What question did this study set out to answer?

To explore how American Jews responded to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other religious groups.

April 3, 2026Contemporary Jewry0 citationsOpen Access

Sklare Address, 2025 Religion and Health: The Encounter of American Jews, Protestants, and Catholics with the COVID-19 Pandemic

URUzi RebhunHebrew University of Jerusalem

Key Points

To explore how American Jews responded to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other religious groups.
Analyzed data from the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel from 2020 to 2023.
Examined three dimensions: masking, vaccination, and illness.
Compared responses among Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and unaffiliated individuals.
American Jews showed heightened adherence to protective behaviors.
Jews had the lowest rates of COVID-19 infection among the studied groups.
Significant variations in responses were observed within the Jewish population based on religious identification.

Abstract

Abstract This article describes the way American Jews, in comparison with their non-Hispanic White Protestant, Catholic, as well as unaffiliated peers, responded to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Using the Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel covering the period between 2020 and 2023, I focus on three complementary dimensions: masking, vaccination, and illness. The findings suggest that Jews were the most attentive to the recommendation to adopt protective behaviors and that, accordingly, they were the least likely to contract the virus. Still, some significant variations among the Jewish population by religious identification were found. This is discussed in reference to the “risk society” theory and raises implications for public health planning and communication interventions.

AI से पूछें

Bookmark

View Full Paper