly equal proportions of each sex said religion was very important, the study found.
Only in Israel and Mozambique did more men than women say religion is very important to them.
Key differences between US and Israeli Jewry
The Pew study found some other key differences among Israeli and American Jews. In America, women are eight percentage points more likely than men to say religion is very important to them. Conversely, In Israel, Jewish men are nine percent more likely than women to say that.
Worldwide among Christians, women are seven percentage points more likely to attend religious services weekly compared to men as well as consider religion important, ten per cent more likely to pray daily, three per cent more likely to believe in angels, and one to two per cent more likely to believe in heaven and/or hell.
Among Muslims worldwide, men are 28 percentage points more likely to attend religious services weekly compared to women, but women are 2 per cent more likely to engage in daily prayer than men. Among Muslims, the genders rank about equally when it comes to the importance of religion, belief in angels, and belief in heaven and/or hell.
In Israel, men say they attend religious services weekly at a rate 19 percentage points higher than women. Among American Jews, men say they attend religious services weekly at a rate three per cent higher than women, the study found, but noted that the US Jewish gender gap is insignificant given the study’s sample size.
PDF FULL PEW SURVEY: 57% US JEWS EAT PORK, TORAH STUDY GROWS
Related Reads on SAJR
- March 2016: PEW: SHARP REACTION TO EXPULSION OF ISRAELI ARABS
- October 2015: US JEWRY’S SHOCK AT PEW’S INTER-MARRIAGE FINDINGS
- October 2013: SCARY PEW SURVEY: PORTRAIT OF JEWISH AMERICANS
The following documents relating to the 2013 study, the biggest ever of US Jewry by Pew, were also uploaded in PDF format for the convenience of users and can be downloaded from the website and forwarded to friends or family members – or printed to be read later:
