After Amnesty International USA director Paul O’Brien called into question a Ruderman Family Foundation survey on the connection American Jews have to Israel, based on “his gut,” Jay Ruderman, President of the foundation issued the following statement:
“By rejecting a comprehensive survey of 2,500 American Jews that overwhelmingly support Israel saying, “his gut” tells him otherwise, dismisses verified data,” said Jay Ruderman, President of the Ruderman Family Foundation. “It is indefensible for the organization’s USA director Paul O’Brien to reject the verified opinion of the American Jewish community.”
The 2020 study, commissioned by the Ruderman Family Foundation and conducted by the highly respected Mellman Group, found that eight in 10 Jewish Americans identify as “pro-Israel,” and two-thirds feel emotionally “attached” or “very attached” to the Jewish state.
In published reports on a Women’s National Democratic Club event on Wednesday, O’Brien commented on the data saying: “I actually don’t believe that to be true. I believe my gut tells me that what Jewish people in this country want is to know that there’s a sanctuary that is a safe and sustainable place that the Jews, the Jewish people can call home.”
Having sampled 2,500 Jews representing the adult Jewish population in the US, the foundation’s survey is one of the most comprehensive studies of the Jewish community in the United States in recent years, and one of the largest ever.
“If Amnesty International dismisses American facts, it calls their own reports into question,” Ruderman continued. “Gut instincts should not be the basis for shaping opinion and policy.”
