Religion weekly update, Sept. 9, 2016

A weekly digest of the Center’s latest research on religion and public life in the U.S. and around the world · Subscribe ↗ Friday night marks the start of the Jewish High Holidays. This 10-day period begins with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and ends with Yom Kippur (the Jewish day of atonement, which traditionally includes fasting for adults). In a 2020 Pew Research Center survey, 46% of Jewish Americans said they fasted all or part of the previous Yom Kippur. Orthodox Jews (97%) were more likely than Jews who identified with Conservative (68%) or Reform Judaism (45%), or with no specific branch of Judaism (24%), to say they fasted the previous Yom Kippur. And the youngest Jewish adults (those under age 30) were more likely than the oldest ones to have fasted on Yom Kippur.