Pew Research survey shows higher importance of religious nationalism in Israel compared to other high-income countries

The newly released results of a recent global survey by the Pew Research Center reveal some significant differences across the 36 countries surveyed, and showed a striking contrast between Israel and the United States compared to other high income countries. 

The survey attempted to measure the level of “religious nationalism” in various countries by asking a series of questions regarding the role of religious practice and sacred texts in shaping a country’s national identity. 

The survey classified respondents as religious nationalists based on their answers to four questions: 

• How important is belonging to the historically predominant religion to being truly part of your national identity? (For example, how important is being a Muslim to being truly Indonesian, or being a Christian to being truly American?)

• How important is it to you for your national leader to share your religious beliefs?

• How much influence do you think the historically predominant religion’s sacred text should have on the laws of your country? (For example, how much influence should the Quran have on the laws of Turkey, or should the Bible have on the laws of Italy?)

• When the sacred text conflicts with the will of the people, which should have more influence on the laws of your country? 

Based on these questions, the survey said that 9% of Israelis could be classified as religious nationalists, whereas around 6% of U.S. citizens could classified the same way. 

The survey did not specify what level of agreement religious nationalists expected their leader to have with their own beliefs and practices.

For example, most conservative, Evangelical Christians would admit that President Donald Trump has not lived his life in agreement with their values, but they appreciate his political support for the role of Christian values in public life. Similarly, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not an ultra-Orthodox [Haredi] or religious [Dati] Jew, however, he has generally partnered with such groups in his political coalitions and has supported many of their interests over the years. 

Another area of agreement between Israel and the United States is the belief that a country can be both religious and democratic. However, the number of respondents agreeing that being a part of the historically dominant religion is important for national identity was different for both countries. 

In the U.S., about 60% of respondents said that being a part of the historically dominant religion was not important to national identity, while the situation was almost exactly reversed in Israel, where 59% of respondents said it is important. Almost one-third of Israeli respondents said it is a “very important” part of national identity. 

Israel was also the only high-income country in which religion was not listed as the least important of the four aspects of national identity in the survey. In Israel, only speaking Hebrew was considered more important than being Jewish in a sense of national identity. 

Respondents were asked about the importance of religion, national language, being born in the country, and customs and traditions in shaping national identity. Among Israelis, being Jewish was ranked most important by 34% of respondents, while speaking Hebrew was ranked most important by 43%. 

In Israel, where around 1/4 of the population is not Jewish, fluency in Hebrew is an important marker for non-Jews to feel a sense of belonging. 

In both Israel and the U.S., being ideologically conservative was synonymous with placing a greater emphasis on religious nationalism.