Half of British Jews emotionally attached to Israel, up sharply since October 7, JPR study finds

A new JPR study tracking 2,500 British Jews over six years finds that the proportion feeling very emotionally attached to Israel surged from 38% before October 7 to 51% by June 2025. Zionist self-identification rose from 59% to 66%. Antisemitism concerns intensified sharply, with 50% viewing it as a very major problem by June 2025, up from 17% in May 2023. Core religious observance remained stable.

A major new empirical study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), tracking the same 2,500 British Jews across multiple survey waves from July 2020 to June 2025, reveals a sharp and enduring shift in emotional ties to Israel following October 7. The proportion of respondents feeling very emotionally attached to Israel surged from 38% before the attacks to 50% in June 2024, holding at 51% in June 2025. Zionist self-identification rose from 59% in November 2022 to 66% in June 2025, while anti-Zionist identification remained unchanged at 9-10%. The study also documents a dramatic escalation in concerns over antisemitism: the proportion viewing antisemitism as a very major problem in the UK nearly tripled from 17% in May 2023 to 50% by June 2025, and average feelings of safety on a 0-10 scale dropped from 7.4 to 5.8. Personal experiences of antisemitism jumped from 17-20% in pre-October 7 years to 29% in the 18 months following. Despite these shifts, core markers of Jewish religious observance and identity strength remained remarkably stable, with synagogue attendance and self-described religiosity showing negligible change. The report concludes that October 7 acted as a profound watershed primarily for emotional connections to Israel and Jewish peoplehood, not for a total structural reinvention of British Jewish life.