THE REFORMATION ROLLS ON:

Are Jewish millennials the most religious generation?

And do one-fifth of them think Jesus was God in human form?

Yes and yes, says a new survey of 599 Jews born from 1984 to 1999. [...]

For those accustomed to thinking of millennials as religiously uninvolved and skeptical of traditional practices, the survey has some surprising news: Eighty percent of Jewish millennials self-identify as "religious Jews," as opposed to just a slim majority of all Jews. And nearly half say being Jewish is "very important" to them, higher than any other generation.

That commitment to Judaism comes through in specific practices as well. Almost a quarter of Jewish millennials attend religious services once a week, according to the survey, and one in three prays every day. A majority says "God loves people."

Ari Kelman, a Jewish studies professor at Stanford University who was interviewed as part of the report, said the study suggests a cohort distinct from all others.

"These don't look like Jews I recognize," he said of the millennials surveyed. "I was not willing to just write them off entirely. Maybe these are Jews we've never seen before. We know religion is changing, we know parameters of identity are changing, so why would we expect different generations to look exactly the same?"

The data on Jesus might be especially surprising to Jews who, if they agree on nothing else, believe that Jews for Jesus and its "messianic" philosophy are beyond the pale. The survey found that 21 percent of Jewish millennials believe Jesus was "God in human form who lived among people in the 1st century." And 28 percent "see him as a rabbi or spiritual leader, but not God."

The openness to non-Jewish practice extends beyond that: 42 percent of respondents say they celebrate Christmas. A majority says one can hold other faiths and still be Jewish. And the survey found that one-third of Jewish millennials believe "God desires a personal relationship with us." [...]

But Pew actually backs up some of the statistics on Christianity. It found that a third of all respondents had a Christmas tree at home, and 34 percent said belief in Jesus as the Messiah was compatible with being Jewish.

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