The Holocaust is proving more important than Israel in positively affecting Jewish identity among many young Jews, a new study found. “The Holocaust continues to be profoundly important to a broad spectrum of young Jews, yet Israel appears to be much less important in positively affecting Jewish identity,” said the American Jewish Committee study on young American Jews, being released Thursday. However, the report continued, among the Orthodox and those who have traveled to Israel, Israel retains a powerful positive resonance. The report also found that young Jews connect to Judaism in less conventional ways than their elders, and that young Orthodox adults — who tend to marry earlier and have more children than other Jews — are likely to be a much larger, and hence more influential, group in the future. More than half of America’s 1.5 million Jews between the ages of 18-39 are not married, the report said.
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