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POLL: THIRD OF POPULATION IDENTIFIES WITH NON-ORTHODOX JUDAISM
Maariv International, Sept. 13, 2004
Poll: Third of population identifies with non-Orthodox Judaism
despite small number of non-Orthodox congregations. 13% say they would be praying during high holydays in either Reform or Conservative synagogue.
Thirteen percent of all Israelis planning to attend services during the high holydays will do so at either a Reform or Conservative synagogue. This was the main result of a Dahaf poll on the subject.
According to the poll, approximately 70% of the country’s Jewish population will attend services on Yom Kippur, and 40% will attend on both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Over a third (36%) will not attend at all.
An unprecedented 13% said they would be praying in either a Reform or Conservative synagogue, despite the fact that there are only about 60 non-Orthodox congregations throughout the country.
Since Israelis don’t drive on Yom Kippur, the small number of non–Orthodox synagogues limits access, since people are limited to attending one within reasonable walking distance.
However 40% of those who will be going to services said that if they had the option of attending a non-Orthodox congregation within walking distance of their homes, they would prefer it to the Orthodox synagogue they plan to go to out of lack of choice.
Forty percent of those who do not intend going to any holyday services said that if they had the option of attending a non-Orthodox synagogue near their homes they would do so. They said that the sexist and non-egalitarian nature of orthodox services, in which families are segregated by gender is what prevents them from attending services.
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, head of IRAC’s Public Affairs division commented on the poll. “It shows that the non-Orthodox streams of Judasim are striking roots in Israel, despite the ongoing campaigns of discrimination and intimidation against them by the country’s Orthodox religious establishment".
According to Kariv, "Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are forced to forfeit the uplifting spiritual experience of attending services, because they are unable to attend a synagogue of their choice. The Jewish identity of these Israelis is the ultimate victim of Orthodox establishment’s bigotry and coercion, and its determination to ma
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