42 percent of Israeli Jews aged over 20 describe themselves as ‘secular’ according to the Central Bureau of Statistics annual social survey, released today. An additional 25% of Jews defined themselves as ‘not very religious traditionalists.’
Among Israeli Arabs 18% categorized themselves as ‘non-religious’ and 27% as ‘not very religious’.
Eight percent of Israeli Jews described themselves as ‘charedi,’ similar to the percentage of Arabs who defined themselves as ‘very religious.’
More charedi women than men are part of the workforce according to the data. Over 90% of non-charedi Jewish men were described as “belonging to the workforce” as against 52% of charedi men. Among women, the figures were 80% of non-charedi women compared with 61% of charedi women.
The survey also found that 88% of Jews are satisfied with their lives and 82% of Arabs. Satisfaction was highest among charedi men.
{JPost/Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}
42% atheist or just secular? Big difference. In the Jewish world secular can simply mean not shomer mitzvos.
Very sad!
A secular Jew is quite different from an assimilated or ‘secular type American Jew’. They usually observe chanukah, sit in a succah, attend shul on rosh hashanah & yom kippur, participate in a seder and much much more.
In Israel, many people who call themselves “secular”actually keep many mitzvos including a non-strict form of kashrus, taharas mishpacha and Shabbos. When they ask the population specific questions, like who doesn’t eat chometz on Pesach, keeps a Seder, or celebrates Chanukah, one gets results of 70-80% minimum.
The media uses subterfuges like asking who is “secular” to try and minimize the numbers of the religious in the country instead of asking definite questions concerning what they personally keep, similar to how the frei do the population surveys in the US to pad the numbers of the frei.
If it is true that 8% of the respondents were chareidi, then this means that the total population is a minimum 12% chareidi, because the percentage of under-18s is double or triple that of the adults.In fact, 25% of the Jewish school system is chareidi.
Eight percent of Israeli Jews described themselves as charedi, similar to the percentage of Arabs who defined themselves as very religious.
do they want to say something in special with this remark?
equating religiouse yehuddim with arabs?
next they will say that as many charedim have beards as al qaida terrosist do .
sounds a little racist
Israel is a country of politics on every level. If you do not vote for a religious party you are considered SECULAR.
true story — even those living non observant lives in israel do not fear that their children will intermarry. If we cant mekarev this generation, we will mikarev their children. am yisrael chai