Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jews in the U.S.

• In Event: Ethnic Identity and Identification among MENA-origin Jews in transnational perspectives

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to compare Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Mizrahi Jews in terms of their demographics, levels of religiosity, politics, and sense of Jewish peoplehood, including attachment to Israel. The source of data is Pew 2020, a comprehensive national survey of American Jews.

Pew 2020 differentiated between Ashkenazi (defined as following the Jewish customs of Central and Eastern Europe), Sephardic (following the Jewish customs of Spain) and Mizrahi (following the Jewish customs of the Middle East and North Africa). It also allowed respondent to classify themselves as “some combination” or as “just Jewish.”

American Jews, according to Pew 2020, are mostly Ashkenazi (66%). About 3% self-identify as Sephardic, 1% as Mizrahi, 6% as “some combination,” 17% as “just Jewish,” and 8% don’t know/refused. This indicates that about one-in-four American Jews did not specify an ethnic Jewish identity.

A preliminary look at Pew 2020 shows religious and demographic patterns:
• The Sephardim are more likely to identify as Orthodox or Conservative and less as Reform.
• There is a high correlation between not belonging to a particular branch of Judaism and not having a particular Jewish ethnic identity.
• Pew undercounted young Sephardim, estimating them as only 1% of those under 30.
• The “some combination” are more likely to be found among Jews of no religion and among those of no Jewish denomination.
• The large share (13%) of “some combination” among young Jews (under age 30) supports the hypothesis that they are the product of mixed marriages.
• There is a higher share of women among the “some combination” as well as a higher share of not married among them, which is explained by their young age.

The “some combination” is intriguing. Who are they? Does this self-identification relate to country of origin or to mixed marriages among Ashkenazim and Sephardim? The paper will delve deeper into these research questions while comparing the various Jewish ethnic groups.

Author

• Ariela Keysar, Trinity College