Judaism is a religion followed by Jews. It has no formal set of beliefs that one must hold to be a Jew, but Jewish people believe in the Torah, which was the whole of the laws given to the Israelites at Sinai. They believe they must follow Gods laws which govern all aspects of life. The most important teaching and tenet of Judaism is that there is one God, incorporeal and eternal, who wants all people to do what is just and merciful.
According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center, most Jews by religion identify with either Reform (44%) or Conservative (23%) Judaism, and fewer say they do not belong to a particular denomination (15%). Most Jews of no religion do not identify with any institutional branch or stream of Judaism (79%), while the remainder largely describe themselves as Reform Jews (17%). When asked whether being Jewish is mainly a matter of religion, ancestry or culture, some Jewish respondents pick each of those things, and many choose some combination of them. In fact, among the most common answers – expressed by about one-in-five U.S. Jews (19%) – is that being Jewish is about religion, ancestry, and culture.
Jewish people believe in justice and mercy, and care about all humanity. They recognize that Christians and Muslims are also monotheistic, although their beliefs are different. Three-quarters of Jews believe in a higher power of some kind, but just one-quarter believe in God as described in the Bible. Three-quarters of U.S. Jews say they believe in God or some spiritual force in the universe, including 26% who say they believe in “God as described in the Bible” and about twice as many (50%) who believe in some other spiritual force. Belief in God is much more widespread among Jews by religion than among Jews of no religion. But even among Jews by religion, 14% say they do not believe in any higher power or spiritual force. Meanwhile, 44% of Jews of no religion say they do not believe in any higher power. Nine-in-ten Orthodox Jews (93%) say they believe in the God of the Bible, compared with 37% of Conservative Jews, 18% of Reform Jews, and 12% of Jews who describe themselves as “just Jewish”.
