Younger American Jews Show Weaker Ties to Israel, Poll Finds. Israeli Leaders Say They're Worried

Israeli officials across the political spectrum are sounding the alarm about a weakening bond with younger Jewish Americans, according to an AP-NORC survey cited by the Associated Press. The poll found that younger Jewish adults in the United States are less likely than older generations to say support for Israel is central to their Jewish identity.

"It's extremely important to us," said Itai Nixon, who heads the diaspora department at Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, according to the Associated Press. "We're the state of the Jewish people, not just Israelis."

Lesley Sachs, who chairs the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism and has been a public critic of the current Israeli government, told the AP she sees a close relationship with diaspora Jews as a "strategic asset" for both Israel and Jews worldwide. She said she's alarmed that younger Jews abroad may be losing the sense that Israel serves as a homeland, particularly as antisemitism rises regardless of political or religious affiliation.

"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 at her synagogue in Tel Aviv, per the AP. "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 sent roughly one million young Jewish adults from the U.S. and other countries on free 10-day trips to Israel. Gidi Mark, the organization's chief executive, told the AP that demonstrating a personal connection to Israel beyond contentious politics has become more urgent. "That really increases the importance of my job to expose people to what they give up on," Mark said. "What we give them is a mirror."

A U.S.-Israel relationship showing strain

The survey comes as Israeli confidence in the U.S. relationship shows measurable cracks. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have met in Washington to discuss the conflict with Iran, which both countries became directly involved in during 2025, according to the Associated Press.

Tamar Hermann, director of the Viterbi Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at Jerusalem's Israel Democracy Institute, told the AP that "the United States is perceived as the best friend of Israel in the entire world, and that's still the case."

But that confidence has wobbled on specifics. Israel Democracy Institute research cited by the AP found that the share of Jewish Israelis who trust Trump to prioritize Israel's security fell from 64% in March to 26% by June, a drop the institute links to disagreement over how a ceasefire with Iran should be handled. That