The majority of Israeli Jews reported feeling more connected to their coreligionists abroad after the Oct. 7 terror attacks than before, according to a new survey by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released on Sunday.

The study, which was conducted over the course of last year, found that 69% of those surveyed in the first three-quarters of the year reported feeling a connection to Diaspora Jews, before Oct. 7, 2023, compared to 73% of the respondents in the final quarter of the year, after the Hamas attacks. This appears to align with anecdotal evidence of Israeli Jews acknowledging the assistance of Diaspora Jewry in the wake of the attacks and their concern about rising antisemitism around the world.

As the study was conducted in 2023, before many of the anti-Israel encampments on college campuses and other prominent cases of antisemitism abroad, it is possible that numbers today among Israeli Jews are even higher, according to Shlomo Fischer, an Israeli sociologist and senior staff member of the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem.

Overall, 70% of the respondents reported a connection to Jews abroad: 44% said they felt one to a great degree and 26% to some degree, compared to 12% who said they didn’t feel much of a connection and 12% who felt no connection (6% weren’t sure).

There were similar responses when the pollsters phrased the question slightly differently, asking Israeli Jews if they felt “responsible for the security and welfare of Jews living outside of Israel,” with 74% of respondents saying that they did to some degree (44% to a large extent and 30% to some degree).

Fischer told eJewishPhilanthropy that he was surprised by the number of respondents who reported feeling a connection or sense of responsibility for Jews outside of Israel, expecting it to be lower. 

“Israelis don’t think about [Diaspora Jews] much, so I think that’s a good number,” Fischer said. “Israelis are generally self-centered — I say this as an Israeli who’s self-centered,” he quipped.

In general, Fischer said, Israelis view of Diaspora Jews is split between the personal connections that many have — ”It is your mom’s second cousin, where you can stay when you are in America instead of paying for a hotel,” he joked — and the belief that the country is ultimately responsible for protecting them in times of crisis.

“[The respondents] are saying what they are taught in schools, which is that if these communities [abroad] are in trouble, we send sayeret matkal and bring them over — that’s the Israeli mentality,” he said, referring to the Israeli military’s elite commando unit.

The survey found a correlation between self-reported levels of religiosity and feelings of connection to Diaspora Jewry with 92% of Haredi Jews, 86% of religious Jews, 70% of “traditional” Jews and 61% of secular Jews saying they felt a connection.

Fischer said this connection between religious affiliation and Israel-Diaspora sentiment comes from differences in ideology, with secular Israelis typically seeing themselves primarily as Israeli.

“Hilonim [secular people] are the group that sees itself as Israelis — their primary identity is as Israelis and their secondary identity is as Jews,” he said. 

However, the concept of the Jewish people carries “theological weight” for religious Israelis, Fischer said.

Younger respondents were also more likely than older ones to say they felt “responsible for” Jews living outside of Israel,” with 76% of those aged 20-64 saying so, compared to 68% of those 65 and older.

There was a similar difference between the respondents who have a first-degree relative who lives abroad (representing 22% of Israeli Jews over the age of 20) compared to those who don’t. 

For the survey, the Central Bureau of Statistics interviewed 6,474 Israeli Jews ages 20 and older.