The gaps between secular, ultra-Orthodox, and modern-Orthodox Jews on concern for public issues – especially the climate crisis – are much larger than the gaps between the Right and the Left. Many Israelis are concerned about the climate crisis, but readiness for action varies dramatically among religious groups, according to a new study at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beersheba.
This is very different from the situation in the US, where surveys show dramatic differences on the issue between Democrats, who tend to worry about climate change, and many Republicans, who are skeptical and even hostile to the issue due to (polluting) big-business connections. It is a political issue there, not a religious one.
BGU’s National Institute for Climate and Environmental Policy, part of the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change, has published the 2025 Israel Climate Survey, which examines the public’s attitudes toward the climate crisis, risk perception, trust in scientific institutions and the degree of readiness for behavioral change. After the 2024 survey analyzed public attitudes by political affiliation, the researchers now focused on segmentation by degree of religiosity.
Tamar Zandberg, a former Meretz Party MK and Environmental Protection minister who heads the institute and led the survey, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that it didn’t explore the reasons for disbelief among haredi Israelis, and less so in modern-Orthodox ones. She speculated that it was due to less secular education.
Trust in scientists is high among secular people and very low among the ultra-Orthodox, who are culturally isolated and have minimal or no exposure to the general media and secular issues. More than three-fourths (76%) of seculars trust scientists and academia, while among the ultra-Orthodox, only a third do.
On the other hand, trust in social networks is low across all groups: just 19% of seculars and 6% of the haredim express trust in them. This finding reinforces the insight that the Israeli public prefers institutional or community sources of knowledge over information distributed online.
“The 2025 survey shows that false beliefs are more prevalent among religious groups,” Zandberg declared. “This is our second survey, which we are doing annually. Last year, we looked into political links to the issue, and this time religion. The survey indicates a need to make knowledge more accessible through community-tailored outreach.”
MOST ISRAELIS are concerned about the direct effects of climate change, including air pollution, extreme events, and flooding. In the section in which respondents were asked to describe their feelings about the climate crisis itself, it turns out that 68% of Israelis are afraid of it. However, when the data is examined by religiosity, a complex picture is revealed: 75% of secular people and 70% of traditional people are afraid of the climate crisis, compared to only 57% of modern-Orthodox Jews and only 39% of haredim. Fully 41% of religious and 46% of ultra-Orthodox Jews claim to be indifferent to the crisis.
Rates of concern about the effects of climate change are high among the general public, but the willingness to change lifestyles is low, especially when it comes to personal sacrifices. Israelis are willing to adopt behaviors that generate personal economic savings: 47% of respondents are willing to recycle waste, 47% to purchase energy-efficient appliances, and 41% are ready to reduce water use.
In contrast, when personal sacrifice is required, willingness drops significantly: only 22% are willing to reduce consumption of meat and other food from animals; only 18% to reduce airline travel; and just 13% are willing to pay more for water to benefit the environment.
Here too, a wide gap is evident among the sectors: 55% of secular Jews are willing to recycle waste, compared to 26% of ultra-Orthodox Jews. Some 27% of secular Jews are willing to eat less meat and other food from animals, compared to only 6% of haredim. In actions involving transportation preferences, 30% of secular Jews are willing to travel more by public transportation compared to 15% of the ultra-Orthodox, and the gap is similar in willingness to pay more taxes: 18% of seculars compared to only 6% of the ultra-Orthodox.
False perceptions of climate change found in survey
THE SURVEY also found a high prevalence of false perceptions regarding climate change, especially among religious groups. Almost half (47%) of the public believe that science is divided on the question of climate, and among the ultra-Orthodox, the rate rises to 55%. Some 40% of respondents believe that the fight against climate change “may cause more harm than good,” and the rate is particularly high among the ultra-Orthodox (50%) compared to the secular (29%).
These findings reinforce the need for making scientific knowledge accessible and for building community-appropriate messages that can bridge trust gaps and support public decision-making processes.
Compared to the 2024 survey, a significant conclusion emerges: The religious variable explains the differences in positions regarding the climate crisis in Israel more significantly than the political variable, Zandberg stated.
“While the differences between the Right and the Left were present but relatively moderate, the gaps between the secular and the haredi sector – in risk perception, degree of concern, trust in science, and willingness to act – are much larger and consistent across all indicators,” she said. “This conclusion poses a new challenge for Israeli climate policy and demands cultural adjustments – not just political ones – and precise appeals to different communities in a value language that they understand.”
To promote effective climate policy in Israel, “we must understand deeply the sources of trust, feelings, and values of each group. The public expresses concern about the impacts and fears the crisis, but translating this into action requires precise adjustments, access to reliable knowledge, and policies that create a double benefit – both environmental and economic,” Zandberg concluded.
The analysis of the survey findings was conducted at the Laboratory for Communication and Social Bias Studies at BGU’s Department of Communication by Dr. Yossi David (who was the principal investigator), Lee Or Biton (Laboratory Director), and Naama Cohen (Research Assistant), with scientific advice from the university’s Dr. Avner Gross and Dr. Tehila Kalaji.