Among religiously Jewish adults under 45, only about 4 in 10 call supporting Israel "extremely" or "very" important to their Jewish identity, while roughly 7 in 10 say the same of celebrating Jewish holidays, according to an AP-NORC poll released Monday [1]. For older religious Jews the two nearly tie: about half rate Israel that highly [1].

The survey questioned 3,040 adults June 11-17 through NORC's probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, including 1,022 Jewish adults, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points for the Jewish sample [1]. Religiously Jewish adults make up 68 percent of the total, and across ages about 6 in 10 call being Jewish extremely or very important [1].

The divide runs deeper than politics. About 3 in 10 religious Jews under 45 say Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, a charge Israel denies, versus about 2 in 10 of those 45 and older [1]. Younger respondents more often stress Shabbat and dietary practice; Cameron Bernstein, a 27-year-old medical student in New Orleans, told AP, "I pray for people in the land of Israel. I don't need to pray for the state" [1].

Online commentary reads the same numbers as a single verdict on Israel. The AP poll separates age, religiosity and practice, and the payoff for the reader is a communal identity that is shifting, not one partisan score.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York