Jewish Members of the 117th Congress

Although Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, 7 percent of the new Congress is Jewish, with 38 Jews among the total of 535 lawmakers. In the Senate, the 10 Jewish members comprise 10 percent of that body; Jews comprise 6.4 percent of the House.

Nine Jews in the Senate are Democrats, the 10th, Bernie Sanders, is an Independent. In the House. all but two members are Democrats. The Republican exceptions are Reps. Lee Zeldin and David Kustoff, from New York and Tennessee, respectively. Only one other non-Christian Republican is in Congress according to a report by Pew.

This Congress has one more Jewish member than its predecessor, which had 9 senators and 28 representatives. The record was the 1993 Congress, which included 51 Jews — nearly 10 percent of the total.

*New Member

# Bennet’s mother was Jewish but he does not affiliate with any religion.
## Bonamici was raised Episcopalian and Unitarian, but now practices Judaism with her Jewish husband, Michael Simon.

Sources: “Faith on the Hill,” Pew Research Center, (January 4, 2021);
Josefin Dolsten, “The Jewish women who won midterm elections,” JTA, (November 7, 2018);
“List of Jewish members of the United States Congress,” Wikipedia.