Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

With 30 Members, Jews Make Up 5.6% of New Congress

The Jewish population in America may be shrinking, but there’s one place where it’s stronger than ever – the U.S. Congress.

The 115th Congress, sworn in Tuesday, will feature 30 Jewish lawmakers, up from 28 in the previous Congress, according to an analysis prepared by the Pew Research Center. That’s a full three minyans if only all 28 Democrats and two Republicans would wish to pray together on Capitol Hill.

Just how significant is Jewish overrepresentation in Congress? According to the study, Jewish senators and House members will make up 5.6 percent of the new Congress, almost three times our share of American population.

The Jewish congressional contingent has a few new faces, including Democrats Brad Schneider of Illinois who won back his seat, Maryland’s Jamie Raskin, Jacky Rosen from Nevada, and New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer who defeated an incumbent Republican.

Republicans, on the other hand, managed to double their Congressional representation with David Kustoff of Tennessee joining New York’s Lee Zeldin.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.